Armathwaite_Hall
Armathwaite Hall is a luxury hotel and spa adjacent to Bassenthwaite Lake, in Cumbria.[1]
The present hall dates back to circa 1500; it was acquired by the Highmore family in 1540, by James Spedding (squire to Lord Egremont) in 1748[2] and then by Sir Frederick Fletcher-Vane (who had the courtyard and chapel added) in 1796.[3] Ownership then passed to John Boustead (who owned coffee plantations in Ceylon and who had the hall extensively enlarged)[4] in 1850.[3] It then passed to Thomas Hartley (a local mine owner who had the hall extended to the designs of Charles John Ferguson) in 1880, to the Wivell family (owners of the Keswick Hotel) in 1926.[3]
When under the control of the Wivell family, especially Joseph Banks Wivell's widow, Mary Johnson Wivell, it received attention and praise in Florence White's Where Shall We Eat or Put Up? In England, Wales, and Scotland (1936). "Armathwaite Hall is an old country mansion, carried on as a country house furnished with every comfort and luxury" for travelers. The Wivell family also owned the Keswick Station Hotel in nearby Keswick.[5]
It was acquired by the Graves family (the current owners) in 1976.[3] It is now a hotel.[6]
- "About Us | Luxury Lake District Hotel & Spa | Armathwaite Hall Hotel & Spa". Luxury Lake District Hotel & Spa | Armathwaite Hall Hotel & Spa. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
- Spedding, Captain John Carlise D. (1909). The Spedding family. With short Accounts of a few other families allied by marriage. Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. p. 98.
- "Armathwaite Hall". Historic Lake District Society. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
- Historic England. "Armathwaite Hall (1327178)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
- White, Florence (1936). Where Shall We Eat or Put Up? In England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. London: Practical Press Ltd. p. 21.
- "Doomsday Book". BBC. Retrieved 31 December 2013.