Finding out the location	easy
Access	very hard
Safety	unsafe
Risk of being seen	high
General condition of the place	very bad
Traces of vandalism	many
Good place for taking pictures?	very good
Did you see other people?	none or very few

Visit date    June 19 2021 at 15 hr
Visit duration    3 hours

Sad to see this once owned family home with a grade 2 listed building fall to such disrepair now obviously beyond saving after a bad fire,

Historic england have this hall on the Heritage "at Risk" register listing it in 2019 as in very bad condition after the fire damage,

Amazingly this hall was used for the 1992 film Sherlock Holmes and the Master Blackmailer even showing the then intact and unscaffolded fountain with its magnificent prancing horses and Poseidon can be seen in its former glory.

The hall was built in the 1560s for the Winstanley family of Winstanley.

The family were lords of the manor from what I can find from 1252-1596 and they supposedly were also responsible for building the moat on the site.

The estate was sold (1596) to a gentleman from London named James Bankes who had multiple professions as a goldsmith and banker.

The Hall once had three floors it's own courtyard, ballroom and glamorous dinning room to entertain guests with they even had their own bear not your typical family I know.

The hall has a date stone with a date of 1584 but this is not 100% from records so may not provide an accurate date for the construction of the house when extra blocks were added in the 17th and 18th centuries and an extention was also carried out on the hall the further and extensive alterations were made in 1811-19 by Lewis Wyatt in a Jacobean style.

  Text and photos are by Satine_suicide_exploring. Click here to see Satine_suicide_exploring's profile and other reports.

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