Hardrigg Hall Tower, Skelton (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Harding Castle

In the civil parish of Skelton.
In the historic county of Cumberland.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Cumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY425362
Latitude 54.71736° Longitude -2.89430°

Hardrigg Hall Tower, Skelton has been described as a certain Pele Tower.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Description

Farmhouse and ruined fortified tower with adjoining barn and stables. C14 tower for the Southaik family with C19 farmhouse and barn/stables. Tower has extremely thick walls of large blocks of pink and grey sandstone; without roof. The tower has the partial remains of 3 walls, the only visible external features being a staircase loop and a small upper-floor medieval window in the right return wall. Exposed interior of tower has the remains of vaulted basement. Angle newel staircase has shouldered-arched doorway in basement, external round-arched doorway (now blocked by gable wall of farmhouse) and 2 further round-arched doorways above. Medieval fireplaces on 2 levels and remains of 3 splayed windows in each wall. Tower a stable ruin. (Listed Building Report)

NY43NW1 Hardrigg Hall has part of a late 14th or early 15th c. Pele tower still standing, with the farmhouse built against its eastern wall. The west all is totally demolished, while the walls to the south and north are half destroyed. The tower is 27 ft. long, height some 23 ft., and was probably 20 ft. wide. (PastScape ref. Hudleston)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1145449
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 11267.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 4487.

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. 205 (plan)
  Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 57
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 48 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 86
  Pevsner, N., 1967, Buildings of England: Cumberland and Westmorland (Harmondsworth: Penguin) p. 190
  Lysons, Daniel and Samuel, 1816, Magna Britannia Vol. 4: Cumberland p. 155 online copy
  Hutchinson, W., 1794, The History of the County of Cumberland (Carlisle) Vol. 1 p. 514 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Hudleston, F.,1932, 'A Description of Hardrigg Hall' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 32 p. 78-9 online copy

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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.

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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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