Yanwath Hall

Overview and Early History

Yanwath Hall stands on the south bank of the River Eamont near Eamont Bridge, a couple of miles south‑west of Penrith. The manor of Yanwath formed part of the barony of Greystoke and was held by the Sutton and Threlkeld families as a sub‑tenancy. John de Sutton built a three‑storey pele tower here in 1322 to guard against the lawless cross‑border raiders known as the Border Reivers. At the end of the fourteenth century the estate passed to the Threlkelds, who rebuilt the tower and added a hall range around 1400. They transformed the site into a semi‑fortified manor — or “pele‑tower‑and‑hall” — that combined defensible accommodation with domestic comfort and is now regarded as one of the best‑preserved examples of its type in Cumbria.

Threlkeld and Dudley Families

The Threlkeld rebuilding produced a low but massively walled tower with an embattled parapet, corner turrets and walls up to two metres thick. Their south range comprised a spacious hall with a kitchen at its east end and a small gun loop beside the hearth. A new east wing may have been added in the late fifteenth century, and a north range was built in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. When Sir Lancelot Threlkeld died in the early 1500s his daughter Grace married Thomas Dudley, taking Yanwath into the Dudley family. The Dudleys remodelled the interior in Tudor style: they inserted large mullioned and transomed windows to admit more light, plastered the first‑floor hall and added ornate plasterwork, including a panel above the fireplace bearing the arms of Queen Elizabeth I. The second floor served as a solar (private chamber), and both it and the garret level were equipped with garderobes.

Architecture

Yanwath Hall is built from warm pink sandstone and forms three sides of a courtyard enclosed by a high curtain wall, or barmkin. The pele tower has a tunnel‑vaulted ground floor used for storage; access to the upper storeys is by a narrow spiral stair in the angle wall. The first floor houses the hall with its Tudor windows and elaborate plaster ceiling. Above is the solar, while a parapet walk crowns the roof and offers views across the River Eamont. The adjoining hall block retains its open hearth and once had a timber screen separating the servants’ end from the lord’s dais; a projecting bay window on the south side adds grace and light. Later farm buildings and barns adjoin the ranges, emphasising the hall’s continuous use as an agricultural homestead.

Later History and Restoration

In 1654 Sir Christopher Dudley sold Yanwath Hall to Sir John Lowther for £2,000, and it subsequently descended to the Earls of Lonsdale. The estate became a working farm, which ensured that the medieval structures remained largely intact. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the house was tenanted by the Quaker Thomas Wilkinson, a friend of William Wordsworth; the poet’s sonnet “To the Spade of a Friend” commemorates Wilkinson’s efforts to dig a path along the Eamont. Under the second Earl of Lonsdale the hall was sympathetically repaired by Wilkinson, preserving its distinctive blend of medieval fortification and Tudor domesticity.

Current Status

Yanwath Hall is protected as a Grade I listed building, with the adjoining courtyard range listed Grade II and the barns Grade II. It remains a private farmhouse and is not open to the public, though it can be glimpsed from nearby lanes. Because it has seen relatively little alteration since the sixteenth century, Yanwath Hall ranks among the finest surviving fortified manor houses in England.