Nether Levens Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SD48858517
Latitude 54.25900° Longitude -2.78706°

Nether Levens Hall has been described as a probable Pele Tower, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

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

Description

Mainly 16th century farmhouse, originally part of a larger complex. One source suggests that the ruinous south wing of the house was built as a pele tower in the 14th century. The RCHME record, however, dates it to the early 16th century. The remainder of the house is mid and late 16th century in date, with later alterations. The two storeyed house is irregular in plan, and built of stone rubble with a slate roof. (PastScape)

Nether Levens (Plate 133), house, 770 yards W. of Levens Hall, is of two storeys; the walls are of rubble and the roofs are slate-covered. It belonged to the Preston family from 1452 to the latter part of the 17th century. The S. part of the house, consisting of the main block, the ruined S. cross-wing and a part of what was probably the N. cross-wing, was built early in the 16th century. About the middle of the same century the long N. wing was added and c. 1594 additions were made partly on the site of the earlier N. cross-wing. The E. side of the original main block has an early 16th-century window of four four-centred lights in a square head with a moulded label and casement-moulded reveals; further N. is a two-light window of the same date; on the upper floor is a late 16th-century window of two transomed lights with a moulded label, an altered window perhaps of the same age and two late 17th-century windows with solid wooden frames. The W. side of the same block has an original window of two pointed lights in a square head and at the N. end of the block is a projecting garde-robe tower (Plate 136) finished with a gable. The remaining walls of the S. cross-wing are fragmentary. The original part of the N. cross-wing has a late 17th-century window, with a solid frame, in the W. wall. The added N. wing has a mid 16th-century window in the lower storey of the W. wall; it has a moulded wooden frame, mullions and transom and is of seven lights below and five lights above the transom; above it is a five-light window with a wooden frame. The late 16th-century additions on the E. side retain a number of windows of that date and the gable of the small more northerly part has a panel with the initials and date T. and A.P. 1594; the main addition seems to have formerly extended further to the E. The chimneystacks of the house, generally, have cylindrical shafts. (RCHME 1936)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1319030
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 41589.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 5389.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Matthew Emmott's Castle Blog
  Charles Taylor's ecastles
  Old Cumbria Gazetteer
  Abaroth's World
Books
- Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 359 (plan)
  Salter, Mike, 1998, The Castles and Tower Houses of Cumbria (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 99 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 495 (possible)
  Hugill, Robert, 1977, Castles and Peles of Cumberland and Westmorland (Newcastle; Frank Graham) p. 148-9
  Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1967, Buildings of England: Cumberland and Westmorland (Harmondsworth) p. 270
  Palmer, J.H., 1944, Historic Farmhouses in and around Westmorland (Kendal) p. 92
  RCHME, 1936, An inventory of the historical monuments in Westmorland (HMSO) p. 155-6 plan online transcription
  Curwen, J.F., 1913, Castles and Fortified Towers of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 13) p. 385-6
  Taylor, M.W., 1892, Old Manorial Halls of Westmorland and Cumberland (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 8) p. 205-8 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Collingwood, W.G., 1926, 'An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Westmorland and Lancashire North-of-the-Sands' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 26 p. 32 online copy
  Curwen, J.F., 1904, 'Nether Levens Hall' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 4 p. 235-7 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Manuscripts of the Reverend Thomas Machell, vicar of Kirkby Thore (d 1698) Vol. 2 p. 179 (preserved at the Cumberland Record Office)
  Hughes, E. (ed), 1962, Fleming-Senhouse Papers (Carlisle: Cumberland Record Series 2) p. 11

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