St Michael's House is a Grade II* listed building in the Cumberland local planning authority area, England. First listed on 13 December 1985. A Medieval Sheltered home. 7 related planning applications.

St Michael's House

WRENN ID
patient-chapel-rush
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
Cumberland
Constituency
Whitehaven and Workington MP: Josh MacAlister (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
13 December 1985
Type
Sheltered home
Period
Medieval
Address
St Michael's House, Dora Crescent, Workington, CA14 2EZ
OS grid reference
NX 998 289
Coordinates
54.6458, -3.55417
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: EPC · related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

St Michael's House is a rectory that has been converted into a sheltered home. It likely dates from the 15th century, with alterations made in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building features cement roughcast over very thick stone walls and is topped with a graduated greenslate roof, which has 19th-century coped gables and kneelers, along with original cement-roughcast chimney stacks.

The house is two storeys high and consists of two bays with flanking gabled wings, forming a hall with cross wings. The central recessed section has a two-bay design with a 19th-century panelled and glazed door set in an original pointed chamfered arch, complete with a hoodmould, although it has undergone significant restoration in the 20th century. The windows in the hall and wings are styled like 17th-century stone mullions, featuring two, three, and four lights, some of which have had their mullions removed. All windows have moulded sills and dripmoulds.

An unusual feature of the right wing is a projecting upper-floor left return wall supported by corbels. Both wings are equipped with large stepped external chimney stacks. The left wing's return wall has 20th-century windows in plain reveals, while the rear extensions contain large 20th-century windows. Inside the right wing, a former external pointed-arched doorway has recently been uncovered, resembling the entrance doorway, which, along with the consistent thickness of the walls, suggests that the hall and wings were built as a single structure. There is a blocked inglenook in the ground-floor room on the right and a rear staircase in the style of the 17th century. This building is an extremely interesting and rare example of a hall-house, which is more commonly found in the southern part of Cumbria. The former stable to the right, now used as a warden's house, is not of interest.

Local climate

St Michael's House sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,560 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 99% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 99% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 18 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 83% of listed buildings. Of these, 7 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 7 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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