Listed Building record MDR5285 - Summerley Hall, Summerley Lower Road, Unstone

Summerley Hall is a 17th century building with evidence of 16th century work, such as the rounded stair projection at the rear. Some alterations appear to have been carried out in the 18th century. The hall has mullioned windows, those at the front with transoms. (1) The front elevation has been cleaned and lead 'drip moulds' inserted over the front windows. A mounting block is sited by the front gate. The barns on the opposite side of the road have been converted into a modern residence. (2) The first documentary reference to Summerley occurs in a deed of 1431 which describes the division of 'the Land in Sommerleys'. This may relate to the creation of Summerley Hall and Summerley Hall Farm as two separate holdings in close juxtaposition, a feature which is seen elsewhere in the area. The Curtis family lived at Summerley for 370 years and an inventory made on the death of Robert Curtis in 1612 lists hall, parlour with a chamber over, buttery and kitchen. By 1647 additional rooms are referred to, as an inventory lists: 'parlour, chamber over the parlour, the ould chamber, the ould parlor, the entrye, the halle, the litel butrye next the doore [and] the kichine', followed by other rooms which may have been in a separate building. It is possible that the central stack wall between hall and parlour and the kitchen hearth area are part of this house, although substantial rebuilding and remodelling have taken place. Plans of the Hall were produced for structural alteration in 1965 and surveys were taken when the building was being restored in 1992. These record the building as 'L'-shaped in plan, comprising a main range roofed east-west with a rear kitchen block aligned north-south. A stair 'turret' is separately roofed, as is its successor. The house is two-storeyed with attics and is building of coal measures sandstone with some gritstone dressings. Of the four chimney stacks, three are of ashlar, two retaining their original later 17th century cappings; the fourth stack is of brick and is part of a more recent modification of the interior. A large cellar, now divided, under the parlour was reached originally from the central stack wall of the hall and was lit exclusively from the east wall. Excepting the central chimney stack wall, there is firm evidence that divisions between rooms at ground and first floor levels were originally of stud and plaster construction. (3)