Lorton Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Winder House

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NY152257
Latitude 54.61968° Longitude -3.31341°

Lorton Hall has been described as a probable Pele Tower.

There are uncertain remains.

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

Description

Square 3-storey, 2-bay tower with rear C19 2-storey 3-bay extension in similar style and lower 2-storey, 7-bay wing now Winder House. Tower has C19 fenestration; irregular 2- and 3-light windows, some in Tudor style under hoodmoulds, the others without hoods; and ground-floor mullioned and transomed windows. Winder House has C17 fenestration with extensive C19 alterations; centre 3-light window was originally entrance under hoodmould and pediment; enlarged 2-light ground-floor windows under 3-light stone-mullioned windows with continuous hoodmould and individual pediments. Rear of tower has Tudor-style doorway and 2-light windows. Rear of Winder House similar,with C19 2-, 3- and 4-light windows. Interior of tower is completely late C19 and early C20 panelled woodwork, with moulded plaster ceilings. Other features claimed by a previous owner to be original, such as a concrete vault and spiral staircase in the tower (see Pevsner) and dated plasterwork in Winder House, are extremely dubious. The same owner painted C16 and C17 portraits of his ancestors to hang on the walls of his house and opened the building to the public. (Listed Building Report)

Possible tower; could be 19th century.
Previously listed building report says '14th century pele tower'.
Pevsner illustrates and says 'a pele tower originally with tunnel vaulting at ground level and spiral staircase'. Exaggerated claims for the house on a 1970s guide-sheet raise suspicions over the thin-walled tower.
'Present owner reports finding foundations of a possible second tower in his cellar' (Listed Building Report). Needs closer examination. (Perriam and Robinson 1998)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1145183
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 9380.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 3719.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Visit Cumbria
  Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 94
  Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 98 (slight)
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 44
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1
  Hugill, Robert, 1977, Castles and Peles of Cumberland and Westmorland (Newcastle; Frank Graham) p. 124
  Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1967, Buildings of England: Cumberland and Westmorland (Harmondsworth) p. 158-9
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Lund, J., 1999, An Archaeological Survey of the Islands of Derwentwater; Derwent Isle, Lords Isle, Rampsholme and St. Herbert's Isle.

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

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.

Data >	PastScape	County HER		Listing	I. O. E.
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio