Regency Estates: Isel Hall and Brayton Hall

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Sir Lawson’s family choose to live in the more modern Brayton Hall, leaving the ancestral mansion, Isel Hall, abandoned during the Regency era.  The exact era of construction for Isel Hall is unclear, but is estimated to be in the late 1300s, particularly the Pele Tower.  The Grand Hall and other pieces were built as an extension in the 16th Century.

ISEL HALL The ancient tower of Isel with its later residential adoptions stands on the north bank of the river Derwent about three miles above the town of Cockermouth The name was formerly written and pronounced Ishall and was probably derived from the circumstance of the place being in great measure surrounded by water We have early notice of Isel for Alan the son of Waldeoff in the reign of Henry II gave to Randal Engayne a Norman the demesnes of Ishal Redmain and Blencrake and so for a time the Engaynes were lords of Isel as well as of Burgh Herriby and Kirkoswald Through Ada Engayne the inheritance passed to the Morvilles and Multons and in Edwa II s time through Margaret a daughter of Multon Isel fell to the family of the Leighs This Margaret in the thirty third of Edward III being the widow of Sir William a
de Leigh had a licence from Bishop Welton for a chaplain for her private oratory within the manor of Isale The presence of the Leighs at Isel seems to have lasted for a period of over two hundred and fifty years until towards the end of Elizabeth's reign Thomas Leigh the last of the race gave the succession to the estates to his second wife Maud Redmain who afterwards marrying Sir Wilfred Lawson brought Isel to the family of the Lawsons The situation of the hall is most picturesque in the midst of a charming undulating and well wooded country It stands on a considerably sloping bank close to the deep and rapid waters of the Derwent which here bend round its southern face and it is bounded on the west by a mountain beck which falls into the river The position was no doubt originally chosen for defence and the old keep which still remains in its entirety presents a good example of a border pele tower still in a habitable condition The defences of the rudimental fortalice were strengthened by a moat on the land side The depression formed by the ditch is fairly traceable on the east side of the tower and on the north side the line would be continued through the bell which afterwards came to be converted into a pleasaunce and terraced garden It is supposed that the mediæval approach to the place was by a drawbridge over the moat at this part On the west side all vestiges of the ditch have been obliterated by the carriage drive and avenue from the high road and by later improvements So far as can be made out of the scarp of the moat was distant by several yards from the tower It is is very rare to meet in the north with instances of these tower built houses in which the moat was carried round the place close to the foot of the walls
is as yet under age Isel Hall the seat of the Lawsons an ancient mansion with a square tower situated in a beautiful valley on the river Derwent has been many years deserted by the Lawson family whose chief residence has been at Brayton hall Cumberland, 1816
though examples of this are frequent in the more southern districts as at Nunney Castle Somerset Ightham in Kent and Tattershall in Licolnshire In such cases the outbuildings and stabling must have been of necessity outside the moat There can be no doubt that most of these border peles had an external courtyard connected with them containing stabling kitchen and vario is offices for the most part wooden erections with a wall of enceinte or some form of inclosure on the inner side of the moat when such a defence existed In some instances the foundations of these stone inclosures or the walls themselves remain as at Dacre Castle Yanwath Burneside Scaleby and other places but for the most part these outer walls have been demolished to make way for additional buildings This pele is of the usual oblong plan measuring over the walls forty three feet by twenty seven feet the longer sides facing east and west The masonry is of well laid freestone rubble with dressed stones at the corners and openings it presents no plinth nor offset but the parapet is projected on a horizontal string course at the south west corner it is borne out further by small corbels The parapet wall is embattled with five embrasures on the longer sides and three on the shorter and is coped with splay and round moulding Gurgoyles are absent the three single fue chimneys on the west side are ornamented with corbelled cornices On the basement there is the usual stone barrel vault with an original small square opening to the west The main entrance to the tower appears to have been on the level of the first ficor by an external stair or possibly by removable wooden steps on the south side There is no trace of any newel staircase the upper chambers and the top of the tower are reached by a short flight of steps then a passage and finally a straight fight leading up inside the east wall of the tower There are two windows on the west front to the upper rooms each being divided by a mullion into two lights with segmental heads within a square dripstone ending in a short return These two windows are original and distinctly of the fifteenth century the other windows are late insertions 329
These pele towers are often so plain and devoid of ornament that it is sometimes very difficult to determine their exact age There are no characteristics about this building to induce one to assign it to the fourteenth century It was probably erected about the middle of the fifteenth century in the reign of Henry VI by one of the Leighs to supersede some decayed or demolished housing of the Engaynes or Multons A covered space connects the south aspect of the tower with an imposing range of three storied buildings presenting a frontage to the court of forty two yards These run parallel with the river bank and are set on not at a right angle but rather askew in respect to the tower There is evidence that this addition has been built at two different dates The division next the tower is a block on the double plan with rooms both to front and back containing kitchen hall parlour and public apartments The entrance doorway is here shewing a depressed Tudor arch the windows are square headed with double mullions and transoms On the garden front the wall is strengthened by four buttresses stepped in stages All this may be of the period of Henry VIII In the same line on the river front there are remains of old walling and more buttresses There is a country tradition that a wing existed towards the west which is very probable so as to complete as was usual three sides of the courtyard As it now exists the range is extended in the same plane by another row of buildings which have clearly been an addition the ridge of the roof is lower the level of the floors is not the same the windows are without transoms and the plan is that of a single house the width being only twenty seven feet The long array of mullioned and labelled windows set regularly in three tiers though giving to the elevation the feeling of amplitude is in effect somewhat flat and monotonous All this second part is late Elizabethan or Jacobean The line of walling under the eaves is broken by a form of ornament which occurs nowhere else in Cumberland but of which a parallel example may be found on the walls of Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire an edifice of about the same
a date This display consists of erections superimposed on the top of the wall of stone ribs placed in the form of a stirrup or stilted arch from the crown of which arises a pyramidical shaft terminating in a conical pinnacle There are seven of these to the front and some also to the back of the house A tablet with a coat of arms high over the front door is so weathered as to be undecipherable There are two coats of arms of Lawson built into the south wall The rooms used at present as drawing rooms dining room and den are all wainscotted All have been painted wiite except the main drawing room which was cleared of paint by a former tenant Part of the panelling in the dining a room is of the 16 shirt pleat pattern the beams where exposed are moulded There is a carved mantel in one of the rooms The legend is as follows WL & JL 1631 The old manorial halls of Westmorland & Cumberland, 1892

 

 

 

 

For more photos and current day info on Isel Hall: Isel Hall, Cumbria | Historic Houses

Brayton Hall, which was destroyed by fire in 1918, was constructed some time in the Georgian era but underwent significant renovations by the 10th Baronet beginning in 1800.  It sat in a large park, had an extensive library with a significant collection of natural history books, and many paintings from English masters of the era.  The 10th baron was a known collector of books, art, and suits of armour.

BRAYTON Here is Brayton Hall the beautiful seat of Sir W Lawson Bart with a superb picture gallery miles south east of Brayton lies the pretty market town of Ireby with the Caldbeck Fells in the back ground and beyond High Pike back and Skiddaw towering in the distance Bradshaw’s illustrated handbook for tourists in Great Britain and Ireland.1876

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More pictures of Brayton Hall: Brayton Hall | England’s Lost Country Houses (lostheritage.org.uk)

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