The hamlet of Offerton is near Hathersage, and now consists of three houses, called Offerton Hall, Offerton House, and Offerton Cottage. It stands high, but the moors on the south rise higher still, and partly hide the rays of the midday sun from these buildings. So, as you walk up the hill on a summer’s morning, the gateway of the hall, already darkened by time, is further darkened by shadows. But there is plenty of light when you get into the courtyard. You ascend a little-used, narrow lane, with walls on either side, and leaving Offerton House, itself a quaint old building, on your right, you presently enter the courtyard of Offerton Hall through a tall gateway, which stands between farm buildings on one side and a barn on the other. Within the archway on either side are mullioned windows, and just beyond the archway is a door, as if a porter once kept the gate. [Illustration: Offerton Hall (Front View).] [Illustration: Offerton Hall (Back View).] Open the barn doors and peep inside. At one end, raised high above the floor, you will see a large wooden platform, which can be raised up and down at will, and is used for clipping sheep. You will also notice that the great oak beams or rafters which support the roof of the barn extend down to the ground. These beams are thick and rude, and have hardly been touched by the carpenter’s tools. They are locally known as “crucks,” which is an older form of “crutches.” A book which has just been published contains an extract from a lease dated 1432, in which “crukkes” are mentioned, and it is remarkable that the word is used as a translation of _laquearia_.[59] The barn at Offerton Hall consists of four bays, measuring 15 feet by 16 feet each, so that the floor of each contains 240 square feet. Some of the crutches are bigger and heavier than the others, and they all rest on stone pedestals, varying, according to the size of the crutches, from two to four feet from the ground, the crutches which stand on the two lowest pedestals being the thickest. All the crutches have mortise holes for rafters on their outer faces about a foot above the lowest of the two tie-beams by which they are joined together. This shows that the roof of the barn, or the roof of an earlier building which the crutches once supported, sloped from the ridge to the ground. The tie-beams are held in their places by tree-nails or wooden pegs. [59] The lessee covenants to build a house “de octo laquearibus, Anglice viii. _crukkes_.”—Ling Roth’s _The Yorkshire Coiners_, 1906, p. 155.