A more detailed history of Sedgwick part 3 
​A collection of information from Parish records and internet research ​
​The Wakefields 1850-1939

John Wakefield I had established his Gunpowder Mill in Sedgwick in the 1760s and later that century built the original Sedgwick House just to north of the works, overlooking the River (see map right).  

​Possibly Old Sedgwick House

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After his death in 1811, his son John Wakefield II (1761-1829)  succeeded him and it was his young daughter Isabella who created a separate landscaped garden on the riverbanks at Basingyll in the grounds of the gunpowder incorporating mill. John II died in 1829. 

​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.

In the 1861 census (below) John Wakefield is described as being "on a journey"  but his sister and the servants and staff are shown. ​

John III's  son and heir, William Henry who had grown up at Sedgwick House, was the Mayor of Kendal at the time and had married Augusta Catherine Haggarty a Liverpool Merchant's daughter and they lived in Prizett, in the family home he had built in 1858. ​

On John III's death in 1866, the family estate passed to William. He and Augusta  had 7 children, including Jacob, who would later inherit the family seat after him, William Junior, who became a first class cricketer and Mary Augusta, an enigmatic musician, author, suffragette, lecturer who pioneered rural music education and founded the Mary Wakefield Festival in Kendal. (for more about Mary Wakefield Click here and William click here).​

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

William also built extensively to develop the estate. The whole village became very much part of the Wakefield estate.  From the 1871 census, it is clear to see that the new Sedgwick House was at the heart of the village - most buildings in the parish had a connection to the big house either being owned by the Wakefields or a homes for their employees......

An ice house was built (and can still be seen in fields on the east side of the canal). Back Lane which originally came into the village in front of Old Row, was rebuilt along the canal embankment to free up space for the estate buildings.

The estate also included a Cricket Ground, Bowling Green and Tennis Courts. In front of the cottages opposite the postoffice, residents gathered to play quoits. ​

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.
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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

William Wakefield died in 1889, leaving the family seat to his 29-year old son Jacob who continued the family's influence in the village. 

​In 1901, the population of the village was 221.


For more information about Sedgwick in The Great war - click here - The Crosscrake War memorial ​

For more information about Sedgwick in WW2- click here and for Sedgwick since WW2 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. 

Drone footage of Sedgwick House ​