High Head Castle
High Head Castle is the ruins of a large fortified mansion in the English county of Cumbria . It is between Carlisle and Penrith . Today only the outer walls and some foundations remain of the building. It is currently in private hands and the owners have been trying for a while to restore it to its former glory.
Kings Castle in the Forest of Inglewood originally stood on the site . The first documentary mention of this first castle is from 1272. It was a medieval peel tower , which was surrounded by a curtain .
The first known owners of the house were the Richmond family , who bought it and had it expanded in the 16th century. Today only the west wing with its unmistakable Ajimez windows with a straight top and round arched panes under the essays is preserved. The cellar of a tower with a square floor plan adjoins the south-west corner of this wing, showing signs of work from the 14th century.
The house was later sold to Baron Brougham and Vaux , who had some changes made to it. A family member, Henry Richmond Brougham , had a new facade done in 1744–1748. It is eleven yokes long; the three-bay middle section has an ornamental gable. The enclosed front garden has connected Ionic columns. When the Broughams no longer needed the house, they rented it out for some time. The Hills family lived there from the mid-19th century until at least 1909 ; there was the nursery of the soldier and astronomer Edmond Herbert Grove-Hills . The only other known tenants are the Cavaghan family (co-founders of the food manufacturer Cavaghan & Gray ), who lived in the house for about three years in the 1930s.
The mansion was largely destroyed by fire in 1956; little more than the outer walls remained. Both the medieval wing and the main house are listed by English Heritage as historical buildings II. This is followed by rectangular stables with considerable rustication , a steeply rising ornamental gable and a lantern.
Web links and source
- Commons : High Head Castle - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
- High Head Castle . Institute of Historic Building Conservation.
Coordinates: 54 ° 46 ′ 52.7 " N , 2 ° 55 ′ 48" W.