Malsis Hall is a historic building in Cross Hills, a village in North Yorkshire, in England.
The first Malsis Hall was a manor house in existence by 1340, when it was owned by the Copley family. The hall was burned down in the 1540s during local riots against enclosure. A new hall was built for Alvery Copley in about 1550. In 1621, the Copleys sold the house to Richard Horsfall, but he was on the losing side in the English Civil War and had to raise funds by letting out the hall. It was sold in 1786, at which time it had a 300-acre estate, but by the 1860s was dilapidated. Mary Spencer inherited the house, and her husband, James Lund, funded its demolition and replacement with a new country house, completed in 1866. Later in the century, a tower was added, followed by an extension with a portico for carriages, and a service block. [1]
The hall was converted into Malsis School in 1920. [2] The school initially leased the building, but later purchased the estate. [1] It closed in 2014, and was converted into a care home. [2] The building has been grade II listed since 1984. [3]
The building is constructed of stone with angle pilasters, an entablature, a pierced arcaded parapet with urns, and a slate roof, and is in Italianate style. There are two storeys, and an entrance front of twelve bays, with a porte cochère. Most of the windows have two lights, and cornices on consoles, those in the upper floor with round heads, and those in the ground floor with segmental heads. In the centre is a belvedere tower. [3]
In the 1960s, a modernist war memorial chapel was built for the school adjacent to the hall itself. [3] It is most notable for the 17 narrow rectangular windows ranged along the north and south walls, filled with stained glass designed by John Piper and manufactured by Patrick Reyntiens. Installed between 1966 and 1967, their design is primarily abstract, comprising sharp-edged abstract forms in pale shades of grey, blue, green and yellow. Each window individually commemorates one of 16 former pupils and one master of Malsis School who were killed in action during the Second World War. On each is the name of the individual to whom the specific window is dedicated and the insignia of the branch of the armed forces in which he served. [4] The chapel and windows were conserved as part of the subsequent conversion of the hall into a care home. [5]