Fergushill Country House, Kirklinton, Cumbria - Castle Summerson Wright

 

FEATURED PROPERTY

Fergushill Kirklinton, Cumbria

 
Fergushill

Fergushill is a most beguiling essay in Gothic Revival, fittingly attributed with the appellation of Strawberry Hill Gothick after Walpole, and singular in its distillation of the Gothic manner.

Dating from the 18th century, the original cottage ornée was remodelled in 1823 into its threedimensional composition, probably by William Burn, for John Yule Esq., Land Steward to the Grahams of Netherby. A noted agricultural 'improver' and arbiter of taste, Yule valorised the aesthetics of domestic scale popularised by Walpole and Repton. Emblematic, the 'Yule Plan' of 1823 illustrates a small scale designed landscape unifying house, court, garden and farmland, laid out in serpentine form. At its nucleus, Fergushill, a belvedere, commanding expansive prospects over the Vale of Lyne, from which John Yule could peruse his pantheon of stewardship.

A conglomerate house with added masses in 1832 and 1841, Fergushill is a picturesque composite of asymetrical elevations, projecting bays, bargeboarded gables and tall cylinderical chimney stacks, arcaded with pitch pine columns. Built of hammer dressed red sandstone with later additions in brick, Fergushill is a surfeit of architectural motifs, combining inflexions from the full development of the Gothic, from Walpole and Repton, through to Pugin and Ruskin, a pluralist ensemble of Tudor drip moulds, Elizabethan mullions, Perpendicular lancets, Venetian arches and Jacobean heraldic shields in relief.

The well-preserved interior is no less detailed, with a fine display of Gothic fireplaces, panelled doors, window shutters and applied tracery. Noteable set pieces include the Drawing Room with vertical sliding shutter in Gothic window arch, Gothic sandstone fireplace, castellated Gothic pelmet and Gothic fleuron frieze in high relief, leading to separate Library and Muniment chambers. Redolent with architectural minutae, the memorial brass spur knocker dedicated to Ruskin is an original Keswick School piece.

The house is augmented by its court, the former stables of 1832, with retention of show-front, carriage gateway entrance and interior Gothic stall arches. On the north side, a contemporary white room has been created within the fabric of the former stable, with adjoining courtyard kitchen, for cinema, gallery or entertainment use.

Fergushill is framed by its landscape gardens, with sweeping lawns to foreground, scaled out to massed rhododendrons, serpentine plantation, and orchard. Yule's original plan of footpaths have been revived, complemented by contemporary interventions including a Gothic octagonal summer pavilion, sunken ornamental pond and landscape installations in the manner of Ian Hamilton Finlay. The Grade II Listed house and stables have been subject to refurbishment, with further opportunity to restore the property to its 1832 condition.

A remarkable example of type, Fergushill is sited within the historic tract of rural borderlands to the north of Carlisle, a picturesque hamlet centred around the Norman church of St Cuthbert noted by Pevsner, and a locale with a rich provenance of ducal country seats including Netherby Hall and Scaleby Castle, supported by scattered settlements of character, and excellent communications to the M6, Lake District National Park and Scotland.

Please contact Shaun Castle on 01697 742833.

 
 

© 2009–2010. Castle Summerson Wright is a trading style of Castle and Summerson-Wright Limited. Registered in England & Wales N°. 6837459 Registered Office: St. Martin's Hall, Front Street, Brampton, Cumbria CA8 1NT

Privacy statement | Terms & Conditions