Tuesday 19 January 2016

Beetham Hall Farm

This is a place I would love to have a wander around inside and out, Beetham Hall.  Its span of history means that it has evolved, crumbled and expanded through the centuries.  Today it is a private dwelling and farm owned by the Wilsons of Dallam Tower.  The buildings to the right have not been lived in since the 17th Century but its origins are a 14th Century hall-and-cross-wing house.  There may originally also have been more storeys carried up into towers. This is the view from the footpath that runs behind the buildings however
Photo from: Old Cumbria Gazetteer
 for those coming in to the south Lake District Peninsula the view from the A6 road is the most familiar and it also gives a better view of the Barmkin Wall, which is a defensive enclosure around Pele Towers.  Not to be confused with Barm Cake, a large soft bread bun found in Lancashire or the slang term 'you barmpot' when someone has done something idiotic.  No-one knows the origin of any of those words, like the building they have just evolved, but Barm itself is a fermenting yeast.
Here you can just make out the arrow-slits for any marauders coming into the area and the sturdy chimneys on the house for those cold winters of the past.
Here is the full patchwork of buildings with the farm buildings on the left.  There are blocked doorways, doorways that used to be windows and dates inscribed of 1693 and 1799 and so much going on that the description in  Pevsner Architectural Guide to the county calls it a "complicated site" 
Photographs taken it was time to resume our walk and we left behind the limestone farm and stronghold and headed for the woods.  Matthew Emmott of 'Castles, Towers and Fortified Buildings of Cumbria' took a more detailed close up photographic trip around the site here

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at B here

 
      

10 comments:

Unknown said...

I totaly cam imagine your wish... i would like the same !
always intriging and interesting to visit and explore building like that


Have a nice abc-day/-week
♫ M e l ☺ d y ♫ <abc-w-team)

Anonymous said...

Such an interesting structure and I'm surprised to hear someone lives in it. It would be fun to poke about...

Hildred said...

Fascinating, - what a lot of history encompassed in these wonderful old buildings.

Leslie: said...

I absolutely LOVE England - there's always so much to see and do historically. I love the old buildings and all the architecture. This would be quite fascinating - can you go inside?

Leslie
abcw team

Deepa said...

Lovely pictures

Shooting Parrots said...

Thanks for the photos. I hadn't thought much about the origin of barmcake, presumambly from the yeast used in the dough.

Lea said...

Very interesting!

carol l mckenna said...

Fascinating place and great shots ~ Would be fun to roam and photograph!

Happy Week to you ~ ^_^

Roger Owen Green said...

Wander, but not own: imagine the upkeep!

ROG, ABCW

Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil said...

Thanks for the tour! Here in the States, we don't have that sense of true historical wonder in European architecture, but the tribal peoples have incredible relics.

The side notes on "Barm" are interesting. I have a friend who often calls me "barmy"! (And with good reason.) Amy