Johnby Hall

Johnby Hall is first mentioned in 1200, and there are records of it being sold in 1300 and again in 1326, which is probably the time when the defensive tower, which now forms the main part of the house, was built. In 1583, William Musgrave and Isabel Martindale had the current house built around the existing tower, adding a vaulted extension and the staircase tower. The building was modified in 1747, with the addition of a new central doorway and sash windows, and in 1783 the building was absorbed into the Greystoke Estate. Further modifications to the building were made in 1897, when Maud Leyborne-Popham installed a new doorway, replaced the sash windows with large moulded windows…

Johnby Hall is built around a tower house, standing three storeys tall, built of pink sandstone rubble, It bears an hourglass-shaped inscription over the entrance, recording its construction by William Musgrave and Isabel Martindale, who added apartments and a hall to the original tower, giving the building its current L plan. The ground floor is barrel vaulted, and the roof of the stairway features ribbed umbrella vaulting reminiscent of that found at nearby Carlisle Cathedral. Next to the main building, and linked to it by a later passageway, is a bastle known as Kelly House. Its entrance, reached by an external flight of stairs, is dated 1637 and bears the initials WM and GM, for the…