Description
Tockholes Silk Hall
Just below the village hall at Tockholes, this handsome stone house stands on the hillside above the lane. A date of 1764 is carved on the porch, and the building was formerly known as Silk Hall. It is now divided into several dwellings, one of them rendered and whitewashed, the other left in its natural weathered stone.
The top floor was originally a workshop, entered from outside through a doorway in the gable wall at the rear. The mullioned windows, tall chimneys topped with red pots, and stone-slabbed roof are typical of the old houses of the West Pennine moors.
In this watercolour, the pale stone of the house and the village hall beyond it are set against a soft summer sky. Drystone walls, a gatepost in the foreground, and the sunlit sloping pasture lead the eye up to the buildings, while a young tree in fresh spring green stands in front of the whitewashed wing.
