Difference between revisions of "Abbot Hall"

Latest revision as of 02:02, 6 May 2019

In Kirkland adjacent to Kendal Parish Church, accessed from Peppercorn Lane car park, fronting the river. Postcode LA9 5AL

The building currently called Abbot Hall is Grade I listed and occupied by the Abbot Hall Art Gallery.

History

The original Abbot hall was likely to have been a large monastic building of the Benedictine Abbey of St Mary’s of York, to which the church was appropriated in 1301. A focus for the influence and authority of the church over Kendal and Kirkland in particular it may also have been a location for the manorial court. Kirkland was the original likely focus of Kendal before the borough came into existence, in spite of the influence of the Castle. The abbot was the master of the abbey and it is unlikely that this was his main residence, rather that he lodged there when he was 'on tour' round abbey lands and it provided accommodation for his officers. John Speed's map of 1611-12 shows it approximately on the site of the current Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry. Gregory King's engraving 'Prospect of Kendal' (1665) shows a large building close to the church which could be an early representation of it.

The abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539 and the Hall was granted to William Thompson as a dwelling house in 1543. It remained a house until it was demolished following the building of the current Abbot Hall in the mid C18, nearer to the river. It has been suggested that some of the roof timbers were reused in the southern part of what was the stable block and carriage house for the Hall (now the Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry) but there is no proof that this was the case.

The current Abbot Hall was built for Lieutenant Colonel George Wilson of Dallam Tower (near Milnthorpe) between 1759 and 1762. The architect was (probabably) John Carr of York and it was designed as an elegant Palladian style Georgian Villa - it is not clear that he actually designed it but he seems to have had a hand in building it. A 'country house in the town' it soon became one of the most important addresses in Kendal. It is shown on the Jefferys Map 1770 indicating it as a larger building although it is not sufficiently detailed to indicate its exact location. It is more clearly indicated on Todds 1787 map (including a detailed vignette of the front and again on Wood's 1833 map. It was sold in 1768 to Sir Alan Chambre (a judge) and then again in 1802 to Christopher Wilson (a banker, also the owner of Blindbeck House) who apparently spent quite a lot of money on making it 'comfortable'.

The hall was acquired by the Corporation in 1896 and most of the gardens immediately turned into a public park opened 22 June 1897. The house cost £800, the stables and outbuildings £950 and the grounds £2000. Of the total £3750, £2500 was paid for by gifts including a considerable sum from the winding up of the Kendal Savings Bank towards the purchase of the land.There were plans then to turn it into a centre for the arts but they did not materialise, although an Arts and Crafts Exhibition was held there in 1898, and the building slowly fell into disrepair. It was used for a variety of uses over the next fifty years, including a nursery school, until it was in such poor condition that demolition was considered in the 1930's and again in the 1950's. Fortunately in the 1950's the charitable Lake District Art Gallery Trust was set up to save it Westmorland Gazette article, 2012 (assisted by the generosity of the Scott family of Provincial Insurance) and it was restored and turned into the art gallery it is today, opened in 1962.

A Mr. Michael Bunney was architect for the alterations and renovations carried out on Kendal’s Abbot Hall Art Gallery in the 1960s and retained his appointment as the gallery’s architect until 1970. [1]

Curwen, 1900 p124-125

So named after the old house built on the church lands where the stables now are, granted to St Mary's Abbey, York, and which was probably the abbot's residence or place where he held his court. How the site became private property is not known, but the present hall was built in 1759, at the cost of £8000, by Colonel George Wilson of Dallam Tower. John Carr, Lord Mayor of York, was the architect.

It is said that the somewhat modern carriageway was made on account of an accident happening to a Duke's carriage in the narrow Peppercorn Lane , which was at first the only entrance to the Hall.

Colonel's Walk is supposed to have taken its name from the Colonel's habit of walking there. He also widened the river on the east side, so as to prevent, if possible, the overflowing of the stream on to his beautiful grounds. The hall was put up for sale in the year 1768, when the eminent English judge Sir Alan Chambre, purchased the property. He resided here until 1802, at which date it was again sold to Christopher Wilson, banker. Sir Alan died at the Crown Inn, Harrogate, September 30th, 1823, aged 83, and was buried at the Chambre chapel of our parish church.

There are about six acres of beautiful grounds adjoining the hall, the whole of which were purchased by the Corporation in 1896 for the sum of £3750, towards which cost the directors of the Kendal Bank for Savings contributed £2,500, in consideration of the pleasure grounds being dedicated and thrown open to then public. The Bank Directors also caused to be erected a freestone monolith fountain in commemoration of this, upon the four sides of which are representations of the intricate knots and bands to be met with on the best known runic columns in the district.

Nicholson, 1861 p160-161

On the north side of the church, and within the boundary of the grant of Gilbert, sixth baron of Kendal, was a house called Abbot Hall. This must have belonged to the abbey of St. Mary's, and, we conclude, was either the residence of the abbot (the eighth in our catalogue of the vicars of Kendal), or else it was a place where they held their courts.(1) Whether the property was sold, together with the greater part of the aforesaid grant, at the dissolution of the monasteries, or how it became private property, we have not been able to ascertain. Tradition reports that it stood about the place where the stables and coach-houses are now erected. The present mansion, which retains the name of Abbot Hall, was built in 1759, by Colonel George Wilson (2) of Dallam Tower, at an expense (says Dr. Burn) of £8,000. It belongs to William Wilson, Esq., of High Park, whose father purchase it of Sir Alan Chambre, in 1801. It is now the residence of Edmund Harrison, Esq., J.P.

(1) As is represented to have been the case with a place called Abbot Hall, similarly situated, near the church of Kirkby Lonsdale, which belonged to the same abbey, - Vide "HISTORY OF WESTMORLAND", p.247.

(2) Colonel Walk, which conducts from the church to the town, by the west bank of the Kent is said to have taken its name from this gentleman, by his constant habit of walking there.