Gilsland Spa

Last updated

Gilsland Spa is the present-day name of a hotel at Gilsland, Cumbria, England. It is named from the sulphurous spring which issues from a cliff below the hotel.

Gilsland Spa in the early 19th century Gilsland Spa around 1810.jpg
Gilsland Spa in the early 19th century

The original hotel was called The Shaws, from an Old English word meaning a small woodland, and was built in the 1760s, [1] although the site and its surrounding farmland have been known by this name since at least 1603. Lord William Howard's map of the Barony of Gilsland of this date shows two buildings near the site of the hotel labelled "Two tenements called the Shaws". Very little is known about the first hotel but one contemporary drawing suggests that it may have had a tower in imitation of the type of fortified house known locally as a peel.

This original Shaws Hotel burned down spectacularly in 1859, and was replaced on a grander scale soon afterwards by G. G. Mounsey, a local landowner and first elected mayor of Carlisle. Around this time, Rose Hill railway station was renamed Gilsland, and the surrounding collection of hamlets became the village of Gilsland, but the hotel continued to be called The Shaws until it was leased to the Gilsland Spa Hotel and Hydro Company of South Shields in 1893. Expensive renovations, including an improved water supply, crippled this company financially, and it failed in 1900. The Co-operative Wholesale Society took over in 1901 to run it as a convalescent home, the Co-operative Group being principal shareholders in the business. [2] The present-day management welcome the use of its large car park by visitors wishing to enjoy the dramatic wooded gorge, and offer food, drink and accommodation. Gilsland Spa has a sister hotel, The Esplanade, in Scarborough, Yorkshire. The two hotels were sold by the Co-op in December 2017 and the new owners Northern Powerhouse Developments planned major refurbishments. [3] [4]

Gilsland Spa hotel frontage Gilsland Spa hotel frontage.jpg
Gilsland Spa hotel frontage

The hotel has been a popular resort since the eighteenth century. Susanna Blamire, the Cumbrian Muse, came to take the waters in the later part of the century and Walter Scott came here in "the season" of 1797 looking for a wife, and found one. The opening of the railway station in 1836 galvanised the village and during the later part of the 19th century and the early 20th, Gilsland was thronged with tourists, many of whom were working-class people from Tyneside. Reviewers of the hotel repeatedly stressed the free and easy way in which the different classes mixed. One of the main attractions, though for reasons no-one is prepared to admit, has been the Popping Stone, an enigmatic stone some half a mile from the hotel in a secluded glade, linked to various courtship and fertility rituals. Next to the stone was the Kissing Bush, an ancient hawthorn which died in the 1940s. These relics and two mineral springs (sulphurous and chalybeate) are situated along the network of wide footpaths known as the Home Walks which provide access to the rugged scenery of the hotel grounds. During its time the hotel has been a First World War military convalescent home and a Second World War maternity hospital and was known locally until recently as "The Home".

Related Research Articles

Spa, Belgium Municipality in French Community, Belgium

Spa is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium, whose name became an eponym for mineral baths with supposed curative properties.

Disneys Grand Californian Hotel & Spa Hotel at Disneyland Resort

Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is a hotel located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. The hotel was constructed as part of a major expansion of the Disneyland Resort in 2001. It was built by The Walt Disney Company and has been operated by The Walt Disney Company since its inception. This luxury hotel is designed to celebrate the early 20th Century Arts and Crafts era, showcasing the once-dominant architectural style of California. It also features a Disney Vacation Club wing that opened on September 23, 2009. The hotel has a private entrance to Disney California Adventure Park. In 2017, Disney remodeled the rooms, along with the lobby.

Llanwrtyd Wells Human settlement in Wales

Llanwrtyd Wells is a small town and community in mid Powys, Wales, in the historic county of Brecknockshire (Breconshire) on the Afon Irfon. The town is on the A483 between Llandovery and Builth Wells and is located near the pass between the Tywi and Irfon valleys. It is the smallest town in the United Kingdom.

Llandrindod Wells Human settlement in Wales

Llandrindod Wells, sometimes known colloquially as Llandod or Dod, is a town and community in Powys, within the historic boundaries of Radnorshire, Wales. It serves as the seat of Powys County Council and thus the administrative centre of Powys.

Leek Wootton Human settlement in England

Leek Wootton is a village in Warwickshire, England, approximately 2 miles south of Kenilworth and 2.5 miles north of Warwick. It lies in the triangle created by Kenilworth, Warwick and Leamington Spa.

River Irthing River in Cumbria, England

The River Irthing is a river in Cumbria, England and a major tributary of the River Eden. The name is recorded as Ard or Arden in early references. For the first 15 miles of its course it defines the border between Northumberland and Cumbria.

Dalhousie Castle

Dalhousie Castle is a castle in Cockpen, Midlothian, Scotland. Dalhousie Castle is situated near the town of Bonnyrigg, 8 miles (13 km) south of Edinburgh. The castle was the seat of the Earls of Dalhousie, the chieftains of Clan Ramsay.

Shap Village and civil parish in Cumbria, England

Shap is a linear village and civil parish located among fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, England, in the historic county of Westmorland. The parish had a population of 1,221 in 2001, increasing slightly to 1,264 at the 2011 Census.

