WELCOME TO THE HOUSE AT TEMPLE SOWERBY B&B
OUR STORY
A Lake District Country House B&B, originally built in the 17th century, The House combines old world history with modern day luxury and tech. Sensitively restored, the individually styled bedrooms and elegant reception rooms create a cosy and tranquil welcome.
Set in a walled garden in the Eden Valley village of Temple Sowerby, The House offers an opportunity to relax and indulge and is totally dog friendly.
The village of Temple Sowerby is situated between the market towns of Penrith and Appleby in Westmorland with the mighty Cross Fell Mountain as a spectacular backdrop.
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HISTORY OF THE HOUSE
The House at Temple Sowerby was formerly the principal residence within the village and home to the Atkinson family. As early as the 16th century, the family were wealthy yeoman farmers, mainly as a result of the local tanning industry and by the early 1800s, plantation owners in the West Indies. They created Temple Sowerby House to rival the existing manor or great house known as Acorn Bank.
The rear areas of the house date from the early 1720s whilst the frontage of the main building is of early Georgian architecture, around 1810. It is considered that the Coach House is of even earlier construction, probably built during the late 1600s. The conservatory restaurant overlooking the walled garden was completed in the Spring of 2006, being the first new addition to the building for almost 200 years.
The house did in fact survive a demolition order in the late 1970s when it was bought and re-modelled into an hotel – most of which you see today.
TEMPLE SOWERBY
The village of Sowerby (meaning land hard to drain and therefore sour) become Temple Sowerby when the Knights Templar, a religious and military order established to protect the Jerusalem Temple and its pilgrims, came into possession of the manor, now known as Acorn Bank, sometime before 1228.
The Templars were later suppressed by Pope Clement V and Philip IV of France under charges of heresy and their estates including the Manor of Sowerby, were given to the Knights Hospitaliers, an organisation still active throughout the world today. They remained until 1545 when Henry VIII gave the manor to a local family.
Temple Sowerby was known as the ‘Queen of Westmorland Villages’ and even today the elegant 18th and 19th century buildings – there are 22 grade II listed buildings – create a special atmosphere. The village is on the route of a major Roman road, a reminder of which, a Roman milestone, stands half a mile South East of the village, towards Appleby.
The improved communications provided by the Penrith to Darlington turnpike brought others to the village and the eventual five large houses of the parish provided considerable employment. The tanning trade flourished as a result of the cattle fairs; local stone quarries and gypsum mining were other sources of employment.
The fairs, road and railway made Temple Sowerby a major local centre. A Doctor, Tailor, Joiner, Masons, Smiths, Cartwright, Cabinet-Maker, Clog-Maker, Shirt-Maker, Saddler and Dentist all flourished, whilst spiritual needs were provided for by the handsome Church of St James and the Wesleyan Chapel. Wesley himself is said to have preached from a boulder (due to his height) by the Chapel door.
The Maypole on the main road in front of Maypole Terrace, opposite the House, occupies an ancient site of village festivities. Tradition tells of a lying competition held on 1st May, when the man who told the tallest story was awarded a grindstone to keep his wits sharp. A Bishop who came to condemn this deplorable ceremony maintained that he never told a lie in his life and was promptly awarded first prize.
