By the 1851 census (below), his son John Wakefield III (1794-1866) having been born in Kendal, was still living in the original Sedgwick House. He had been educated at Glasgow University and had married a Miss Mary Macrthur who had died by this time, leaving John living with son William, daughter Margaret, sister Mary and many household staff.
John Wakefield III continued to acquire more and more land in the village as he increased the size of the family estate. In 1853 bought the Hill Top Farm estate.
He was the High Sheriff of Westmorland when the portrait to the left was painted in 1853. |
The New Sedgwick House 1868 William Henry oversaw the transformation of the family's estate starting with the construction of a new family home, new impressive modern house, built slightly to the south-east of the original. It was the last house to designed in the Gothic revival or Victorian neo-gothic style, by the fashionable Lancaster firm of Paley and Austin. Paley and Austin also designed local churches and the religious influence is clearly visible in the external and internal features of Sedgwick House. It is made of attractive light coloured sandstine, which was transported into the village by canal - a tramway was built to carry the stone from Sedgwick Hill Bridge to the construction site through where the cricket pitch is now. It also ashlar and granite dressings and the original roof was green slate. The main part of the house is in two wings at right-angles to each other, forming an L-shaped plan. The wings are in two storeys plus attics, and both have five bays. The entrance wing faces north, and has a projecting central four-storey battlemented tower, with a turret rising to a higher level. On each side of the tower are two dormers, and in front of it is a porte-cochère. There is an extension on the left side of the entrance wing. The garden wing faces west, its outer bays projecting forward and containing two-storey canted bow windows. To the rear of the house were service wings, which incorporate a clock tower. Inside the house is a full-height entrance hall with a hammerbeam roof, reputedly built for entertainment and music. Under the staircase in the hall is a large fireplace with pairs of granite colonnettes, with a lintel bearing the inscription BE JUST AND FEAR NOT The ground floor rooms contain elaborate decorative plasterwork. It was completed in 1868 and the old house demolished the following year. The Estate |
Wellheads was the Home Farm, Carex Farm the Dairy Farm, Sedgwick Cottage the Estate Manager's office, Overslade the Laundry and the buildings at Wakelyn, the Mews and exercise yard. They also provided cottages which housed employees of the family.
The school that the family had built for locals in 1820 on Cooper Hill was rebuilt beyond the aqueduct (the current Old School House) and a reading room and club room for public music making was also built. The club room was rebuilt and was later given to residents and is now Sedgwick Village Hall. |
William's eldest daughter, Mary, was a fascinating character - a talented musician, singer, composer and lecturer and acquaintance of many famous authors, poets and composers of the day. She founded the national music festival movement when she started the Wakefield Festival at Sedgwick House in 1885. For more information about Mary's life click here |
The Wakefield family moved out of the house shortly before World War II, when it was became a training centre for the National Fire Service. They never returned and after the war it used by Lancashire County Council as a school for children with special needs.
The building became a Grade II listed building in 1984. The school closed in 1987 and the building has since been converted into residential accommodation- by graphic and interior designer Malcolme Frank Thorburn. |
Sedgwick Village
Cumbria LA8 0JW |
|