Winderwath House (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Brougham.
In the historic county of Westmorland.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Westmorland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY598293
Latitude 54.65789° Longitude -2.62454°

Winderwath House has been described as a Pele Tower although is doubtful that it was such.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

House. Mid C17 incorporating medieval features, with extensive C19 and C20 additions and alterations. Pointed-arched blocked doorway in gable wall is thought by owner to be the original doorway into the 'pele tower', but the layout has the appearance of a C15 hall rather than a C14 tower and there is no documentary evidence to suggest a tower on this site. Belonged to the Clifford family until purchased in C17 by Thomas Braithwaite. (Listed Building Report)

Mid C17th house incorporating Mediaeval features. The original house is at right-angles to the rear. A C15th window is set in a thick wall which judging from the general layout was the external wall of a C15th hall-house. The rest of the house was altered in the C19th and C20th. (PastScape)

Winderwath, house and outbuilding in a detached part of the parish {of Cliburn}, about 3 m. N.N.E. of the church. The House is of two storeys; the walls are of rubble and the roofs are slate-covered. There are remains of a mediæval building incorporated in the present structure, which was, however, largely re-built and remodelled late in the 17th century. The house was again altered c. 1860, when a S.E. wing was added; this has been extended in recent years. The exterior has no ancient features except a 17th-century doorway on the W. front; it has a moulded architrave and panelled and enriched pilasters, supporting consolebrackets, enriched frieze and cornice; above the doorway is a re-set shield-of-arms of Clifford impaling Vipont. Re-set in a gable of the N. wing is a grotesque head-corbel, a stone carved with a cinquefoil and a shield bearing a cross with a cinquefoil in the quarter. Inside the building, the dining-room has a 17th-century fireplace with rusticated jambs and head, enriched Ionic side-pilasters, frieze with blank shields and a wreath and a moulded cornice. In the main E. wall is a 15th-century window of one trefoiled light with a moulded label. In the N. wall of the kitchen is a mediæval doorway with a two-centred head and E. of it is a late 17th-century fireplace; it has a corbelled lintel enriched with mouldings and carved blocks. (RCHME 1936)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1145359
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1095339.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2858.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 319 (plan)
  Hudleston, C.R., Boumphrey, R.S. and Hughes, J., 1978, Cumberland Families and Heraldry (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 23) p. 48, 232, 377
  RCHME, 1936, An inventory of the historical monuments in Westmorland (HMSO) p. 68-9 no. 3 online transcription
  Nicholson, J. and Burn, B., 1777, The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland (London) Vol. 1 p. 400 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Collingwood, W.G., 1926, 'An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Westmorland and Lancashire North-of-the-Sands' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 26 p. 14 online copy
  Ragg, F.W., 1914, 'De Culwen' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 14 p. 371 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Manuscripts of the Reverend Thomas Machell, vicar of Kirkby Thore (d 1698) Vol. 1 (preserved at the Cumberland Record Office)

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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