Storrs Hall Hotel Windermere (geograph 3788372)

Storrs Hall is a hotel on the banks of

Windermere Windermere (sometimes tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in length, and almost 1 mile (1.5 km) at its wides ...

in Storrs in the Lake District,

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. C ...

, England. The hotel, a Grade II* listed

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

mansion, is also home to the National Trust-owned folly the "Temple" on the end of a stone jetty on Windermere. Situated in the Lake District, Storrs Hall sits alongside the Windermere. It stands in seventeen acres of grounds and woodland. The mansion was first built in the 1790s by Sir John Legard, a Yorkshire landowner. After 14 years of owning the building, Sir John Legard became increasingly crippled by gout, and eventually sold Storrs Hall in 1804. The new owner of Storrs Hall was John Bolton, born in Ulverston in 1756, who was a rich man and one of the wealthiest men of his class. He extended the mansion and created a park. John Bolton was a Cumbrian who made a fortune as a Liverpool slave trader. He bought Storrs Hall with some of the proceeds and used the residence to entertain in style, holding regattas on the lake which were attended by Wordsworth and Sir Walter Scott amongst others. Elizabeth Bolton died in 1848 and the hall passed to her nephew Reverend

Thomas Staniforth Thomas Staniforth (1735–1803) was an English slave-trader, merchant and politician. He was originally from Sheffield, but spent most of his life in Liverpool. Staniforth was the son of Samuel Staniforth Esq. and Alethea Macro of Darnall Hall ...

. Thomas was the son of former Lord Mayor of London Samuel Staniforth and grandson of

, also former mayor and slave trader. Staniforth moved into the hall in 1859 after retiring from his parish and lived there until he passed in 1887. As he never had any children the estate was sold off in lots. Between 1940 and 1944, Storrs Hall (which had previously been used both as a girls' school and as a youth hostel) played host to the staff and boys of

St Hugh's School, Woodhall Spa , established = 1925 , type = Preparatory day and boarding school , religious_affiliation = Anglican , head_label = Headmaster , head = Jeremy Wyld , chair_label = Chairman ...

, who were evacuated from their own buildings amidst the airfields of Lincolnshire during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Today, Storrs Hall is a 4 star hotel.

In Literature

* A plate showing the hall appeared in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832 (Artist, Harwood - Engraved by Tombleson), accompanied by a poetical illustration entitled 'Storrs, Windermere Lake' by

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...

(L. E. L.) to which she adds the following remarks: ** The calm and picturesque scenery of the Lake of Windermere might awake a thousand far more romantic visions than that of the return of the first warm feelings of youth. Shut out as it were from the world, and enshrined in delicious seclusion; here might the weary heart dream itself away, and find the freshness of the spring-time of the spirit return upon it. Here, at the mansion of Colonel John Bolton—a circumstance which gives interest to the plate—did the late Mr. Canning retire from the whirl of public affairs; and, to use the words of Fisher's Illustrations of Lancashire, "here was restored, in some measure, the elasticity of a mind, whose lofty energies were ultimately, and for our country we may say prematurely, exhausted in the preservation of a nation's welfare."

References

External links

British Listed Buildings - Storrs Hall
Georgian architecture in England Grade II* listed buildings in Cumbria Hotels in Cumbria Windermere, Cumbria {{Cumbria-struct-stub

In Literature

See also

References

External links