Contractors are removing scaffolding from Keswick’s Moot Hall following extensive repair and refurbishment work to the outside of the iconic building.
The much-needed works to the stonework, windows and roof of the 16th century building have been completed at a cost of £100,000.
The work has been funded by the Battersby Hall Trust, the community-based charity which bought the hall from Allerdale Borough Council in 2018.
Work has included repairs to the mortar pointing, based on traditional lime materials, on the northern tower while a decayed roof purlin in the south-east corner has been replaced to restore structural integrity to the roof. The original slates have been re-instated and the weather vane repaired.
Low level work still needs completing but this will be done without the extensive scaffolding that has been wrapped around the building for months.
One of the more eye-catching pieces of work has been the replacement of the clock face, the old one being extensively rotted.
The work on the timepiece has been carried out by the Cumbria Clock Company in Dacre. The unusual feature about the clock is that it only has one hand.
“This renovation has been a long, arduous and expensive road for Battersby Hall Charity and I thank the people of Keswick for their patience while the works were ongoing,” said Tony Lywood, chairman of the Battersby Hall Trust.
“I hope the Moot Hall is now in a much more presentable state than it was and reflects well on our great town.
“Equally importantly, it is owned by a local Keswick charity with a board made up of local people and will remain so in perpetuity.”
The present Moot Hall, dated 1813, was erected at a cost of nearly £1,200 by trustees of the Royal Greenwich Hospital.
They took over the sequestered estate of the Radcliffes after the 1715 Jacobite rebellion.
Records show that in the 1820s the lower floor was used as a market for meal, butter, eggs and poultry. Upstairs, the Moot Hall continued its traditional function as a court house.
Here the Lords of the Manor, the governors of Greenwich Hospital, considered claims and arguments over land and tenure.
