Higham Hall

Higham Hall is a residential adult learning centre in Setmurthy, located about 4 miles east of Cockermouth and half mile west of Bassenthwaite Lake. The Gothic-style house was built in 1828 for Thomas Hoskins (chairman of the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway Co.), from which he sight of the railway , which used to run along the route of the current A66 road.[1] The hall was built on the site of a much older estate. Once known as 'The High', members of the Fisher family ran the estate here, which included several farms, during the 16th and 17th centuries.[2] The stone balustrading on the terrace of the current building came from Haggerston Castle in Northumberland, which was being dismantled in the 1930s. When George Fisher died in 1947 the property was transferred to the Treasury. From 1951, the building was used by Youth Hostels Association, until 1955, when it was sold to Cumberland County Council. It re-opened the following year as a boarding school for girls with special needs. In 1974 the school was closed. In 2007, Cumbria County Council sold the hall to an independent educational trust. The building is Grade II listed on the National Heritage List for England.