Hackthorpe Hall

Hackthorpe is a mile south of Clifton and Lowther Station, and short of two miles from Lowther Castle. The name is derived from the Scandinavian Haki, who settled here. The manor remained in the hands of one Gamel long after the Conquest, held of the Barons of Kendal by the service of drengage. The manor afterwards passed into the hands of the de Stricklands, one of which, in the 35th of Edward III., obtained a licence to impark his woods at Hackthorpe, in return for services in the wars in France. It continued in their hands till 1535, when it was sold to the Lowthers.

The Elizabethan manor house was erected subsequently, and is now in use as a comfortable farm residence to the Hackthorpe Hall Farm. Sir John Lowther writes of it: "My grandfather, Sir Christopher Lowther, built Hackthorpe Hall, which he provided as a jointure house for his second wife." And again: "For Hackthorpe, while I lived there after my marriage in my father's life, I built the out stable, and bought houses and land in the Towngate." That was in 1637. Over the doorway are the Lowther arms.