More information : In February 2013, in order to inform plans for the refurbishment of Nappa Hall, English Heritage’s Assessment Team (North) carried out an architectural investigation (Level 2) and a detailed earthwork survey (Level 3) of the immediate grounds (1).
Nappa Hall, a late 15th-century manor house complex of fortified appearance stands on the north side of Wensleydale immediately beneath a limestone cliff (Nappa Scar) and enjoys extensive views across, up and down the valley. It overlooks a vista of medieval fields, fishponds, the site of a watermill and other manorial features recorded previously by Moorhouse (2). Closer to the house, within the one hectare area surveyed in 2013, the evidence is primarily that of former yards and gardens. Fragmentary scarps to the south east of the house indicate the continuation of terraces – courtyards or gardens – set across the gentle slope below the main hall range, some of which have been partly retained in the late 18th-century revetted courtyard and later garden below . To the east, once visible from an ornate 15th-century window in the low end tower, as well as from tower roofs, lay a small geometric garden - a rectangular area, c.20m by 30m, quartered by sunken paths and banks – seemingly of late 16th or early 17th–century design. The ornate garden, as well as the wider setting of the Hall, may have been appreciated from a terraced walk utilising an old quarried bench along the scar. Slight traces of paths leading to a point on the terrace directly to the north of the Hall were noted during the survey.
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