Burneside Hall, Cumbria - Castle Duncan Forums

Burneside Hall, Cumbria Ordnance Survey Map Reference SD 510960

Burneside village, which lies about two miles north of Kendal, is said to take its name from an early Norse settler called Brunulf. Another source says it takes its name from the Scottish word for a brook / burn. Burneside Hall is now a farmhouse and contains the ruins of a 14th century pele tower.
Early owners of the Hall took their name from the place, calling themselves Burneshead (sometimes seen as Burnshead), and the hall is said to date back to the reign of Edward I. In 1290, Gilbert Burneshead, Under-Sheriff of Westmorland, lived there, and his daughter Margaret, took the property by marriage to the Bellinghams. Her husband Richard was the first of several generations to occupy the hall, until a Sir Roger (although one source says it was a Sir Robert) Bellingham was forced to sell the estate during the reign of Henry VIII.

Burneside Hall : South-West Face of Pele Tower - June 2003

Burnside Hall was sold by the Bellingham family to Sir Thomas Clifford. He sold it soon afterwards to a man named Fitzwilliam, who in turn sold it to a Mr. Machell of Kendal. It was subsequently purchased by the Braithwaites, who originated in Ambleside. The best known of the Braithwaite family was Richard Braithwaite, who was born at the Hall in 1588. He was the notorious 'Drunken Barnaby' or 'Dapper Dick'.
The Braithwaites sold Burneside to the Shepherd family, who in turn sold the estates to various proprietors, and the manor to the Lowthers. Burneside Hall was bought by James Winstanley Cropper, also known as Summer How. He died in 1956. The owner at the time of my visit in the summer of 2003, was only too pleased to allow me to wander round the outside of the property and take as many pictures as I desired. However, it must be stressed that Burneside Hall is private property and not open to the general public.

Burneside Hall from the North-East - June 2003

The farmhouse is mainly 14th century and consists of a much altered central hall with north and south cross wings, which in a drawing of around 1692 are both shown as having three storeys and battlements. The north wing, which is now ruinous, formed a tower 12.8m long by 8.5m wide over walls about 1.2m thick. The basement contained two vaulted rooms set either side of a passage leading out to a thinly walled enclosure 11m square on the north side, shown on the left-hand side of the diagram below. A stair in the tower south wall led directly from the hall to the solar.

Groundplan of Burneside Hall

The hall is now divided into a kitchen at the north end, a parlour with a 17th century fireplace, and a staircase at the south end. The south wing is 22.3m long and has three parts each of differing widths. The central part seems to have been a kitchen with a huge fireplace filling the south side.

Burneside Hall gatehouse - June 2003

To the west of the farmhouse is a 16th century gatehouse with an 8m long section of curtain wall 1.9m thick, complete with parapet curving round from the north side. Low modern walls connect these parts to the hall to enclose a court with three sides each about 28m long.

Bibliography

John Kinross ' Discovering Castles in England & Wales' Shire Publications Ltd., 1973
Mike Salter ' The Castles & Tower Houses of Cumbria ' Folly Publications, 1998
Michael Ffinch ' Portrait of Kendal & the Kent Valley ' Robert Hale Ltd., 1983
Mannix & Co. 'History, Topography & Directory of Westmorland, 1851'.