A Grade I Listed building located in Lancaster, Ashton Hall was originally the estate of Roger of Poitou of the Barony of Lancashire, who acquired a great number of lands following the Norman conquest of England. Sometime after this, it became the ancestral home of the De Coucy family, and the surviving portion of the hall was built by Edmund Lawrence in the 14th Century.\u00a0 His contribution to Ashton Hall is tower house, which was constructed with red sandstone that was quarried locally with a slate roof.\u00a0 One of the interesting features is that, instead of perpendicular towers, Ashton Hall\u2019s towers on the older part of the building are set diagonally.\u00a0 Another interesting feature to survive are the crenellated parapets.<\/p>\n
When the De Coucy family line ran out, it passed in the female line to John De Coupland.\u00a0 Also known as John Copeland, his claim to fame was capturing King David II of Scotland at the Battle of Nevill\u2019s Cross in 1436.\u00a0 The hall passed several more times after this.\u00a0 It went first to the Lawrence family, the descendents of Edmund, but was lost sometime after a Lawrence killed a favourite of King Henry VII in a duel had had to flee. From there, it passed to the Butlers of Radcliffe and to the Gerards of Bromley.\u00a0 During this time, Ashton Hall played host to two kings, first to King James I and, thirty-four years later, to his grandson, King Charles II.<\/p>\n
The hall then passed to James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, in 1698 when he married Elizabeth Gerard.\u00a0 After he was stabbed to death in a duel in 1712, she continued to live at Ashton Hall.\u00a0 One interesting fact about her is that she was friends with Dr. Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver\u2019s Travels and A Modest Proposal.\u00a0 Her bedroom on the first floor of the south wing is known as \u201cThe Duchess\u2019s Bedroom.\u201d\u00a0 Up until the time the hall was purchased by the Hamilton\u2019s, it was believed that there was a curse on the property as the previous owners had their family lines run out as they did not produce any male heirs.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the Hamilton family sold the house to Le Gendre Nicholas Starkie in 1853, who had virtually all over the house except the surviving tower rebuilt in 1856.\u00a0 The new building was constructed in a Gothic style with grey limestone on a design by William Le Gendre Starkie.\u00a0 Starkie\u2019s use of the Gothic style extends to carved stone fireplace as well as the timber doors and door cases.\u00a0 The parapets on the newer edition are similar to those on the south tower, but the contrast in styles as well as the use of different stone is striking.<\/p>\n
Ashton Hall remained in the Starkie family until 1884 when it was purchased by James Williamson, a linoleum manufacturer.\u00a0 The next year, Williamson became the High Sheriff for Lancashire and a year after that, he was elected to Parliament for Lancaster, a seat that he held for six years until 1892.\u00a0 In 1895, he was elevated to peerage and styled 1st Baron Ashton, taking his name from the estate.\u00a0 On his death in 1931, Ashton Hall was purchased by William Pye and his sons.\u00a0 At a later point, it came into the possession of the Lancaster Golf Club, where it became the club house and offers views of several holes as well as being for hire to weddings and other special events.<\/p>\n
Source: https:\/\/anglotopia.net\/british-history\/great-british-buildings-ashton-hall-lancashire\/<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Grade I Listed building located in Lancaster, Ashton Hall was originally the estate of Roger of Poitou of the Barony of Lancashire, who acquired a great number of lands following the Norman conquest of England. Sometime after this, it became the ancestral home of the De Coucy family, and the surviving portion of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_stc_notifier_status":"","_stc_notifier_sent_time":"","_stc_notifier_request":false,"_stc_notifier_prevent":false,"_stc_subscriber_keywords":"","_stc_subscriber_search_areas":"","nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"authors":[],"root_lawrence":[],"tags_lawrence":[],"media_lawrence":[],"history_lawrence":[],"families_lawrence":[],"eras_lawrence":[],"class_list":["post-10062","wp_post","type-wp_post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wp_post\/10062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wp_post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wp_post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10062"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wp_post\/10062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10065,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wp_post\/10062\/revisions\/10065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=10062"},{"taxonomy":"root_lawrence","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/root_lawrence?post=10062"},{"taxonomy":"tags_lawrence","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags_lawrence?post=10062"},{"taxonomy":"media_lawrence","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_lawrence?post=10062"},{"taxonomy":"history_lawrence","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/history_lawrence?post=10062"},{"taxonomy":"families_lawrence","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/families_lawrence?post=10062"},{"taxonomy":"eras_lawrence","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newearthvillage.com\/spriggs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eras_lawrence?post=10062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}