Newton Hall is thought to originally have been a medieval manor house, a grade 11 listed building circa 1380. It was privately owned and restored by W. Kenyon & Sons. It is one of the few surviving cruck buildings in the region.
Carbon dating placed the construction of this hall to c.1370 and it survived because much later it was encased in a brick building having a blue slate roof.
A
cruck frame is one where the structure of the building depends on two
or more ‘A-frames’ which go from the top of the building down to the
ground. These frames are usually constructed of curved timbers (the cruck blades) using the natural shape of a tree and
in many cases the tree is sliced long-ways down the middle so that
whatever the shape of the curve the two sides are symmetrical. The two beams are joined together at the top by a ‘collar’ or tie-beam.
The term crook or cruck comes from Middle English crok(e), from Old Norse krāka, meaning "hook". This is also the origin of the word "crooked", meaning bent, twisted or deformed, and also the crook used by shepherds and symbolically by bishops.
Thanks to Wikipedia
