Newbiggin Hall

Newbiggin Hall is a house incorporating a medieval tower house, dating back to the 14th century when it was originally built for the Priory of St Mary’s, Carlisle. Around 1690, a new facade was added and early 19th-century extensions were also made. The main structure is built of red sandstone ashlar walls with white freestone dressings, topped with a graduated slate roof and four ashlar ridge chimney stacks. It is two and a half storeys, with seven bays.

A large rectangular tower, approximately 8.3 metres wide by 19.5 metres long with walls 2 metres thick, is completely encased within the later house. The front wall, extending for the full length of one and a half storeys, belongs to the original building. The entrance features a freestone moulded surround, a moulded entablature, a swan neck pediment, and scrolled console brackets. The ground-floor windows are tripartite, with red sandstone moulded surrounds, swan neck pediments, and scrolled console brackets on pilaster strips, and likely date from the early 19th century. A string course marks the first floor, and a raised panel connects the central upstairs window to the entrance. First-floor windows have freestone moulded surrounds from around 1690, the central window featuring scrolled console brackets. Raised quoins appear on the first floor, and a chamfered plinth course of the original tower is visible on the side wall and internally, now forming a dividing wall between rooms. A moulded cornice runs along the top, and a prominent cast-iron gutter is present. One gable has plain coping, while the other is crow-stepped with pinnacles at the front and back. The chimney stacks have drip moulds and cornices. Sash windows with glazing bars and an oak iron-studded door with a leaded fanlight complete the exterior.

Two-storey extensions, each two bays wide, are located to the left. These extensions are constructed of coursed sandstone rubble, with plain surrounds to entrances and windows, a slate roof, and brick chimney stacks. They feature early 19th-century sash windows with glazing bars and plank doors. The facade includes a terrace wall of three courses of red sandstone ashlar with steps leading to the entrance.

Inside, a vaulted two-chamber cellar lies beneath the entrance hall. The entrance hall itself has medieval barrel vaulting. A prominent early 19th-century oval staircase rises through the hall, with rib-vaulted plasterwork to the ceiling and staircase arch. The medieval vaulting continues into the principal room on the left, which has oak dado panelling and a plaster ceiling dating from around 1930, created by Harrods of London for the Carr family. The fireplace contains a 16th-century lintel stone found in the garden and inserted in 1982, with wood panelling above, also from Eaton Hall, Cheshire, added during the same period. A remnant of an internal spiral staircase with a re-moulded entrance arch is also present. On the left side of the entrance, there's a filled arch, now a window, and a small filled window in the gable of the third story.

Originally a country retreat and grange of the Priors of St Marys, the hall was converted into a country house around 1690, as detailed by Thomas Denton in his Manuscript History of Cumberland. It was sold by the Church Commissioners in the early 1920s. The design is likely by Thomas Machell, with stonework probably by Edward Addison. Pevsner (Buildings of England, Cumberland section) incorrectly dated the facade to around 1720.