Brayton Hall, Cumberland

Brayton Hall once the ancestral seat of the Lawson family stood in a magnificent park, commanding spectacular views of the surrounding countryside with the mountains of the Lake District in the background, 1. 5 miles east by north of the town of Aspatria, and 7 miles south west by west of the market town of Wigton. Greatly enlarged and rebuilt in 1868 it was practically destroyed by fire in 1918. Pre Lawson eraBrayton, loosely translated as ‘Broad Acres’ is an ancient manorial estate which formed a joint township with Aspatria. After the Norman Conquest it was granted by Alan, son of Waldieve to Ughtred who became the first Lord of the manor in the seignory of Aspatria and barony of Allerdale. An inquisition held in 1578 records a William Bewley owning Brayton by fealty only, sometime the lands of the Bishop of Carlisle in free alms. It was subsequently possessed by a junior member of the Salkeld family, whose three co-heiresses sold it to Sir Wilfrid Lawson, who had previously married the heiress of Isel. At this time the Brayton manorial estate comprised 20 houses, 20 tofts, 20 gardens, 260acre of land, 100acre of meadow, 200acre of pasture and 300acre of moor.

Brayton Hall once the ancestral seat of the Lawson family stood in a magnificent park, commanding spectacular views of the surrounding countryside with the mountains of the Lake District in the background, 1. 5 miles east by north of the town of Aspatria, and 7 miles south west by west of the market town of Wigton. Greatly enlarged and rebuilt in 1868 it was practically destroyed by fire in 1918. Pre Lawson eraBrayton, loosely translated as ‘Broad Acres’ is an ancient manorial estate which formed a joint township with Aspatria. After the Norman Conquest it was granted by Alan, son of Waldieve to Ughtred who became the first Lord of the manor in the seignory of Aspatria and barony of Allerdale. An inquisition held in 1578 records a William Bewley owning Brayton by fealty only, sometime the lands of the Bishop of Carlisle in free alms. It was subsequently possessed by a junior member of the Salkeld family, whose three co-heiresses sold it to Sir Wilfrid Lawson, who had previously married the heiress of Isel. At this time the Brayton manorial estate comprised 20 houses, 20 tofts, 20 gardens, 260acre of land, 100acre of meadow, 200acre of pasture and 300acre of moor.