Johnby Hall

History

The core structure dates from 1583, when a manor house was built onto the remains of an earlier medieval tower house designed for defence against Border raiders. The Duke of Norfolk bought Johnby Hall in 1783, and it has stayed in the Howard family since. Around 1900, a family member remembered as Great-Aunt Maud carried out restoration work that introduced Arts and Crafts details, and the house was given Grade II* listed status in 1967.

Architecture

The hall combines a fourteenth-century pele tower with sixteenth-century manor house additions, a layout typical of fortified Cumbrian houses built for both comfort and defence. Later alterations, including Arts and Crafts touches added around 1900, sit alongside the older fabric largely unchanged.

Gardens & grounds

The grounds include a seventeenth-century walled orchard and the remains of an eighteenth-century water garden, shared today with free-range chickens, rare-breed pigs and red squirrels.