Castlefacts³

Nether Staveley Old Hall

Has been described as a Possible Pele Tower

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

Name	Nether Staveley Old Hall
Alternative Names	Asthwaithe Hall
Historic Country	Westmorland
Modern Authority	Cumbria
1974 Authority	Cumbria
Civil Parish	Nether Staveley

Site of Nether Staveley Hall. The County Sites and Monument Record notes that part of a vaulted structure stands circa 1.5m high, and may be remains of the hall. (PastScape ref. Perriam and Robinson)

According to Machell, there was an old hall at Staveley. Nothing remained in 1691 but ..."the wall which belongs to Mr Will Birket..." (p. 108). ~ Mr. Scott says that in September 1990 part of a vaulted structure stands c. 1.5 m high, which he thinks is the Hall. ~ The remains of the Old Hall are at the edge of Old Hall spring. A corner of the building stands about two metres high, pierced by a window or doorway. Part of the vaulted roof of the ground floor remains, and also what may be the curved back of an oven, with traces of plaster. See plan on file. The clearest early account of the New Hall area comes from 1596. Robert Bindloss died in 1595, owning amongst other things, 'a capital messuage called Asthwaite Hall in Nether Staveley...' Other documents mention Asthwaite, the earliest of them from 1301. The last mention of Asthwaite is in 1651. One year earlier there is the first mention of New Hall, presumably built to replace the old one. Ever since the area has been known as 'New Hall.' (Lake District National Park HER)

It seems quite possible that the vaulting which is all that remains of the Old Hall is part of a semi-fortified building. There is similar vaulting at Hollin Hall a quarter of a mile to the south and in the other more complex “peles” like Kentmere Hall, all dating from this troubled period of border warfare. (1992, Staveley Historical Society Occasional Paper 1)

Gatehouse Comments

Fragment of a hall mainly gone by the late C17. Although possibly called a 'capital messuage' in 1596 seems to have usually been let out to tenants. The scant remains do seem to include some evidence that the lower floor was vaulted and there is a reasonable possibility this was a similar building to Hollin How 600m to the south at the same elevation (just below the spring line) - being the smallest of solar block towers attached to a hall.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)

1390400

County Historic Environment Record

archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archsearch/record.jsf?titleId=1802558

OS Map Grid Reference	SD464966
Latitude	54.3622703552246
Longitude	-2.82564997673035
Eastings	346400
Northings	496600