Wharton Hall is a fortified manor house, situated two miles south of Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, England. The hall was founded around 1415 by the Wharton family, who further extended the property in the middle of the 16th century. A deer park was established around the enlarged manor house, requiring the relocation of the local village community.
Wharton Hall fell into disuse and was sold off in 1728 after the attainder of Philip, the Duke of Wharton. James, the Earl of Lonsdale, restored much of the hall in 1785, letting it out for use as a farmhouse. It continues to form part of a farm in the 21st century.
History
15th-17th centuries
Wharton Hall was founded around 1415, when Richard Wherton, a local landowner who was a client of the powerful Clifford family, constructed a manor house in the village of Wharton, Cumbria, England. The initial building comprised 33 ft by 20 ft hall with a pele tower, 25 ft by 16 ft, attached to the western end, and a service wing at the other. A kitchen was built alongside the building, separated from it for fire safety. The manor house was constructed from local limestone.
Around 1540, Thomas, Lord Wharton, a royal favourite and the Warden of the Marches, decided that the building was too modest for a man of his station. He extended the house to the south-east, adding a larger great hall, 68 ft by 27 ft, and a kitchen tower, 40 ft by 25 ft across.
Thomas’s focus on the hall increased after he broke his leg in 1555, reducing his ability to travel. In 1559, Thomas constructed a further range was constructed on the north-west side, including a fashionable gallery for receptions, and built a gatehouse on the western side of the complex, together with a set of apartments known as the priest’s lodgings and kennels, creating an enclosed courtyard. He also renovated the older parts of Wharton Hall, replacing the older windows. The result was a fortified manor house, deliberately built in a faux-medieval style.
Thomas created a 800-acre walled deer park around the hall, called Wharton Park, which required the village of Wharton to be relocated to Wharton Dykes, and a further park further west at Ravenstonedale, again requiring the relocation of local people.
18th-21st centuries
The Whartons continued to own the property for several centuries, but by 1600 they preferred to stay at Healaugh Priory, and Wharton Hall fell into disrepair. Philip, the Duke of Wharton, inherited the hall in 1715 but ran up huge debts and ultimately was attaindered as a Jacobite rebel. His lands were confiscated by the Crown and Wharton Hall was purchased by Robert Lowther in 1728.
By now the building was in ruins; the antiquarians Joseph Nicholson and Richard Burn described the hall as “in ruins and desolate, inhabited by no human creature” accept for a poor labourer. The deer park fell out of use by the 1730s. Robert’s son, James, the Earl of Lonsdale, inherited the hall in in 1745. He restored the older parts of the manor house in 1785, adding additional crenellation and windows, and turned the north-west range into a farmhouse, letting the property out.
In the 21st century, Wharton Hall is protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building and as a scheduled monument. The north and west sides of the manor are used as a farm, with the remainder in ruins.
Bibliography
- Blackett-Ord, M. (1986). “Lord Wharton’s Deer Park Walls,” in Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Volume 86 pp. 133-139.
- Curwen, J.F. (1902). “Wharton Hall, Westmorland. Part I. – Descriptive” in Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Volume 2 pp. 257-263.
- Emery, Anthony. (1996). Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales: Volume 1, Northern England. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Royal Commission for Historical Monuments in England. (1936). An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Westmorland. London, UK: His Majesty’s Stationery Office.
- Taylor, M.W. (1892). Old Manorial Halls of Westmorland and Cumberland. Kendal, UK: T. Wilson.
- Wharton, J. (1902). “Wharton Hall, Westmorland. Part II. – Historical”, in Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Volume. 2 pp. 264-273.
Attribution
The text of this page is licensed under under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Photographs on this page include those drawn from the Wikimedia website, as of 24 December 2018, and attributed and licensed as follows: “Wharton Hall”, author John Illingworth, released under CC BY-SA 2.0.
