On Saturday evening we visited Higham Hall, on Bassenthwaite, for an evening of music with Eden Baroque.
Higham Hall is a fascinating building in the Neo Gothic style with turrets and castellations. The Hall was designed and built by Thomas Hoskins in the early 19th century. Nicholas Pevsner described the Hall as "a rarity in the county".
I have a great affection for Higham Hall, I first visited as an A-Level student for French only weekends. Back then the Hall was rather dilapidated, and very cold I seen to remember! But it was a wonderful place to study French and meet young people from all over Cumbria. Years later, I was working in Cumbria and we used to have meetings at Higham Hall fairly regularly. This was in the mid 1990s and the Hall had undergone much renovation. I loved visiting and admiring the gorgeous architecture; somewhat incongruos so close to Bassenthwaite Lake and the mountains. I've also stayed a couple of times in the Gatehouse, and enjoyed exploring the area. So, I was delighted to visit with Chris, and show him a building with so many happy memories.
The Hall has been sympathetically restored and there are some lovely architectural features including this window which we stopped to admire.
Higham Hall has attracted some famous visitors over the years. Evelyn Waugh visited in 1926, on a driving tour to Scotland, He stayed two nights and wrote in his diary of a house "with turrets and castellations and a perfectly lovely view across the lake to a mountain called Skiddaw". It is also believed that Arthur Ransome was a regular visitor and that he enjoyed fishing the Derwent with his hosts.
During the 1890s, Melvyn Bragg’s great-grandfather Wilson Bragg was the coachman at Higham, under Canon George Hoskins, vicar of Setmurthy. It was almost 90 years later that Melvyn Bragg gave a talk at Higham to an appreciative audience on his book about Wigton, Speak For England. How proud Melvyn's great-grandfather would be.
Higham Hall is now thriving as an adult education centre and offers a wide and eclectic mix of courses and events. I hope now we've visisted we'll be back soon.
