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Clifton Hall, Clifton
Clifton Hall
Clifton Tower
locality:-   Clifton
civil parish:-   Clifton (formerly Westmorland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   buildings
coordinates:-   NY53072710
1Km square:-   NY5327
10Km square:-   NY52
SummaryText:-   Remaining tower of a 15th century manor.

photograph
BUY54.jpg (taken 15.7.2011)  
photograph
BQE96.jpg (taken 6.3.2009)  
evidence:-   hearth tax returns:- Hearth Tax 1675
placename:-  hall
source data:-   Records, hearth tax survey returns, Westmorland, 1674/75.
"hall"
in  "Clifton"
evidence:-   old map:- Bowen and Kitchin 1760
placename:-  Clifton Hall
source data:-   Map, hand coloured engraving, A New Map of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland Divided into their Respective Wards, scale about 4 miles to 1 inch, by Emanuel Bowen and Thomas Kitchin et al, published by T Bowles, Robert Sayer, and John Bowles, London, 1760.
image
BO18NY42.jpg
"[Clifton] Hall"
circle and line 
item:-  Armitt Library : 2008.14.10
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old map:- Jefferys 1770 (Wmd) 
placename:-  Hall
source data:-   Map, 4 sheets, The County of Westmoreland, scale 1 inch to 1 mile, surveyed 1768, and engraved and published by Thomas Jefferys, London, 1770.
image
J5NY52NW.jpg
"Hall / Wybergh Esq;"
castle, at Clifton 
item:-  National Library of Scotland : EME.s.47
Image © National Library of Scotland
evidence:-   old map:- Cary 1789 (edn 1805) 
source data:-   Map, uncoloured engraving, Westmoreland, scale about 2.5 miles to 1 inch, by John Cary, London, 1789; edition 1805.
image
CY24NY52.jpg
"Hall"
house symbol; large house 
item:-  JandMN : 129
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old map:- Baker 1802
placename:-  Clifton Hall
source data:-   Perspective road maps with sections in Lancashire, Westmorland and Cumberland, by J Baker, London 1802.
image
Bk03Vg07.jpg
"Clifton Hall"
item:-  private collection : 3
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   descriptive text:- Ford 1839 (3rd edn 1843) 
source data:-   Guide book, A Description of Scenery in the Lake District, by Rev William Ford, published by Charles Thurnam, Carlisle, by W Edwards, 12 Ave Maria Lane, Charles Tilt, Fleet Street, William Smith, 113 Fleet Street, London, by Currie and Bowman, Newcastle, by Bancks and Co, Manchester, by Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, and by Sinclair, Dumfries, 1839.
image FD01P134, button  goto source
Page 134:-  "further on, is Clifton: its old hall, now a farm-house, is a turreted building. ..."
evidence:-   old photograph:- Bell 1880s-1940s
placename:-  Clifton Hall
source data:-   Photograph, Clifton Hall, Clifton, Westmorland, by Herbert Bell, photographer, Ambleside, Westmorland, 1896.
image  click to enlarge
HB0093.jpg
Vol.1 no.93 in an album, Examples of Early Domestic and Military Architecture in Westmorland, assembled 1910. 
ms at bottom:-  "93. Clifton Hall. Clifton. W."
item:-  Armitt Library : 1958.3165.93
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old print:- Taylor 1892
placename:-  Clifton Hall
item:-  hayrick
source data:-   Print, Clifton Hall, Clifton, Westmorland, published for the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, by Titus Wilson, Kendal, Westmorland, and by Charles Thurnam and Sons, Carlisle, Cumberland, 1892.
image  click to enlarge
TY5009.jpg
Tipped in opposite p.77 of The Old Manorial Halls of Cumberland and Westmorland, by Michael Waistell Taylor. 
item:-  Armitt Library : A785.9
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old print:- Taylor 1892
placename:-  Clifton Hall
source data:-   Print, plans of Clifton Hall, Clifton, Westmorland, published for the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, by Titus Wilson, Kendal, Westmorland, and by Charles Thurnam and Sons, Carlisle, Cumberland, 1892.
image  click to enlarge
TY5010.jpg
Tipped in opposite p.79 of The Old Manorial Halls of Cumberland and Westmorland, by Michael Waistell Taylor. 
item:-  Armitt Library : A785.10
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old text:- Harper 1907
source data:-   Guidebook, The Manchester and Glasgow Road, by Charles G Harper, published by Chapman and Hall Ltd, London, 1907.
HP01p115.txt
Page 115:-  "..."
"It is at Clifton, just south of Penrith, that the real Borderland begins. We are still thirty-five miles short of the actual border-line, but we have come now within the "sphere of influence" (as international politicians now phrase it) of the old moss-trooping, cattle-lifting, and plundering and burning rascals from the Scottish side, who ever and again came across the Solway in well-mounted bands that numbered perhaps twenty, or perhaps five hundred, and often swept the countryside clean of stock; returning as swiftly as they had come, and leaving burning homesteads behind them. Those times have left plentiful traces, still plain to see, in the old domestic architecture of mansion and farmstead. Castles we have here, as elsewhere, but this borderland is the country of the peel-tower. In ages when the south of England lived in security, and men no longer built homes that were half fortresses, these oft-raided northern counties still lived in constant and well-founded apprehensions, and every one who had anything to lose had his own stronghold, in the little peel-tower that was, according to circumstances, his entire home,"
