History Of High Sunderland Hall

High Sunderland was a timber-framed house - later encased in stone - which overlooked Shibden Valley at Horley Green. A house is recorded in 1274.
The name of the area and the house may be derived from sunder and means separate land, that is, land away from the main estate. The surname Sunderland originated here.
Around 1629, a house was built for either Richard Sunderland or Abraham Sunderland.
The hall passed to Langdale Sunderland.
Subsequent owners and tenants have included
Joshua Horton [1655]
Joshua Kitson [around 1720]
John Green [around 1745]
William Walker of Crow Nest [1803]
William Priestley
John Rawson of Brockwell
James Mills [1820]
Samuel Appleyard [1835]
James Wood [1835]
Joseph Gray [1841]
Shepherd & Wood [1858]
John Whiteley Ward [1861]
It was one of the first Halifax houses to use the newer classical columns. The façade of the house had battlements and elaborate carved figures.
This is discussed in the books Ancient Halls in & about Halifax, Buildings in the Town & Parish of Halifax and The Old Halls & Manor Houses of Yorkshire.
A room at the house was said to be haunted by the disembodied hand of
an estimable and virtuous lady
and a phantom white horse is said to roam the surrounding area.
There were numerous Latin inscriptions on the building, as discussed below
The house was divided into separate tenements and occupied until the 1940s, but, by the 1950s, it was considered derelict and unsafe.
As a consequence of local mining, the walls began to belly outwards and the building became unsafe.
The owner, Mrs Holden of Harrogate, wanted to sell it to the Brontë Society or to Halifax Corporation, but it was decided that the cost of repairs - £6,000 - was more than the value of the house.
High Sunderland Hall was inhabited by the eponymous Sunderland Family. The name deriving from 'asunder land' meaning land on the edge, or land set apart. The Sunderland family have been resident in West Yorkshire since around the 13th century, with a grand wooden house recorded on the site of High Sunderland Hall from at least 1274, before it was clad in stone to form the Hall familiar to Brontë.
The Sunderland family were associated, through the marriage of his sister Elizabeth Langdale, to Marmaduke Langdale, 1st Baron Langdale of Holme.
During the English Civil War, the Sunderlands' along with the Langdales' fought for the Royalist cause, with suspicious purchases of Catholic property, leading some historians to conclude that the family may have been recusants, like their openly Roman Catholic in-laws the Langdales'.
High Sunderland Hall was a medieval manor house clad in stone c. 1600. It was located just outside Halifax, West Yorkshire and demolished in 1951 after falling into dereliction. The house is perhaps best known for having supposedly provided Emily Brontë with her description of Wuthering Heights, the house in her eponymous novel.
The building stood just a few miles from Law Hill House, Southowram, where she spent some time as a school mistress. It was home to the Sunderland family from perhaps as early as the 12th century.

[@sdrest]

A real blast from the past, hauntingly surreal; one can almost hear the Hall's chatter down the centuries and even, maybe, shake hands with the severed one....

[@busybee6445]

I just want to thank you for these wonderful videos, which I have enjoyed. I didn't know there were so many manor houses in our area, even though some are gone, but it is good that someone has recorded their history. Thank you.

[@TheYorkshireExplorer]

You're very welcome and thanks for the comment 😊

[@jomurphy1654]

Absolutely rivetting! Thank you! As a huge fan of the Brontes, and Wuthering Heights in particular, I find everything about this incredible house utterly compelling. I wonder if there are more documents about the house's history to be found locally?

[@kevinrobinson1056]

A fascinating house sadly inadequately documented. No doubt it had sn interesting building history . Especially the addition of the modish show front apparently on to an earlier house. Such a frontage leads one to expect some interesting robust plasterwork and chimney pieces in the no doubt panelled? rooms behind. Fascinating ...