Baildon Hall

Baildon Hall has its own website that can be found by following this link. 

One of the most distinguished of the tangible reminders of its past is Baildon Hall. It was built by the family that took its surname from the village. One of the first of them was Hugh de Baildon in 1195. In 1408 one of his descendants, through purchase, became one of the Lords of the Manor. Baildon was then part of two manors, the other in the sixteenth century being in the hands of the Hawksworths.

Baildon Hall

 Therefore, at one time, Baildon had two manor houses; one on Hall Cliffe near the Church; the other, in lower Baildon. In the 1960s the Hall Cliffe house was pulled down to make way for the building of the Ian Clough Hall but the lower hall with its gables and mullioned windows is still there, though not as obvious as it might be as it is hidden away at the end of Hallfield Drive. It has been preserved and restored through the efforts of the members of Baildon Hall Club which was set up there in 1947. It is a grade II* listed building (a building of national importance) and in the listing is described as a house of importance with the rare survival of a late medieval timber framed crossing and a finely panelled and plastered seventeenth century ceilinged parlour with a good (original) Elizabethan staircase.
The present house was built at the end of the 16th century by Robert Baildon, though he clearly incorporated parts of an earlier building. He was one of a long line of Baildons who were rumbustious characters, well known for legal quarrels, fighting, intimidation and even murder. His great grandson, Francis, the last of the Baildons to live in the Hall, had a difficult life having inherited his estates as a child - others took advantage of him. He too was a fighter, being a Royalist Captain in the Civil Wars (1642-51). He helped to defend Skipton Castle against the Roundheads. There is a legend that Charles I’s nephew, Prince Rupert, slept at the Hall after his defeat at the Battle of Marston Moor near York in 1644. As a supporter of Charles, who was executed in 1649, Francis was lucky to establish his right to his estate from Parliament when he came of age in that year. A copy of his letter requesting this is in the main room of the Hall alongside a cupboard, which was his. His marriage to Jane Hawksworth, whose family were Round-heads, probably helped in his claim.
At the time of his marriage he beautified the parlour with oak panelling and an ornate plasterwork ceiling and frieze. Ceilings of this type had been popular since Tudor times. The first such plasterers came from Italy, though this ceiling was probably made by London craftsmen. In the design there are birds, acorns, oak leaves, lions, fruit, goats and gargoyle-like heads. Francis's initials can be seen above the fireplace.
The Baildon Parish registers date back to 1621. The earliest of these registers still shows how Francis Bayldon of Baildon Hall tried to alter his baptism entry for 1627 to make it appear that he had been baptised in 1628 and was therefore underage when he contracted a gambling debt in 1649. The forged entry appears in his own handwriting. Francis died in mysterious circumstances in May 1669.
After the death of Francis in 1669 his widow lived in the Hall until her death in 1691. The Hall then passed through the female line to Thompsons, Meyers and Meekes. It was finally bought by the Maude family, the last of them, who died in 1929, being Colenel William Maude. Maude Avenue is named after him. He opened the Baildon War Memorial and District Nurse's Home after the 1914-18 War.