Benson Hall, Scalthwaiterigg

Benson Hall Scalthwaiterigg occupies a site at the base of a low hill projecting from the much higher Benson Knott to the east. Today it is a farmhouse with little evidence of much age, and the house is itself hidden behind the buildings of a working farm, so it is not accessible to the public. The listing report makes it clear that at one point the hall here may have been a tower house of sorts, or a bastle, describing thick ground floor walls, a vaulted basement room, an entrance passage with drawbar holes, and a winding stair off this passage leading to the first floor. This assessment places a 16th century date to the hall, which measures about 14 metres by 11, although it has clearly been much extended and remodelled over the years, and the upper floors are more recent than this.

Benson Hall takes its name from the Benson family of Scalthwaiterigg, who were recorded in the 17th century. In the 13th century the lands of Scalthwaite were part of the barony of Kendal, which had been broken up into a number of different “fees”. The lands including Scalthwaite had passed through the hands of Peter de Bruce (d1272) and then to his daughter Margaret, married to Robert de Ros. By 1297 it was her son William de Ros who held the lands. Upon the death of his son Thomas in 1390, the lands passed by marriage to Sir William Parr (d1404). The Parrs remained lords over Scalthwaite until the death of William Parr in 1571. He was the brother of Queen Catherine Parr, and had been made Marquess of Northampton, perhaps the reason that the part of the fee escheating to the Crown was known as the Marquess fee. At this point Scalthwaite was granted to his widow, Helena Snakenborg, a Swedish lady in waiting of Queen Elizabeth I. As Helena lived until 1635, it was many years before they once more escheated to the crown, and then King Charles granted the fee to Sir John Lowther, whose descendants became earls of Lonsdale. Thomas Benson of Scalthwaiterigg, who purchased the lands of Ladyford in 1604 for £850, was therefore a tenant of Helena – albeit a wealthy one Ladyford, incidentally is a mile and a half north-west of Benson Hall, across the river. A burial in Bellingham churchyard records the dates (1621-1674) for Isabel, daughter of Charles Benson of Scalthwaiterigg. Thomas Jeffery’s map of Westmorland in 1770 shows “Benson Hall” by name, but all the maps I can find online that predate this do not show a settlement here at all – and seem to be derived from John Speeds map of the early 17th century! This suggests to me that the building may in fact date to the early 17th century, and perhaps to a partition of the Benson estate at around this time – but this is only speculation, and more information may be accessible through local research.