Wood Lane Hall, Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire. £550k

Wood Lane Hall is listed grade i and seems to me to represent pretty good value for money, compared to some other places I've shown you. It has date stones of 1649 and 1651.  It is in an area of outstanding natural beauty.  As usual with really interesting historic properties I want it, and no doubt the rest of my family would hate to live in such a place.

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-

entry/1134490https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-73025713.html



Over 7k sq ft of accommodation.  See the article below from the Steeple Times.  The property has been reduced from £750k

http://thesteepletimes.com/opulence-splendour/wheel-window-wood-lane-hall/

This article does show a floor plan, too, which the Rightmove brochure omits.

The first thing to do on moving in would be to take out the fitted kitchen.  That awful orange pine has no business in such a house.  The floor to ceiling cupboard by the chimney breast could stay, provided it was painted in a pleasant shade of greyish green or greyish blue. Then you could get to work with free standing period oak furniture and 17th century pewter.

The room with the snooker table or whatever it is, could be a cosy living room for the winter, Knowle sofas, a settle perhaps, some joint stools, an early oak side table or a smallish gate leg table, perhaps a court cupboard, an oak kist or mule chest under the window, possibly containing a supply of blankets, quilts and fur coats for cold winter nights when the fire's sulking.

The full height central hall is wonderful.  Make a note of the fabulous, ornamental section of the lime plaster ceiling. (see below)

Who could have thought that just the thing this space needed was a pair of fat, slouchy, shapeless, ugly, modern  leather sofas?  It is unusual for a person with enough taste to play the piano to have poor taste in interior design, but it does happen, and some people have grand pianos as status symbols, in the same way as snooker tables and bars.  A grand piano is alright there though, I suppose a harpsichord or virginals would be more authentic. 

This room needs a really substantial refectory table in the middle and a pair of long benches, or 

failing a pair of early benches, perhaps an eclectic mixture of joint stools, back stools, wainscot chairs

 and even Lancashire ladder back chairs, provided there was some order to the arrangement.  What else is needed in here?  A settle of 17th century construction, with a high carved back and green or gold velvet seat cushion, under the window, where the chaise longue is, now.  A pair of leather porter's chairs either side of the fire, to keep the draught out would be stylish.   A bible box on an early oak side table, some more coffers, contemporary with the house, which one can buy very cheaply these days, by which I mean for less than £75. You wouldn't want any really tall furniture in here, because the paneling should be on view as much as possible. One of the smaller, later 17th century court cupboards and a small livery cupboard on stand perhaps.  A Persian rug in front of the fire would be homely and would stop one's dogs' from getting sore elbows.

Now just imagine this room at Christmas, with a garland of Yew and Holly, Ivy, Bay and Blue Fir and whatever else you can find to wire in: fircones, rosy apples, tangerines, mistletoe, woven in and out all around the balustrade, and a huge Christmas tree reaching up the full height towards the lime plaster star on the ceiling.  Then imagine the great saddle of venison on the table and the flaming Christmas pudding and the candles lit and the piles of fruit heaped up on pewter chargers and the chestnuts roasting.

I can't make out if the pink drawing room is on the first floor, but wherever it is I think that shade of pink has to go.  I know it is tempting to have somewhere very feminine in such a masculine house, but one can go about it in a more subtle way than that. There are various shades of faded rose that

have an earthier hue to them which would be better in here.  Or you could go for a pale primrose yellow instead.  As the room is 18th rather than 17th century you could have elegant Georgian furniture and Regency sofas. Small Georgian card tables in rosewood and mahogany are readily
available and inexpensive, sofa tables are slightly more sought after.  Elegant writing furniture is sadly very cheap at the moment, and you could go to town with Georgian gilt mirrors in here.  The area above the fireplace is crying out for something much larger and more impressive than the reproduction mirror currently in that space.

I’m not sure how I would use this other reception room, Perhaps as an informal sitting room, the details don’t include the floor plans, if it were off the kitchen one could eat in there informally or use it as a utility room, but it has a wood burner in there, so you wouldn’t really want it to be a laundry room.  Any way, the same rules apply, free standing period furniture in oak and walnut, rugs, even a sheepskin or two, Flemish brass chandeliers.

Seeing the light pouring through the rose window, down the long white corridor would be rather like having a religious vision of the light at the end of the tunnel, what an inspiring way to start each day.    The bathroom is nice and wouldn’t need replacing.  I’m not sure about the cabin type room with the 1940's hospital beds, it’s rather creepy.  

The other bedrooms seem a reasonable size. 

The garden is all at the front, the back is a court yard, hence the price, I suppose.