Newbiggin Hall in Westmoreland

Description

Large house, dating from mid C15 with later alterations and additions. Coursed, squared rubble and ashlar with quoins. Hipped, graduated slate roofs with corniced stone chimneys; embattled parapets. The tower, to left of centre on north side, is known as the Jerusalem; probably built in the 1460s as a temporary refuge for the Crackenthorpe family who fought on the losing side in the Wars of the Roses. A more permanent tower was added to the rear in the early C16; of 2 storeys with corner turrets, life size sculpted figures in armour were placed on the ridge but these were removed until 1983 when 2 were returned to Newbiggin. In 1533 a hall was added to link the Jerusalem to a third tower, which was rebuilt by Anthony Salvin in 1844. The hall was remodelled in 1569 and a new, oval, dining room was built at 1st floor level in 1796. A further wing was added to the north corner c1890 by C.J. Ferguson. The majority of windows are mullioned C19 'medieval' reconstructions. Internally, the original newel stair to the Jerusalem survives. There is a late C16 carved overmantel and re-used panelling in the ground floor of the C16 tower. Some original fireplaces and doors. (Listed Building Report)

Newbiggin Hall (Plate 90), N.E. of the church, is of two storeys with attics; the walls are of sandstone rubble and ashlar, and the roofs are slate-covered. The house has belonged to the family of Crackanthorpe since the 14th century. It is built on the normal mediæval plan with a hall-block and cross-wings carried up as towers at the E. and W. ends. The hall (and probably also the E. wing), according to an inscription, was built in 1533 by Christopher Crackanthorpe. A lower wing, called "Jerusalem," was added on the N. of the E. wing in the second half of the 16th century, the main block and the W. wing were entirely re-built in 1844 and there is a modern wing on the E. side of "Jerusalem." The early 16th-century E. wing or tower is finished with an embattled parapet carried up as embattled turrets at the angles; the S.W. turret projects on a double range of corbels; on the angle merlon is a stone figure of a man with the arms of Crackanthorpe impaling a lion on his breast; there is a similar figure, but without a coat of arms, on the S.E. turret; at the base of the S.W. turret is a shield of the Crackanthorpe arms. The windows are 18th-century or modern except for some small square-headed openings in the turrets and two low down in the E. and W. walls cut into by later windows. In the W. wall is a re-set panel with the black-letter inscription "Cristofer Crakanthorp thus ya me calle, Wiche in my tym dyde bylde this halle, The yer of owr lorde who lyst to se, a. M. fyve hundreth thyrty and thre"; the moulded label has one head-stop and one with a shield-of-arms of Crackanthorpe. On the S. wall, a few feet above the ground, are two stone corbels. Inside the tower, the ground-floor room or hall, is lined with re-set 16th and 17th-century panelling including four panels with enriched arches and carved human heads; the modern fireplace incorporates a four-centred head with the initials and date H.C. (for Henry Crackanthorpe) 1564, and shields-of-arms of Crackanthorpe and Dalston quartering a pierced molet; this appears to have come from Bank Hall, Kirkland, in Cumberland; higher up is a stone panel with the Crackanthorpe arms and the initials and date I.C. 1544; the overmantel, at the N. end of the room, incorporates late 16th and early 17th-century woodwork, including shields-of-arms of Crackanthorpe im paling Sandford and Carnaby for the first two wives of Henry Crackanthorpe. This room, in the middle, rises into the second floor and round the opening is a balustrade of late 17th-century turned balusters. The wing, called Jerusalem, has an embattled parapet and retains two small 16th-century windows and a doorway, in the basement, with a triangular arch in a square head; near it is a fireplace of c. 1700 with corbelled jambs and cornice. The main block has a roof of king-post type, presumably re-set. In the parapet of the modern porch is a re-set late 16th-century panel with the arms of Crackanthorpe impaling Carnaby quartering another coat. In the S. wall of the main block is a re-set 17th-century window and a stone with the date 1613. Incorporated in the W. wing is a 16th-century four-centred window-head with the initials I.C. In the garden are some worked stones including a 13th-century voussoir.
Condition—Good. (RCHME 1936)

Comments

The Crakenthorpe family were not noble but were senior gentry often serving as shire knights, Keeper of the March etc. They also held Brougham Hall.