Location: Off A591 & A590, Sizergh, Cumbria Map
Tel. 015395 60951
Open: Apr- Oct: Sun- Thu
Sizergh Castle & Garden is a castle and manor house and extensive
gardens in Sizergh, Cumbria in northern England. It is approximately
four miles south of Kendal and is a National Trust Site of
Conservation.
The Gervase Deincourt family came into
possession of the land through a gift from King Henry II in the
1170s. With the marriage of Elizabeth Deincourt to Sir William de
Stirkeland in 1239, the entire estate passed into the hands of the
Strickland family, who owned it until it was donated to the National
Trust in 1950. The family still occupies the premises.
The
centerpiece of the medieval castle is the 14th-century Pele Tower (a
kind of keep) surrounded by Tudor House. The tower is over 20 meters
high and its walls are 3 meters thick. Around 1450 the Great Hall
and two other wings of the building were added, making life more
comfortable. In Elizabethan times, the building was fitted with oak
furniture and oak wall and ceiling paneling, some of which were
decorated with elaborate inlay work. Some of the furnishings are now
in the Victoria and Albert Museum. At the end of the 20th century,
the museum began restoring the panelling. As early as 1770, the
great hall was expanded in the Georgian style.
Like many
other medieval castles, Sizergh Castle is said to have a ghost. It
is said that the lady of the castle starved to death after her
husband locked her in a room and left the castle for a long time. It
is said that you can occasionally hear her screaming.
The
entire site covers 6.4 square kilometers (1600 hectares), the
innermost part is the garden with two lakes and a recently awarded
rock garden. This property dates from 1336 when an authorization
from Edward III. Sir Walter Strickland permitted the land around
Sizergh to be surrounded as his exclusive park. The rock garden,
added in 1926, is the largest limestone rock garden owned by the
National Trust. Part of the National Collection of hardy ferns, the
garden is known for its design by planting the plants with different
leaf colors and shapes.
A number of paintings can be seen in
the castle, including a portrait of Queen Mary and her daughter
Princess Louisa Maria by Alexis Simon Belle.
Every year from
April to October, parts of the building and the gardens are open to
the public for a fee.
