Grayrigg Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SD578975
Latitude 54.36708° Longitude -2.66412°

Grayrigg Hall has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

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

Description

Parson and White, writing in 1829 state that 'the ancielt manor house was a strong old building, in a quadrangular form, adapted for defence more than for convenience'. Much of the lead and timber had been moved to Lowther. (PastScape–ref. Perriam and Robinson)

The old hall was situated to the south of the present farmhouse. It was a place of considerable strength and size, and was castellated. The old buildings were cleared away about eighty years ago, when the present farmhouse was built. The lead and timber was employed in building Lowther Castle. All vestiges have disappeared. (Taylor)

Grayrigg-hall, being the ancient manor house, was a strong old building, in a quadrangular form, adapted for defence more than for convenience. It is now totally in ruins, most of the lead and timber thereof having been removed to Lowther. (Nicholson and Burn)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1312144
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 43146.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2461.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Matthew Emmott's Castle Blog
  Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 342
  Taylor, M.W., 1892, Old Manorial Halls of Westmorland and Cumberland (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 8) p. 229 online copy
  Parson, W. and White, W., 1829, History, directory and gazetteer of the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland (Leeds) p. 648 online copy
  1825, The Remains of John Briggs (Kirkby Lonsdale) online copy
  Hodgson, J., 1810, Topographical and Historical Description of Westmoreland p. 207 online copy
  Nicholson, J. and Burn, R., 1777, History of Westmorland and Cumberland (London) Vol. 1 p. 114 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. 13

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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.
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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.

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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