Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
we are members of Historic Houses (HH) and get to visit some fantastic family homes. Martholme near us was one of them. Originally the manor house of Great Harwood, Martholme is a stone medieval house. It has a timber framed kitchen range (stone clad 1577), Elizabethan gatehouse, walled outer courtyard and dry moat. Martholme is referred to several times in Gerards Herbal as John Gerard was a visitor to the house. On a bleak day we were welcomed by a member of the family and given a personal tour. Terrific. The de Fitton family owned the house in the 13th Century until it passed by marriage into the Hesketh family and it was Thomas Hesketh who had the house rebuilt in 1577 adding on an east wing and a gatehouse. Parts of the house still date back to medieval times. Constructed of sandstone rubble now rendered and with a slate roof, Martholme was originally surrounded by a moat of which there are still traces. Hesketh’s son, Robert added another arched gateway and after his death and after the marriage of his second wife Jane to one of the de Hoghton family, the house went into his ownership. It appears that the house was never lived in by the Heskeths and was leased out to tenant farmers. After the Civil War the Heskeths were very heavily fined because of their Catholic faith and Martholme grew into a state of disrepair. Although parts of the house have been demolished the part that is left has been lovingly restored by the present owners and it is now a private residence. The gatehouse now used as a residence by the father of the family. Here service doors..... Here a simply ginormous fireplace..... and upstairs part of the medieval structure covered over in the various rebuildings and 'improvements'.
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Keith & Frances SmithArchives
August 2023
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