A woman who lives at a historic property known as “the home of poets” says she will only sell it to someone well versed in its literary connections.
Jeronime Palmer has put Greta Hall, once the home of Lakes poets Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, on the market for £1.2 million.
It is only the second time in 100 years that the Grade I listed building has been put up for sale and it is generating “quite a bit of interest.”
Ms Palmer says she is seeking assurances that it will continue to be used as a single home or as a residential letting once it is sold. “It has to be the right custodian,” said Ms Palmer. “Somebody who understands its literary connections and its value to the Keswick community,” she added.
Ms Palmer and Scott Ligertwood bought the property and The Coach House in its grounds, some 150 metres off Main Street, from Keswick School 23 years ago.
The Greta Hall buildings had been used as dormitories by school boarders but when the school moved to a single site at Lairthwaite, the property was put up for sale along with the Rawnsley Centre.
Since 1998, Greta Hall has provided bed and breakfast accommodation and short-term holiday lets. It has also been used by local organisations and museums for community events.
Ms Palmer said her seven children had enjoyed their time at the property and the three who remain are currently finishing their education at Keswick School. The family has “downsized” and are living in The Coach House.
“We have had a remarkable time at Greta Hall but it would break my heart if it was sold to somebody who does not appreciate it,” said Ms Palmer.
She said she had to go through scores of documents, many of them on microfiche, to bring together the planning history of the whole site so it is ready for a new owner.
Greta Hall has three kitchens, three bathrooms and 11 bedrooms spread over its three floors. Records also show that The Coach House has been used since 1998 for a mixture of holiday letting and permanent residential use.
Since 2017 it has been used exclusively as a single residential property and occupied by the family.
Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived at Greta Hall with his family from1800 to 1803. His daughter Sara was born at Greta Hall in 1802 and he regularly visited William Wordsworth at Grasmere.
Robert Southey and his wife came to stay with the Coleridges in 1803 and took over the tenancy of Greta Hall when Coleridge left in 1804. Southey lived there until his death in 1843.
Greta Hall was visited by a number of Lakes poets and other literary figures including Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, William Hazlitt, Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy Shelley, Sir Walter Scott, Sir George Beaumont, Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb, Thomas De Quincey and John Ruskin.