HP01p116.txt
Page 116:-  "or a considerable part of it. Many of the peel-towers remain, as uninhabited ruins: others form the central portion of houses and mansions since enlarged. At Clifton stands such an one."
"It is a fair type of the defences once absolutely necessary. You see the care taken to build strongly, with thick walls that no swiftly-moving band of raiders could have leisure to demolish; and you see, too, that it was equally impossible to burn. The ground floor was not only exceptionally solid, but it had no entrance from without, and was reached only by a trap-door in the floor above."
"So soon as the farmer or the squireen of those days had taken alarm, he drove his stock into the barmkin, or enclosure, attached to his tower of refuge, and, summoning all his family and securing his valuables, ascended with them by a ladder to the first floor, and, withdrawing the ladder after him, awaited events. For defence he had a store of heavy stones on the leads above the second floor; or from the narrow-slitted windows could shift to shoot arrows, or fling hot water, boiling tar, or domestic sewage upon enemies who came near enough."
"But the cattle were still in danger, and the men of the house were usually concerned to garrison the tower with the women and children, and to give fight, if the odds were not overwhelming, outside; and many a Westmoreland and Cumberland farmer has died in protecting his stock."
evidence:-   old print:- Curwen 1913
placename:-  Clifton Hall
source data:-   Print, halftone photograph, Clifton Hall, Clifton, Westmorland, published for the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society by Titus Wilson, Kendal, Westmorland, 1913.
image  click to enlarge
CW0174.jpg
Tipped in opposite p.360 of The Castles and Fortified Towers of Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire North of the Sands, by John F Curwen. 
printed at bottom:-  "CLIFTON HALL."
item:-  Armitt Library : A782.74
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   descriptive text:- Burrow 1920s
source data:-   Road book, strip maps with parts in Westmorland, Cumberland etc, irregular scales about 1.5 miles to 1 inch, by E J Burrow and Co, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, 1920s.
"... At Clifton, ... is one of the peel towers which were considered an indispensable adjunct to any house of importance during the troublous times of Border raids. These peel towers were not parts of extensive castles but single towers to which the householder could withdraw his family for safety at the approach of danger. ..."
evidence:-   old map:- Burrow 1920s
source data:-   Road book, On the Road, Dunlop Pictorial Road Plans, volume V, strip maps with parts in Westmorland, Cumberland etc, irregular scale about 1.5 miles to 1 inch, by E J Burrow and Co, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, 1920s.
image
EJB3Vg19.jpg
item:-  private collection : 17
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old print:- LMS 1920s
source data:-   Peel Tower at Clifton, drawn by R M Hutchings, published in the LMS Route Book No.3, The Track of the Royal Scot, by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS, 1920s.
image  click to enlarge
LS1E38.jpg
item:-  JandMN : 95.11
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old print:- Bogg 1898
placename:-  Clifton Peel Tower
source data:-   Print, engraving, Clifton Peel Tower, Clifton, Westmorland, by A Haselgrave, published by Edmund Bogg, 3 Woodhouse Lane, and James Miles, Guildford Street, Leeds, Yorkshire, 1898.
image  click to enlarge
BGG135.jpg
Included on p.130 of Lakeland and Ribblesdale, by Edmund Bogg. 
item:-  JandMN : 231.35
Image © see bottom of page

photograph
BLM02.jpg  Floor beams and joists.
(taken 23.12.2005)  
photograph
BUY56.jpg  Floor beams and joists.
(taken 15.7.2011)  
photograph
BUY55.jpg  Roof beams, kingpost.
(taken 15.7.2011)  
photograph
BLM03.jpg  Roof beams.
(taken 23.12.2005)  
photograph
BUY57.jpg  Fireplace.
(taken 15.7.2011)  
photograph
BUY58.jpg  Fireplace.
(taken 15.7.2011)  
photograph
BLM01.jpg (taken 23.12.2005)  
hearsay:-  
 Pele of about 1500; other, earlier buildings gone.
Home of the Engayne Family, later the Wybergh Family.
notes:-  
 tower and site of several halls

Perriam, D R &Robinson, J: 1998: Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria: CWAAS:: ISBN 1 873124 23 6; plan and illustration
person:-    : English Heritage
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