Levens Hall

Description

A 16th century house incorporating a tower house of 1360, possibly altered circa 1450. It was extensively remodelled in the late 17th century and further altered and extended in the late 18th century. An early 19th century tower was added to the rear, and is attributed to Webster of Kendal. The house is of two storeys with attics and basement and constructed of limestone rubble, part rendered, with sandstone dressings and a graduated greenslate roof. (PastScape)

Levens Hall (Plates 125, 128), house and stables and gardens on the S. bank of the river Kent and 1,300 yards E.S.E. of the church. The House is of three storeys; the walls are of local rubble with freestone dressings and the roofs are slate-covered. The estate came into the possession of the Bellingham family in 1489 and remained with them until 1688 when it was sold to Col. James Grahme and passed in turn to the Howard and the Bagot families. There are some remains of a 14th-century house of the local type consisting of a hall-block with a tower-wing at one end and a cross-wing at the other. The basement of the N. part of the present E. cross-wing probably formed part of the tower-wing and other portions of the mediæval building may survive in the lower walls of the existing hallblock and W. cross-wing. As it stands, however, the house is largely a reconstruction of Sir James Bellingham 1577–1641; the new building was certainly in progress in 1586; at this time the tower was added on the N. and the staircase-wing on the S. of the hallblock. The kitchen-wing, S. of the hall and the then detached brew-house were built at the same period. Various alterations were made to the house by Col. James Grahme, from 1691 onwards; in 1703 the kitchen-wing was partly destroyed by fire and re-built together with a new range connecting it with the brewhouse; the main staircase is also of this date. The new range, S. of the courtyard, was altered in the latter part of the 18th century and the Howard Tower at its E. end is an early 19th-century adddition.
The house, as it stands, is mainly an interesting and little altered example of the Elizabethan age, with rich fireplaces, plasterwork and panelling of that and later periods. The layout of the gardens with their unusual variety of cut yews is one of the finest examples of such things in the country. (RCHME 1936)

Comments

Now a large house but in its original C14 medieval form probably a solar tower attached to a hall block, possibly with a second 'service block' tower added in the C15.