Helsfell Hall was a country house near

Kentrigg Kentrigg is a northern suburb of Kendal, Cumbria, England. By road, Kentrigg is located north of the centre of Kendal and southeast of Burneside. It contains the Carus Green Golf Club, which separates it from Burneside just to the northwest. ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

. That part of the building which survives, and is now used as a barn, is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The house was built in the 16th century probably for Robert Briggs. The hall is mentioned in Cornelia Nicholson's ''The Annals of Kendal'' who documents that the seat of the Briggs family was "once a place of considerable importance." During the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

in the 1640s, the Briggs family fought on the Parliamentary side (Colonel Edward Briggs was a magistrate). After the war the Philipsons of Hollin Hall, who were Royalists, stripped the Briggs family of all their local possessions, including Helsfell Hall, which was left to become derelict.

References

{{coord, 54.3376, N, 2.7706, W, region:GB-BKM_type:landmark, display=title Country houses in Cumbria Grade II listed buildings in Cumbria