NEWBIGGIN HALL.

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DESCRIPTION

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Large house, dating from mid 15th century with later alterations and additions including three towers added over the period 1460 to 1533. Coursed squared rubble and ashlar. Embattled parapets.

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NY 6280 2868. Newbiggin Hall (NR). [1]

"[2] Newbiggin Hall, NE 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 medieval 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 thesecond half of the 16th century, the main block and the W wing were entirely rebuilt in 1844 and there is a modern wing on the E side of "Jerusalem". The windows are 18th-century or modern except for some
small sqaure-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 reset 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." Grade II. [2-3]

There was an earlier building, possibly a simple keep or tower, on this site, traditionally dating from late 13th century. No trace now
remains. [4]

The tower may have been built a little earlier than 1533. There is a record of a legacy of 40 marks to John Crackenthorpe in 1501 "towards the building of his house. (a) The inscription referred to in [2] overleaf probably applies to the dining hall and not to a Hall - a whole block of buildings. The West tower, according to Fleming, (b) dates from the second half of the 16th century. RCHM dates the "Jerusalem" tower to this latter period, but this may not be correct. The fact that the 1533 hall is set back by half its width from the side of the pele suggests that "Jerusalem" is at least as old as the pele. Also, it is doubtful whether a small tower would have been built at a time when the new West tower was either just erected or was planned. [5]

Structural phases correct. See GP's. [6]

Listed with plan and illustration. (7)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1957

( 2) Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England 1936 An inventory of the historical monuments in Westmorland

Page(s)183

( 3) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

DOE (HHR) Westmorland RD Nov 1966 79

( 4) Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society

M W Taylor 12, 1893 Page(s)36

( 5a) Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society

RP Brown 26, 1926 Page(s)164

( 5b) General reference

Description of Westm (Cumb & Westm Antiq & Archaeol Soc Tract Series 1) 24 (D Fleming)

( 5) Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society

C M L Bouch 55, 1955 Page(s)140-3

( 6) Field Investigators Comments

F1 FRH 04-SEP-67

(7) Denis R Perriam and John Robinson 1998 The medieval fortified buildings of Cumbria : an illustrated gazetteer and research guide

Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society extra series vol.29 Page(s)296-7

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