Gawthorpe Hall and Surrounding Balustrade
GAWTHORPE HALL AND SURROUNDING BALUSTRADE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1237626
- Date first listed:
- 01-Apr-1953
- List Entry Name:
- Gawthorpe Hall and Surrounding Balustrade
- Statutory Address:
- GAWTHORPE HALL AND SURROUNDING BALUSTRADE
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
 |
Buildings |
 |
Scheduled monuments |
 |
Parks and gardens |
 |
Battlefields |
 |
Shipwrecks |
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1237626
- Date first listed:
- 01-Apr-1953
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 12-Feb-1985
- List Entry Name:
- Gawthorpe Hall and Surrounding Balustrade
- Statutory Address 1:
- GAWTHORPE HALL AND SURROUNDING BALUSTRADE
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- GAWTHORPE HALL AND SURROUNDING BALUSTRADE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Lancashire
- District:
- Burnley (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Ightenhill
- National Grid Reference:
- SD 80682 34089
History
In the 1850s, the owner of Gawthorpe Hall, Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, befriended Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855), introducing her to Elizabeth Gaskell, her fellow novelist and future biographer. It is thought that a chill caught whilst walking at Gawthorpe contributed to Charlotte’s death in 1855.
Details
SD 83 SW IGHTENHILL GAWTHORPE
4/15 Gawthorpe Hall and surrounding
balustrade (formally listed
1.4.1953 as Gawthorpe Hall and
GV Great Barn)
- I
Country house, 1600-1605, for Rev. Lawrence Shuttleworth, possibly to plans influenced by Robert Smythson; altered c.1850-60 by Sir Charles Barry for Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth; now museum. Coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings. This house is the only example in this county of the late Elizabethan type associated with Smythson (e.g. Wollaton, Hardwicke, Bolsover, Worksop). Relevant features of the building are: the compact plan within a rectangle, surrounding a tower (which is off-centre and possibly of medieval origin); the high 3-storey elevations over a basement kitchen (basement exposed at rear making 4 storeys) with the tower rising above; the symmetrical 5-bay facade composed of full-height porch and flanking semi-octagonal bays; and the internal plan placing the great hall not in the centre but to one side. Original interior features of particular interest are the screen and gallery in the hall, the panelling and plaster work in the dining room (now drawing room), overmantels in two 1st floor chambers, and the long gallery on the 2nd floor. (For full information and other references see: VCH Lancs; Country Life 10 May 1913; Shuttleworth Accounts 4 vols Transactions of the Chetham Society, 1856; Mark Girouard Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House (2nd edn,1983, pp.191-2); D.R. Buttress Gawthorpe Hall, National Trust 1979; and Pevsner's North Lancashire.) Included in the item is the surrounding C19 balustrade c.2 metres from the walls of the house which is of stone in Jacobean style openwork, with obelisk finials on the pedestals.
Listing NGR: SD8068234089
This listing was enhanced in 2016 to mark the bicentenary of Charlotte Bronte’s birth.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 414847
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Buttress, D R, Gawthorpe Hall, (1979)
Farrer, W, Brownbill, J, The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, (1911)
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Lancashire, (1969)
Girouard, M, Robert Smythson and the Elizabethan Country House, (1983), 191-192
Transactions of the Chetham Society in Transactions of the Chetham Society, (1856)
Country Life in 10 May, (1913)
Other
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England, Part 25 Lancashire,
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 05-Jun-2026 at 17:41:39.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.