Victoria County History entry for Lowick

Townships: Lowick

A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 8. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1914.

Maps

Map of Lancashire. Originally published by Ordnance Survey, Southampton, 1846-1873.

The Sankey photography archive

This unique collection of over 10,000 photographs and postcards created by Edward and Raymond Sankey is now available to view online.

You can find images of Lowick taken in the early 20th Century.

Local industry

Spade forge

IMG_1284
The holding pond feeding the spade forge.

Swill making

Swill workshop
The pond has been drained and the spade forge converted into a swill making workshop.
Lake District swill makers
Lake District swill makers

The Heritage List entries for Lowick

The list of protected buildings or sites is known as The Heritage List (officially the National Heritage List for England or NHLE) it is the official and up to date record of all nationally protected historic buildings or sites in England.

Links to the entries

Lowick Hall

Lowick Hall, the manor house of the village, is situated in Lowick Bridge.  The first lord of the manor was Ivo de Taillebois, a Norman baron with extensive holdings in the north west of England.  He acquired the manor in 1087.

During the middle ages, the house was a Pele Tower – a fortified house built to provide protection to its inhabitants and their cattle from the incursions of the Scots.

Lowick Hall in 2022
Lowick Hall in 2022

By the Tudor era, there was probably a Z-plan house of two towers with a linking wing.  By then the house belonged to the Ambrose family. The southern tower of that house survives, complete with an oak turnpike stair.  The rest of the old house was demolished in 1746 and replaced with a Georgian classical block. Onto that the Victorians added a red sandstone porch.

The families who owned Lowick Hall changed, (de Lofwick-Towers-Ambrose-Latus-Blencow-Everard-Gaskell-Montagu-Calvert), but always by marriage or by descent in the female line.

The first time it was sold onto the open market was 1948, when it was bought by Arthur Ransome, the author of the ‘Swallows and Amazons’ series.  He found the house in a very dilapidated state, did it up, but only stayed two years.

A fully illustrated history of the house and estate can be found in:  Adam & Marianne Naylor:  “Neat, Though Not Sumptuous”:  Lowick Hall, A Chronicle, published by the Handstand Press.

Church of St Luke

St Luke's, Lowick
St Luke’s, Lowick taken by Rob Sutherland.

You can find a history of St Luke’s, Lowick and Blawith on the  Benefice website.

Farmers Arms Public House

A Grade II listed building dating back to the 17th Century. Following a public meeting the Farmers was nominated as an asset of community value and successfully added to the register in May 2020.

Raphael Tuck & Sons was the world’s largest postcard publisher. They produced a set of six postcards featuring the Farmers before 1939.