NATIONAL Trust homes in Yorkshire are thin on the ground – but East Riddlesden Hall near Keighley has to be one of the weirdest around.

It’s got a bedroom that gives the impression you’re in a first-class suite on the sinking Titanic, a chimney that’s not a chimney and an extension that went wrong back in the 1600s and yet it’s still standing.

Its wooden staircase has featured on historical drama Sharpe, starring Sean Bean in swashbuckling form.

Finding the place is pretty easy. It’s just off Bradford Road in Keighley and is well signposted.

Apparently one American tourist told staff there he thought the family had been barmy to build such a great hall next to a main road.

You shouldn’t get lost on the way, but you wonder where on earth it is as Keighley is a sprawling town and the hall is right in among both residential and industrial areas.

Yet once you turn off the main road and go through its gates you’re immediately somewhere tranquil, helped by the huge pond right in front of the house.

The place is alive with guides in just about every room eager to chat about the hall’s history.

One told us about the main hall, built as a premature extension. The home’s owners were waiting for an old bloke who lived in part of it to shuffle off his mortal coil so they could then extend it to twice its size.

He must have become ill for they started the work, building a new internal wall complete with chimney, fireplace and hole upstairs for a fire in one of the bedrooms.

But the gent must have made a remarkable recovery because they had to stop and turned it into a glorified lean-to to protect the exposed stone. The work was never finished, but the bodged job has remained standing for more than 350 years. So no cowboy builders back there then.

Although the hall was saved from being knocked down and handed to the National Trust back in the 1930s it was only opened to the public in the 1960s and furniture dating back between 1600 and 1700 was brought into it to give it that just lived-in look. So there are four-posters a plenty along with enough oak panelling to build a Man O’ War.

As with all National Trust properties it’s the real deal with history brought very much to life in front of fascinated eyes.

Best of all is an open fire in a tiny bedroom. Peep up it and it opens into a hidey hole – perfect for the era when it was built during the English Civic War.

The house owners were Royalists, but they must have been quite lithe ones to managed to twist and turn up the chimney should Cromwell’s hordes ever arrive on the doorstep.

And one of the main bedrooms is on such a slant you really start to get that sinking feeling with the doors totally out of alignment with the walls.

It’s hard to judge whether you’re on the Titanic or if the Mad Hatter should appear at any moment.

It’s this kind of quirkiness – plus the chance to lie on a 1600s put-me-up bed complete with straw mattress – which makes National Trust homes must-see places of interest.