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Note
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and for providing this history:
An interesting paper on this house and the Sunderland family wa
s published in the Bradford Antiquary in January 1894, written b
y Mr. T. T. Empsall. Recent discoveries somewhat tend to
modify the architectural description given by Mr. Empsall, but h
is account of the house, and the family of Sunderland, was a mos
t useful contribution to local archaeological studies. (From
a book in the Halifax, England, Archives. Was Halifax Antiquaria
n Society.)
The land called Sunderland naturally took the name fromits aloo
f position. It embraced the Sunderland field -- one of the larg
e open, common fields of the township, in which were many
parcels of land-acre andhalf-acre strips -- selioons, doles, et
c. as they were called -- held by thetenants of the Manor of Wa
kefield. There were, and are still, three messuages --houses - - in
Sunderland but doubtless the building in which the main branch o
f the Sunderland family resided was always the most important.No
body who has heretofore described this building seems
to have noticed thatthe framework of a medieval building is enca
sed within the more modern stonewalls. Thisbuilding, which wa
s doubtless itself an improvement upon an olderstruc ture,
followed the usual local fifteenth century plan.It was a timber-
framed house, and many, if not all, of the posts and beamsand so
me other portions of theoriginal construction are still
preserved in-situ.The house consisted -- as built in the early d
ays, say, of the fifteenth century-- of a large central housebod
y or Hall, (which seems in later times to have been increased in
size)with a spacious chamber above it -- a through passage at t
he eastern end ofthe housebody, and two gabled wings, the easte
rn one containingthe Kitchen and buttery -- with two
chambers above -- and the Western one, twoparlours, alsowith ch
ambers above them.
An interesting feature is the preservation of three of the origi
nal fifteenth century fireplaces. They are quite similar to th
e two preserved at Shibden Hall, to those found in Mr. Dyer'sold
shop in Halifax, and in the house now standing in Shibden Hall P
ark, removed from Cripplegate. Still more interesting was the di
scovery, a few years age, of fifteenth century
decorations-wallpainting in tempera-in one of the chambers. Th
e design seems to have been taken from a tapestry pattern. The w
hole thing is, Ifear, now nearly obliterated, in spite of the
efforts of Mr. J. W. Ward and his agent, Mr. Petty, to save an
d preserve it. There used to be in the windows, some stained arm
orial glass, now removed by the owner for safety. The timber
house erected in the fifteenth century, apparently remained near
ly untampered with until the first quarter of the seventeenth ce
ntury.
I am glad to say that, after much and labour, I am able to tak
e the history of the family who, for as many generations were bo
rn and bred and died here, considerably farther back than has
been done before. From the Wakefield Court Rolls we learnther
e was a family who drew their name from the soil they tilled an
d livedupon, dwelling here at any rate, as far back as the
Manor records go, i.e. 1274, the second year of King Edward I. W
e meet with the name in the second lineof the first entry of th
e first Court Roll preserved, where we read that
MATTHEW OF SUNDERLAND, with John of Stancliff and sixteen othe
r substantialmenin theGreaveship of Hipperholme, took as tenant
s Rastrick Corn Mill -- with whichShibden Hill
was associated -- of the lord-paying therefore 20 marks.In the s
ame year, 1274, we also meet with ALCOCK OF SUNDERLAND, whose na
me whenLatinized was Alexander, when
friends and relatives, the name being adiminutive of Alexander
. Hancock, Wilcox, Bullock, are formed in the samefashion. As th
e pedigree is traceable form Matthew of Sunderland and not
from Alcock, wemay dismiss the latter without further notice. I
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