Barley Hall

York

Introduction

Barley Hall is a reconstructed medieval townhouse in the city of York, England. Originally built around 1360 by the monks of Nostell Priory, it was later extended in the 15th century. The property went into a slow decline and by the 19th and 20th centuries heavily sub-divided and in an increasingly poor physical condition. It was bought by the York Archaeological Trust in 1987, renamed Barley Hall, and heavily restored in a controversial project to form a museum.

The History of Barley Hall

14th - 20th centuries

Barley Hall was first built around 1360 in the city of York. The earliest parts of the building were constructed by Prior Thomas de Dereford of Nostell Priory; the priory formed a politically important group of local monks who used it as a hospice, or town house, when visiting the city. By the 1430s, however, the priory had fallen on hard times and the monks decided to rent it out to raise additional revenue. Around this time there was new building work on the site involving the poor quality reconstruction of parts of the great hall. In the 1460s the building was rented to William Snawsell, a prominent local goldsmith, who paid 53 shillings and 4 pence for the property, a very high rent for the period. Snawsell was a supporter of Richard III during the troubled period of the Wars of the Roses, and had given up the property by 1489.

The later history of Barley Hall is less clear. By the 17th century the building had been divided into smaller units, with part of it turned into an alleyway. By the Victorian era the property had been subdivided into yet smaller units, partitioned by brick walls, and this pattern of use continued into the 20th century. By the 1970s the property was used by a local plumber as a storage unit and showroom.