{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}} alt=|thumb|300x300px|Armathwaite Hall '''Armathwaite Hall''' is a luxury hotel and spa adjacent to Bassenthwaite Lake, in Cumbria.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.armathwaite-hall.com/about-us/|title=About Us {{!}} Luxury Lake District Hotel & Spa {{!}} Armathwaite Hall Hotel & Spa|work=Luxury Lake District Hotel & Spa {{!}} Armathwaite Hall Hotel & Spa|access-date=2018-10-24|language=en-GB}}</ref>
==History== The present hall dates back to circa 1500; it was acquired by the Highmore family in 1540, by James Spedding (squire to Lord Egremont) in 1748<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/speddingfamilywi00sped/speddingfamilywi00sped_djvu.txt|title=The Spedding family. With short Accounts of a few other families allied by marriage|page=98|first=Captain John Carlise D. |last=Spedding|publisher=Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society|year=1909}}</ref> and then by Sir Frederick Fletcher-Vane (who had the courtyard and chapel added) in 1796.<ref name="history">{{cite web|url=http://www.armathwaite-hall.com/lake_district_history.php|title=Armathwaite Hall|publisher=Historic Lake District Society|accessdate=31 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130319173249/https://www.armathwaite-hall.com/lake_district_history.php|archive-date=19 March 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> Ownership then passed to John Boustead (who owned coffee plantations in Ceylon and who had the hall extensively enlarged)<ref>{{National Heritage List for England |num=1327178 |desc=Armathwaite Hall|accessdate=4 April 2015}}</ref> in 1850.<ref name=history/> It then passed to Thomas Hartley (a local mine owner who had the hall extended to the designs of Charles John Ferguson) in 1880, to the Wivell family (owners of the Keswick Hotel) in 1926.<ref name=history/>
When under the control of the Wivell family, especially Joseph Banks Wivell's widow, Mary Johnson Wivell, it received attention and praise in Florence White's Where Shall We Eat or Put Up? In England, Wales, and Scotland (1936). "Armathwaite Hall is an old country mansion, carried on as a country house furnished with every comfort and luxury" for travellers. The Wivell family also owned the Keswick Station Hotel in nearby Keswick.<ref>{{Cite book |last=White |first=Florence |title=Where Shall We Eat or Put Up? In England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland |date=1936 |publisher=Practical Press Ltd |location=London |pages=21}}</ref>
It was acquired by the Graves family (the current owners) in 1976.<ref name=history/> It is now a hotel.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/dblock/GB-320000-531000/page/14|title=Domesday Book|publisher=BBC|accessdate=31 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315120130/https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/dblock/GB-320000-531000/page/14|archive-date=15 March 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==See also== *Hugh Boustead {{Portal|Cumbria}} {{Commons category|Armathwaite Hall}}
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}} {{coord|54|40|52|N|03|13|57|W|region:GB_type:edu|display=title}} Category:Country houses in Cumbria Category:Grade II listed houses in Cumbria Category:Hotels in Cumbria Category:Restaurants in Cumbria Category:Hotel spas Category:Country house hotels