Holme Eden Abbey

Holme Eden Abbey is a large mansion house dating from 1833 to 1837, constructed in red sandstone ashlar with moulded dressings, a slate roof, and numerous castellated stone chimney stacks and parapets. It was designed by John Dobson for Peter Dixon, a cotton manufacturer of Warwick Bridge. The building is executed in a Tudor-Gothic style, comprised of three towers and connecting bays and wings around a courtyard. A porch-tower features a Gothic arch entrance with a drip mould, a large non-figurative stained glass window with squared leaded lights, and a coat-of-arms at parapet level. Windows are a mixture of mullioned and transomed designs, sash windows with glazing bars, diamond-leaded casements, and stained glass. An arched tunnel provides access to the courtyard, where stables once stood.

Internally, the hall contains a freestone staircase of three flights supported by vaulted cantilevers with carved corbels, stone balusters with Gothic tracery, and a moulded stone rail. Original wood panelled and plaster ceilings are present in all principal rooms, along with carved stone Gothic fireplaces and decorative tiles. The dining room features a Gothic carved wood sideboard, and the library has a carved Gothic bookcase extending the full length of one wall. The construction was overseen by James Stewart, architect of Carlisle, who acted as Dixon’s agent.

Peter Dixon owned cotton works at Warwick Bridge and established a large factory in Carlisle in 1836. The house was sold around 1875 to William Watson, whose trustees sold it to Mr Liddell of Warwick Hall. Liddell subsequently gave the house to the Order of St Benedict nuns in 1921.