Naworth Castle - The Mighty Fortress of Cumberland

Naworth Castle has a long and enduring history in Cumberland, particularly as the fortress that helped keep the "rievers" (the Scottish raiders) at bay over many centuries. Home to the Dacres family, then the Howards (all inter-related), the castle is famous for "Belted Willy's Tower", seen above with the flag on it, as it is the primary section of the original castle (along with the outside walls) remaining after a disastrous fire on May 18th, 1844. It is in this tower that amateur sleuths Violet Paget and John Singer Sargent have a great and marvelous adventure in The Spoils of Avalon.

Some thirty years after the fire, the heir to the title of Earl of Carlisle, Mr. George Howard, (who became the 9th Earl in 1896), hired Morris & Company to re-design and re-build the main halls of Naworth, with stained glass designed by Edward Burne-Jones, and architecture by Philip Webb. The rooms are gloriously Arts & Crafts, with painted ceilings, lovely sconces and hand-carved stairwells.

I was privileged to visit Naworth Castle, the country residence of Mr. Philip Howard, on my research trip recently, and I was given a glimpse of the round, stone staircase leading up from Lord William's bedroom to the Tower rooms above--it is indeed very narrow, perhaps about 18 inches in width, and the steps are roughly hewn from solid stone. Seeing it helped me picture very intensely how it might have seemed to Violet and John as they ascended it by candlelight and lamplight during a raging storm!

N.B. - The photo above was taken by me from the public road. Although I was graciously allowed to take a few photos during my visit, I promised I would not publish any of them, in order to protect the family's privacy.

The road to Naworth from the main Brampton Road ascends through a woods to the top of a plateau, from which one can gaze upon the surrounding meadows and rolling hills, with mountains (fells) in the distance. It was fascinating to be on the spot of the scenes I had been describing in my book, and fortunate, too, in that I was able to re-write a few descriptive scenes more accurately--including one in which I had Violet "looking out for a glimpse" of the crenellated towers of Naworth as they rode along the Brampton Road--turns out that was not possible! But easy to correct! 

Hamlet, Village, Town or City? All Smaller Than They Sound!

When I was travelling in Cumbria (formerly Cumberland), I learned that there are fiercely-held distinctions among the people there about what to call an inhabited area:  hamlet, village, town, and city.

Lanercost  is a hamlet. It includes the Priory with its ruins, St. Mary Magdalene Church (the east section of the old Priory church), three "farmhouses" (c. 1870, one of which was the B&B where we stayed) and three other residences down the road, plus the Lanercost Tea Room, part of the amenities attached to the Priory, which is an English Heritage Site. 

The 'farmhouse' in front is the Lanercost B&B, with the Priory Ruins
and St. Mary Magdalene Church behind it.

There's an ancient mill up the road by the River Irthing, which is also a B&B these days. So, fewer than ten homes--a hamlet. There is only one road, no sidewalks, no street lighting, no house numbers, no noise--and everyone knows everyone's life and business intimately.








Brampton, two miles east of Lanercost, was probably more of a village in the early times, but by the late 19th century, when my story takes place, it had acquired the status of a town, partly due to its having a railroad station of its own--albeit, about a mile and a half from the actual center of town, literally in the middle of a field--which was a kind of spur off the main railway that had been built between Newcastle on the east coast and Carlisle, both of which were then and are now, cities.

As a village, Brampton has a small town center (a market square, where the Moot Hall sits), a "high cross street" that runs straight through but above the market (literally, up

a small rise, and yes, there is a "low cross street," too), and three or four winding alley-like streets connecting the High Street with the Market Square.

The Howard Arms hotel and pub is the principal hotel, and always has been since the village began. 




Currently, as a town, it has added a few housing developments in its suburbs, and a few more paved streets connecting the major streets with each other, and a fair amount of infill housing and retail stores.  








St. Martin's Church (below) was built in 1878, by Philip Webb of Morris and Co., and has exquisite stained glass windows designed by Burne-Jones.


 






 

The nearby city of Carlisle, about ten miles east of Brampton, is an absolute maze of one-way streets (like London, I believe the roads started out as paths made by cows and sheep and were simply paved over in later days). The lords who lived in Lanercost at Naworth Castle eventually had bestowed upon them the title and domain of Earl of Carlisle, a title which the Howard family holds to this day. Carlisle is situated at the confluence of three major rivers, and only ten  miles from the Scottish border. It was started as a Roman settlement, established to serve the forts on Hadrian's Wall. During the Middle Ages, Carlisle became an important military stronghold. Carlisle Castle, still relatively intact, was built in 1092 by William Rufus, and once served as a prison for Mary, Queen of Scots. In the early 12th century Henry I allowed the foundation of a priory in Carlisle. The town gained the status of a diocese in 1122, and the priory became Carlisle Cathedral (shown just up and left of the center of the photo). (Thank you, wikipedia, for the info about Carlisle!)