Millbeck Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NY25552606
Latitude 54.62440° Longitude -3.15384°

Millbeck Hall has been described as a probable Pele Tower.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Description

Farmhouse and barn. Dated over rear entrance 1592. Roughcast walls, under graduated greenslate roof with brick chimney stacks. 2 storeys, 5 bays, with contemporary single-bay wing to left rear and 2-bay barn to right of higher roof line, forming overall L-shape. 2- and 3-light chamfered stone-mullioned windows and smaller firewindows on both floors to right. 2 windows are C20 casements in enlarged surrounds. Rear has replacement studded plank door in Tudor-style surround under shaped lintel, dated and inscribed QVORSUM M.W. VIVERE MORI, MORI VIVERE NICHOLAS WILLIAMSON (whither are we going, to live is to die, to die is to live eternally). 2-light chamfered stone-mullioned windows and similar windows in wing. Left plank door with ramp and steps to loft doorway. Barn has openings with plain reveals and doorways to side and rear. Thought to incorporate the remains of a C15 fortified tower with newel staircase in thickness of the wall, but this is hidden by roughcast. (Listed Building Report)

Millbeck Hall - two miles north of Keswick, has traces of a square tower or pele of the 15th cent. which includes the remains of a narrow newel stair in the thickness of a wall (in the south east Corner of the building). In Elizabethan times a range of buildings was added to the west side of the tower, and a long wing making an 'L' shaped plan. Over the main entrance which faces west, is a stone inscribed with the date 1592 (Taylor).
Millbeck Hall, at NY 25602608, has been modernised and is not outstanding. The date over the main entrance is correct but no vestige of the former pele tower is evidence in the external fabric (F1 RL 13-APR-66). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1121974
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 9816.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 3735.

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. 19
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 88
  Taylor, M.W., 1892, Old Manorial Halls of Westmorland and Cumberland (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 8) p. 320-3 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Taylor, M.W., 1892, 'Manorial Halls in the Vale of Derwent' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 12 p. 148-52 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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*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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