Calgarth Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Calfgarth

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SD39839968
Latitude 54.38897° Longitude -2.92731°

Calgarth Hall has been described as a probable Pele Tower.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

A two storey house which dates from the early C16 onwards. It is made from limewashed stone rubble and has old slate roofs. The east front is long and low. The centre portion has two windows on the ground floor and three above. The south wing contains former barns and has the remains of a projecting chimney. A range of stables adjoin this wing. The house was the seat of the Philipson family from the early C16 to 1717. C14 door may be from an earlier house, and there is evidence of an earlier building including C15 kitchen and possible tower. (PastScape)

Calgarth Hall, on the E. bank of the lake nearly 1 m. N.W. of the modern church of St. Mary, is of two storeys; the walls are of rubble and the roofs are slate-covered. A 14th or 15th-century doorway in the side wall of the porch indicates the existence of a mediæval house and if this is in situ further indicates that the original building lay at right-angles to the existing one. The existing main block is of two dates, the S. part perhaps representing the earlier building; the N. cross-wing was built late in the 16th or early in the 17th century and the S. part seems to have been reconstructed at a later date. The Scullery is a 17th-century alteration or rebuilding and the Dairy is modern. The house belonged to the family of Philipson down to the early part of the 18th century.
The house is remarkable for its plaster decorations. (RCHME 1936)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1124682
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 39898.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2045.

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. 334 (plan)
  Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1967, Buildings of England: Cumberland and Westmorland (Harmondsworth) p. 297
  RCHME, 1936, An inventory of the historical monuments in Westmorland (HMSO) p. 244-5 no. 1 plan online transcription
  Hodgson, J., 1810, Topographical and Historical Description of Westmoreland p. 216 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Fahy, T.G., 1964, 'The Philipsons of Calgarth' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 64 p. 150 online copy
  Aitchison, G., 1935, 'Calgarth Hall' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 35 p. 207 online copy
  Aitchison, G., 1934, 'Proceedings' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 34 p. 197 online copy
  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. 24 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Hughes, E. (ed), 1962, Fleming-Senhouse Papers (Carlisle: Cumberland Record Series 2) p. 14

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

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.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

*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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