Coop House, near Netherby in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, England, is a small building by the River Esk, erected about 1772 as part of a salmon fishery project, and restored in the 1990s by the

Landmark Trust The Landmark Trust is a British architectural conservation, building conservation charitable organization, charity, founded in 1965 by John Smith (Conservative politician), Sir John and Lady Smith, that rescues buildings of historic interest or ...

. It is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

; it is described in the listing as a

folly tower A folly tower is a tower that has been built as an architectural folly, that is, constructed for ornamental rather than practical reasons. Folly towers are common in Great Britain and Ireland, and often do have some practical value as landmarks, or ...

History and description

It is situated on the south bank of the River Esk and west of Netherby Hall. The Revd Robert Graham of Netherby Hall made many improvements to his estate, and endeavoured to establish a salmon fishery, which involved building a weir in the river in 1770, and creating coops, which may have been holding pens for the fish. Coop House was built about 1772, probably as a vantage point for the salmon fishery. The weir collapsed in floods; an improved version designed by the civil engineer

James Brindley James Brindley (1716 – 27 September 1772) was an English engineer. He was born in Tunstead, Derbyshire, and lived much of his life in Leek, Staffordshire, becoming one of the most notable engineers of the 18th Century. Born in the Peak ...

also collapsed in 1782."Coop House: History"
''The Landmark Trust''. Retrieved 24 March 2023. The building is of red sandstone, and it originally consisted of one room with a projecting bay to view the river. Sir James Graham in the early 19th century added the flanking towers, each with a tall room on the ground floor and a small room above. After the failure of the weir it is thought to have been usually unoccupied. From the late 19th century it was a cottage for estate workers; in the 1930s it was a home for a shepherd and his family. It was later vacated, and by the 1980s it was collapsing. In 1992, the

obtained a lease for the property from Sir Charles Graham, and from 1994 there was restoration, directed by the architect Rosalind Taylor. It is now a

holiday let A vacation rental is the renting out of a furnished apartment, house, or professionally managed resort-condominium complex on a temporary basis to tourists as an alternative to a hotel. The term ''vacation rental'' is mainly used in the US. Othe ...

."Coop House: Restoration"
''The Landmark Trust''. Retrieved 24 March 2023.

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Coop House Netherby Grade II* listed buildings in Cumbria Landmark Trust properties in England Folly towers in England

History and description

See also

References

External links