'The gable ends of the hall have large sockets for the roof timbers. The openings at the bottom of the upright sockets in the east wall may possibly have carried projecting stone corbels supporting exposed timbers. Alternatively the timbers may have been concealed by a continuous layer of wallplaster. Remains of lateral sockets for roof timbers are also visible on the north and south walls. The roof was supported by base crucks set high in the north and south walls. It had five bays, one occupied by the chamber, one by the screens, and three by the hall itself.

The restored timber-panelled roof features painted heraldic bosses and 10 angel musicians, in facing pairs along the trusses forming the 5 bays of the hall.

'The hall roof was a massive wooden one, apparently of low pitch, and of five bays. The second bay is narrower than the rest to sustain the lantern over the fire, which originally burned upon a stone hearth carried by the large pillar in the basement. The principal beams were supported by braces springing from bold corbels between the windows and in the middle of each end. These corbels differ in section along the two sides of the hall, and those on the south side have deep chases above them for the wall pieces.... About 6 feet above the corbels an almost continuous row of a smaller series extends along each side to carry the wall plates.'

A low-pitched timber roof of 6 bays with carved corbels and bosses rises above the nave.

'The entrance into the hall strikes the traveller with all the solemn magnificence of antiquity. This apartment is seventy-eight feet in length, very lofty, and of a proportionable width. The ceiling is formed of wood pannels, in large squares, and the upper end of the hall is wainscotted in the same manner. The pannels are in number one hundred and twenty-nine on which are painted portraits of the Saxon kings, and the sovereigns of England,down to the union of the houses of York and Lancaster with many noble personages: but the pictures have little to recommend them but their antiquity.'