Nether Staveley Old Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Asthwaithe Hall

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SD464966
Latitude 54.36227° Longitude -2.82565°

Nether Staveley Old Hall has been described as a probable Pele Tower.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

Description

Site of Nether Staveley Hall. The County Sites and Monument Record notes that part of a vaulted structure stands circa 1.5m high, and may be remains of the hall. (PastScape ref. Perriam and Robinson)

According to Machell, there was an old hall at Staveley. Nothing remained in 1691 but ..."the wall which belongs to Mr Will Birket..." (p. 108). ~ Mr. Scott says that in September 1990 part of a vaulted structure stands c. 1.5 m high, which he thinks is the Hall. ~ The remains of the Old Hall are at the edge of Old Hall spring. A corner of the building stands about two metres high, pierced by a window or doorway. Part of the vaulted roof of the ground floor remains, and also what may be the curved back of an oven, with traces of plaster. See plan on file. The clearest early account of the New Hall area comes from 1596. Robert Bindloss died in 1595, owning amongst other things, 'a capital messuage called Asthwaite Hall in Nether Staveley...' Other documents mention Asthwaite, the earliest of them from 1301. The last mention of Asthwaite is in 1651. One year earlier there is the first mention of New Hall, presumably built to replace the old one. Ever since the area has been known as 'New Hall.' (Lake District National Park HER)

It seems quite possible that the vaulting which is all that remains of the Old Hall is part of a semi-fortified building. There is similar vaulting at Hollin Hall a quarter of a mile to the south and in the other more complex “peles” like Kentmere Hall, all dating from this troubled period of border warfare. (1992, Staveley Historical Society Occasional Paper 1)

Comments

Fragment of a hall mainly gone by the late C17. Although possibly called a 'capital messuage' in 1596 seems to have usually been let out to tenants. The scant remains do seem to include some evidence that the lower floor was vaulted and there is a reasonable possibility this was a similar building to Hollin How 600m to the south at the same elevation (just below the spring line) - being the smallest of solar block towers attached to a hall.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1390400.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 4055.

Books
- Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 360
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Ewbank, J.M. (ed), 1963, Antiquary on Horseback: The first publication of the collections of the Rev. Thos. Machell (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 19) p. 108
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Lord, A.A., 2006, Staveley Hall/Mill (Staveley Historical Society Occasional Paper 21) online copy
  1992, Staveley Hall/Mill – Report by the field walking group (Staveley Historical Society Occasional Paper 3) online copy
  1992, Report on the field walking group's study of Old Hall, Nether Staveley (Staveley Historical Society Occasional Paper 1) 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.

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