Scout Hall, Northowram

Exterior view of Scout Hall

Scout or Scote Hall is on a small hill on the south side of upper Shibden Dale. The history of the site can be traced back to 1315 when the Stancliffe family were owners. By Elizabethan times, there were two large houses here. There is no date on the present building, but a nearby cottage has 1661 on it, and a sundial plate dated ANNO 1617. It is a large 3-storey, 52 room, four square building built and owned by the Mitchell family in the late 1600s. It has a mixture of architectural styles, from Jacobean, Caroline and Georgian to Italianate, gabled at one end and hipped at the other. It is thought by some to be a Calendar building - its 12 bays representing the months, the 52 doors the weeks and the 365 windows the days. In the late 1940s/early 1950s, the building was converted into tenements and the interior was neglected. By the mid-1980s, the Hall was derelict and in a serious state of decay and ruin; it was partially restored in the 1980s by local businessman Peter Mellor, but now [2003] seems to be again in a state of disrepair. It was once described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, in his 'Buildings of England', as a "half derelict palace in the deserted English countryside".

The Hall is a Grade II* listed building. The following is from Calderdale Council's listed buildings description: "Later C17. Large stone house. 3 storeys. Now with eaves to hipped stone roof and gable to west. Nine 2-light mullioned and transomed windows to south divided into groups of 3, 4 and 2 by small, elliptical openings set in corniced rectangular panels. Central corniced doorway. Moulded storey bands. 4 windows to east return. 3 windows to west with tier of elliptical openings. Rear wing in ruins. House derelict at time of inspection though re-roofed. Interior not seen."

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