Martholme is a grade I listed medieval

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

standing on the banks of the River Calder from

Great Harwood Great Harwood is a town in the Hyndburn district of Lancashire, England, located north east of Blackburn and adjacent to the Ribble Valley. Great Harwood is the major conurbation of the 'Three Towns'; the three towns being Great Harwood, Clayton- ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England and north-east of Blackburn.

History

In the 13th century, the house belonged to the de Fitton family. It was passed through marriage to the Hesketh family. Parts of the current building date from Medieval times. Additions and alterations took place in 1561, when the gatehouse was rebuilt and 1607. The house was rebuilt in 1577 by Thomas Hesketh (d. 1588),

High Sheriff of Lancashire The High Sheriff of Lancashire is an ancient officer, now largely ceremonial, granted to Lancashire, a county in North West England. High Shrievalties are the oldest secular titles under the Crown, in England and Wales. The High Sheriff of Lanca ...

for 1563. He added an east wing and a

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mos ...

. Later work was carried out during the time of his son Robert Hesketh (d. 1620), High Sheriff in 1599 and MP for

in 1597, who added a second arched gateway. After his death his last wife Jane married Sir Richard de Hoghton and left Martholme to be leased out to tenant farmers. With the death of Jane ownership passed to her son Thomas but the Heskeths never reoccupied the house itself. After the Civil War the Hesketh family, as Catholics, were heavily fined, losing much of their land at Great Harwood. As a result, Martholme was neglected. It is now a private residence but much of the house has been demolished. It has been designated a Grade I

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 ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

Architecture

Martholme is constructed, to a T-shaped floor plan, of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

rubble, now rendered, with a slate roof. It was originally surrounded by a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

, of which there are still traces. The 16th-century gatehouse is about south of the house. It too is built of sandstone, with slate roofs. It is rectangular and measures approximately by . The entrance is a round stone archway. The building has three

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

s and is on two storeys.

designated the house a Grade I

on 11 July 1966. The Grade I designation—the highest of the three grades—is for buildings "of exceptional interest, sometimes considered to be internationally important". The gatehouse has received a separate Grade II* designation.

References

;Footnotes ;Bibliography * *

History

Architecture

See also

References

Further reading