England · Ruin
Workington Hall
Workington Hall (also called Curwen Hall) is a fortified medieval tower house and later country house on the northeast outskirts of Workington, Cumbria. The core dates to c.1404 with an earlier peel tower (1362) and significant late-18th-century additions; it is a Grade I listed building and today survives as a ruin. Mary, Queen of Scots spent a night here in 1568 after crossing the Solway Firth.
Its prime
1785
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1785
What Workington Hall looked like in its prime.
Low, rectilinear fortified stone house with a dominant central three-storey frontage: a tall semicircular arched main entrance set beneath two stacked arched window openings, and a square peel tower rising immediately behind; a long ashlar range extends to the right with a pair of tall pointed-arch traceried windows, and lower service ranges to the left. Pale grey-buff sandstone and coursed masonry, with crenellated parapets and pitched roofs capping the ranges, presenting a coherent, roofed silhouette in its prime.
Its story
The story of Workington Hall.
The Peel Tower of 1362 and the House of 1404
Workington Hall, sometimes called Curwen Hall, sits on the north-eastern outskirts of Workington in Cumbria. A peel tower was built on the site in 1362, and the house itself dates from around 1404, raised as a fortified tower house.
Mary, Queen of Scots' First Night in England, May 1568
After the defeat of her forces at the Battle of Langside, Mary, Queen of Scots crossed the Solway Firth in 1568 disguised as an ordinary woman and came ashore at Workington. Her companion Lord Herries knew the family of Henry Curwen, and so Mary spent her first night in England as an honoured guest at Workington Hall. From the hall she wrote a letter to Elizabeth I of England. On 18 May 1568, after a day at Cockermouth, she was escorted to Carlisle Castle. She was 25 years old.
John Carr, Thomas White and John Christian Curwen, 1780s–1828
Additions to the house were carried out by John Carr in the 1780s, and the gardens were laid out by Thomas White at about the same time.
The lord of the manor at Workington in the early nineteenth century was John Christian Curwen, born John Christian, who inherited the hall from Eldred Curwen in 1790 and took the Curwen name. He sat as Member of Parliament for Carlisle from 1786 to 1812 and again from 1816 to 1820, then for Cumberland from 1820 to 1828. Workington changed radically, both economically and socially, over the years he was lord of the manor, from 1783 to 1828.
Requisition, Fire and Ruin, 1929–1951
The hall remained the Curwen family home until 1929, when it passed by marriage to the Chance family. At the start of the Second World War it was requisitioned by the War Office, and it suffered a serious fire while troops were billeted there. After the war the family handed the building over to Workington Borough Council so that it could serve as a town hall, but the conversion was never carried out.
The hall was listed Grade I on 6 June 1951 and is also a scheduled monument. It survives as a ruin.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1785.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Workington Hall, including 2 interiors: peel tower interior chamber, great hall (interior) seen from the traceried windows. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Workington Hall.
The families that held Workington Hall for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Curwen
Family home of the Curwens until 1929; Mary, Queen of Scots was Henry Curwen's family's guest in 1568.
Chance
Passed to the Chance family by marriage in 1929.
