I nearly didn’t do this!

I am not very good at these Blip challenges - sometimes I forget and other times something else comes up. However, I was determined to do Hobbs’ Mono Monday Architecture Challenge.

Then Monday turned out not to be a mono day at all. The sun has finally made its way up north and today dawned as the first real day of spring. Sunshine, blue skies, fluffy clouds . . . and it felt warm. We went up to Sunbiggin Tarn and it was a beautiful balmy and very quiet day. Not a day to celebrate with a mono picture I thought.

But on the way I had photographed this building and decided to go for the challenge anyway.

This is Petty Hall in Orton. It has a date on the lintel of 1604 and was planned and built during the final years of Elizabeth I’s reign. It is said to still have many of the original 1604 features, such as inglenook fireplaces, oak beams and stone spiral staircase. It was called Orton Old Hall, but later became known as Petty Hall, as during the 17th Century it was believed to have been owned by Sir William Petty, friend and advisor to King James I, Oliver Cromwell and King Charles II. Apparently he was also a brilliant mathematician and a professor of Anatomy at Oxford. Remarkably he is also credited with designing and sailing the first catamaran.