Threapland Hall - Terra Contentionis
Shaun Castle 16 January 2007
An evocative site of medieval provenance, Threapland Hall occupies a fold in the lay of the land above the village green, appearing from its Anglo-Saxon name of threap, ‘to dispute’, to have been at some early date a ‘bone of contention’, the terra contentionis. Although the nature of the original dispute is unknown, it is cognisant that the Manor of Threapland emerged as a ‘capita’ or residence of strategic import in the ensuing wars with Scotland, being associated first with Alan, lord of Allerdale and Ketel, his steward, and later, Michael de Hercla and William de Mulcaster, in the reign of Edward II. Granted to Henry de Malton in 1316, the manor passed through various prominent families, including the Skelton’s in 1392, the Salkeld’s of Whitehall in 1623, the Gregs of Mirehouse, to Roger Williamson Esq. in 1767. Affirming its status, Jackson’s ‘A Reminiscence of Threapland Hall’ was printed in 1694.
Threapland Hall is believed to date from the early 16th century, with probable origins as a fortified tower house, though the extant hall is more likely to be of transitional type (Perriam and Robinson, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria, 1998). The rectangular form of deep roughcast walls, three storeys in height and connected at each level by a newel staircase set within one corner, and a garderobe at the other, is consistent with the period (Brunskill, Traditional Buildings of Cumbria, 2002).
As early as the 18th Century, Threapland Hall appears to have lost its manorial eminence and became a tenanted farmhouse, its remaining 167 acres being let then finally sold by Roger Williamson Esq. in 1802, passing thereafter through the farming families of the Holidays and Slacks until 1931, and marking a typically accretive period of alterations to the earlier hall. The medieval and Tudor hearths, fireplaces, doorways, windows and garderobe were blocked or concealed, and roughcast walls rendered. Further remodelling included the addition of a two storey wing and staircase tower during the 19th century. By 1967, the pre-eminence of the hall was lost and unrecorded in Pevsner’s Buildings of England: Cumberland and Westmorland.
With new ownership, the hall has been subject to thorough and sensitive restoration, revealing much of its original form. Of particular note, interventions to the fabric have recovered the previously sealed arched fireplaces to sitting room and kitchen, a Tudor fireplace and garderobe closet to second bedroom, and a Tudor doorframe with ribbed mouldings to master bedroom. Interventions to the roughcast walling include reinstatement of previously blocked window apertures to elevations and recovery of a former entrance to ground floor through retraction of partial banking.
Landscaped gardens, separate bank barn dating from the 16th century and a former coach house complete the picturesque complex.
Threapland Hall is for sale through Lakes & Country 01228 516409. Links to this post
Cast Iron Decoration
Shaun Castle 15 January 2007
The aesthetic value of cast iron decoration in the Victorian period, illustrated in the context of Tallantire Hall [A Grade II Listed Lamp-Post, posted May 16, 2006], is given the full survey treatment by E. Graeme Robertson in Cast Iron Decoration. A World Survey. An authoritative work of reference, Cast Iron traces the flowering of ironwork forms in the 19th century, and compiles the variety and richness of cast iron decoration, its national variations, its relationship to architecture, and its contribution to the aesthetics of buildings.
Cast Iron Decoration. A World Survey by E. Graeme Robertson and Joan Roberson.
Thames & Hudson. Published May 2007. £35.00 ISBN 978 0 500 232545
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The Chapel at Crawfordton House
Shaun Castle 08 January 2007
The school choir performing in the chapel, 1984
The private chapel at Crawfordton House is an exquisite example of High Victorian romanticism, believed to date from the late 19th century, and extended in the 1950's. Of timber-frame construction, with steeply pitched Gothic gables and leaded glass lights, the chapel is set in woodland and reached by a path flanked by specimen trees and Rhododendrons. The intimate interior retains an atmosphere of congregation, complete with ecclesiastical furniture and fittings.
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