Milecastle 48

Milecastle 48 , is a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall. Its remains lie near the village of Gilsland in Cumbria where it was historically known as "The King's Stables", owing to the well-preserved interior walls. Unusually a substantial section of stone stairs has survived within the milecastle. The two turrets associated with this milecastle have also survived as above-ground masonry.

Gilsland Village in Northumberland and Cumbria, England

Gilsland is a village in northern England about 20 miles (32 km) west of Hexham, and about 18 miles (29 km) east of Carlisle, which straddles the border between Cumbria and Northumberland. The village provides an amenity centre for visitors touring Hadrian's Wall and other features of historical interest in this area of rugged Border country, popularised by the Romantic novelist Sir Walter Scott.

Colony houses

The colony houses of Edinburgh were built between 1850 and 1910 as homes for artisans and skilled working-class families by philanthropic model dwellings companies. The first development was the Pilrig Model Buildings, near Leith Walk. Later developments across the city were built by the Edinburgh Cooperative Building Company Limited, founded in 1861. The founders of this company were influenced by the Reverend Dr. James Begg and the Reverend Dr. Thomas Chalmers, ministers of the Free Church of Scotland, who campaigned to improve the housing conditions of the poor.

Conishead Priory

Conishead Priory is a large Gothic Revival building on the Furness peninsula near Ulverston in Cumbria. The priory's name translates literally as "King's Hill Priory". Since 1976, the building has been occupied by a Buddhist community.

Mumps Hall was an inn at the confluence of the Poltross Burn and the River Irthing, a site now at the centre of the village of Gilsland in Cumbria.

Dundas Valley Conservation Area

Dundas Valley Conservation Area is located on the Niagara Escarpment in Dundas, Ontario, a constituent community of Hamilton, Ontario, and is owned and operated by the Hamilton Conservation Authority. Its 40-kilometre trail system provides a connection to the Bruce Trail. The area contains a trailhead of the Hamilton-Brantford-Cambridge Trails, Canada's first fully developed interurban multi-use trail system, which is a part of the Trans Canada Trail.

Kilmeadan Village in Munster, Ireland

Kilmeadan or Kilmeaden is a village in County Waterford, Ireland. It is on the R680 regional road. The town is 36km from Dungarvan and 8km from Waterford.

Holywell Green Village in West Yorkshire, England

Holywell Green is a village in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. The village is situated approximately 1.4 miles (2 km) south-west of Elland, 3.3 miles (5 km) south of Halifax and 3.9 miles (6 km) north-west of Huddersfield. Holywell Green is part of the Greetland and Stainland Ward of Calderdale Council.

Mawbray A village on the Cumbrian coast in England

Mawbray is a village in the civil parish of Holme St Cuthbert in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. Historically part of Cumberland. It is located on the Solway Plain, 5.2 miles (8.4 km) south west of Silloth, 7.9 miles (12.7 km) north of Maryport, and 25 miles (40 km) west of Carlisle. The B5300, known locally as the "coast road" runs to the west of the village.

Stobo Castle Castle in Scottish Borders, Scotland, UK

Stobo Castle is located at Stobo in the Scottish Borders, in the former county of Peeblesshire. The Manor of Stobo was originally owned by the Balfour family. It became the family seat of the Graham-Montgomery Baronets from 1767. The building of the present castle began in 1805 and was completed in 1811 under the supervision of architects Archibald and James Elliot. It is currently operated as a health spa. The house is protected as a category A listed building, while the grounds are included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland, the national listing of significant parks and gardens.

St Mary Magdalene’s Church is a small mid-Victorian Anglican church on an isolated hillside in north-east Cumbria, England. Dedicated to Jesus' companion Mary Magdalene, it is the parish church of Gilsland, but is almost a mile from the village and may have been intended as much for the use of visitors to the nearby Gilsland Spa hotel as for the village. It is noteworthy in that the founder, G.G. Mounsey, a local landowner and first elected mayor of Carlisle, published a detailed summary of his reasons for building the church and thus threw into relief some of the reasoning behind Victorian church building and restoration.

RAF Bridlington Royal Air Force base in Yorkshire, England

Royal Air Force Bridlington, or more simply RAF Bridlington, was a Royal Air Force station located in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, between 1929 and 1978. Several units operated at Bridlington, Air Gunnery Schools, Initial Training Wings, and an Air Sea Rescue launch unit, but the longest occupier, was No. 1104 Marine Craft Unit (MCU). The station consisted of various buildings across the town that were requisitioned for RAF use before and during the Second World War. Outside of this time, the RAF presence was mostly in the harbour area and as it was such a small unit, No. 1104 MCU was looked after by other RAF Stations nearby.

References

  1. ↑ Newcastle Courant, 17 September 1763: Advertisement for the sale of The Shaws estate, noting that "a suitable house for the reception of company visiting these wells may be built . . to great advantage to the owner"
  2. ↑ "Gilsland". VisitCumbria.com. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  3. ↑ "Ambitious deal struck for sale of historic hotel". Hexam Courant. 17 August 2017. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  4. ↑ "Ambitious £5.5m scheme revealed for hotel near Brampton". News & Star with The Cumberland Times. 9 May 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2019.

Coordinates: 55°00′09″N2°34′15″W / 55.0024°N 2.5707°W / 55.0024; -2.5707

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.