Washington Old Hall

Built in 1183 and owned by the Washington family, forefathers of the first President of the America, George Washington.  Changes were made over the years with the addition of the Great Hall in the 13^th Century, the pointed arches dividing the kitchen and the hall are still in place today. 

It is recorded that Edward 1 visited the Old Hall in September 1304 returning from a visit to Scotland.

In the 19th Century the hall was turned into a tenement building housing 35 people in five bedrooms in cramped and poor conditions until it was condemned as not fit for human habitation in 1932.

Local people with the help of benefactors interested in the George Washington connection (although he never visited the hall) helped to save it from demolition and it was restored and re opened in 1955 by the American Ambassador.  

Now owned and managed by The National Trust the Hall display various period furniture, artefacts from the George Washington era with the upper room laid out as it would have been when the poor tenants lived there in the crowded rooms.