Beetham Pasonage Farm

Has been described as a Questionable Fortified Manor House

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

NameBeetham Pasonage Farm
Alternative NamesOld Parsonage Farmhouse; Haverbrack Hall; The College; College of St Mary
Historic CountryWestmorland
Modern AuthorityCumbria
1974 AuthorityCumbria
Civil ParishBeetham

Farmhouse. Probably late C17 with later additions and extensions. South part appears to incorporate remains of medieval college demolished in 1756 (R.C.H.M.) of which blocked doorway in South wall is visible. Slobbered rubble walls with roughly-cut limestone quoins; graduated greenslate roof with stone ridge. 2 storeys plus attics. Main frontage in East gable: 4 windows, irregular, mostly C19 cross windows with leaded glazing. Off-centre boarded door. Ground-floor window to far right small-paned; attic window at top left trompe-l'oeil. Blocked medieval doorway in South wall has 2-centred head. Massive chimney with round shafts offset from ridge to South; single chimney in apex of East gable. Interior has 2 staircases, one with turned balusters and square newels; panelling to rear ground-floor drawing room; panelled partitions, one with initials and date R & IA 1661; cornices to upper-floor rooms; powder room backing onto landing. See also R.C.H.M. p.104, although part of the panelling described therein has since been removed. (Listed Building Report)

Parsonage Farm, immediately N. of the churchyard, (SD496796) was called "The College". "The blocked doorway towards the churchyard proves that it is a medieval building." (Pevsner).

The "College" was a large building, with hall open to the roof, lit by church-like windows, and having walls over 2ft thick; it was demolished c.1756. (Not in Knowles and Hadcock, and no other evidence of ecclesiastical or monastic connections found) (Hutton's Beetham Repository).

Possible site of Haverbrack Hall, documented as belonging to William Thornborough in 1543 (Perriam and Robinson 1998). (PastScape)

From the name and position of this farm, it is obvious that it was the vicarage for the beautiful old Church of Beetham. (Palmer 1944)

Gatehouse Comments

The site of a medieval manor house - most probably a residence of a cleric but probably not a college. Gatehouse can not find anything to support the suggestion this was the site of Haverback Hall mentioned 1543. Although the site was in Haverbrack parish in 1936 Haverbrack township is about 1.15km NW. Haverbrack parish seems to have been a post medieval creation now no longer existing. Included by Perriam and Robinson in their gazetteer of medieval fortified buildings but there is no evidence the medieval house was fortified. There is no mention of a moat or a tower.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law

Historic England Scheduled Monument Number
Historic England Listed Building number(s)
Images Of England
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSD496796
Latitude54.2096481323242
Longitude-2.77424001693726
Eastings349638
Northings479610
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 360
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1967, Buildings of England: Cumberland and Westmorland (Harmondsworth) p. 227
  • Palmer, J.H., 1944, Historic Farmhouses in and around Westmorland (Kendal) p. 14
  • RCHME, 1936, An inventory of the historical monuments in Westmorland (HMSO) p. 104 no. 3 online transcription
  • Ford, J.Rawlinson (ed), 1906, The Beetham Repository, 1770, by the Rev. William Hutton, vicar of Beetham, 1762-1811 (Kendal: CWAAS Tract Series 7) p. 112-3