Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Guildhall, Carlisle


	Guildhall, Carlisle
	Guildhall Museum

	Redness Hall
Street:-	Green Market
locality:-	Carlisle
civil parish:-	Carlisle (formerly Cumberland)
county:-	Cumbria
locality type:-	museum
coordinates:-	NY40035597
1Km square:-	NY4055
10Km square:-	NY45

	BLW65.jpg (taken 19.4.2006) BLW66.jpg (taken 19.4.2006)
	Built as shops, workshops and home, by Richard de Redness, 1397; later used by the guilds.

evidence:-	old text:- Capper 1808
source data:-	Gazetteer, A Topographical Dictionary of the United Kingdom, compiled by Benjamin Pitts Capper, published by Richard Phillips, Bridge Street, Blackfriars, London, 1808; published 1808-29. goto source "[Carlisle] ... The guildhall, where the trades meet, is a mean and paltry building. ..."

evidence:-	old painting:-
source data:-	Painting, watercolour, Guildhall, Carlisle, Cumberland, by Edward Arthur 'Evacustes' Phipson, 1905. click to enlarge PR0828.jpg View of The Guildhall with one side in bright sunshine, the other in deep shadow. Two figures to right of composition. signed &dated at bottom left:- "Evacustes A Phipson 1905" item:- Tullie House Museum : 1907.12.1 Image © Tullie House Museum

evidence:-	old drawing:-
source data:-	Drawing, Guildhall, Green Market, Carlisle, Cumberland, by Thomas Bushby, 1902. click to enlarge PR1123.jpg View of the guildhall from the market square. dated at bottom right:- "May 7. 1902" item:- Tullie House Museum : 1971.87.11 Image © Tullie House Museum

evidence:-	old painting:-
source data:-	Painting, watercolour, Guildhall, Carlisle, Cumberland, by John James Hodgson, about 1900. click to enlarge PR1315.jpg Busy market square viewed from the lane beside the guildhall which stands to right of composition, a woman standing outside the entrance. To left, the scene is framed by a tall building upon which a gaslight is mounted. item:- Tullie House Museum : 1988.118 Image © Tullie House Museum

evidence:-	old print:- placename:- Trades' Guilds, The
source data:-	Print, lithograph, The Trades' Guilds, Carlisle, Cumberland, by Matthew Ellis Nutter, engraved by Haghe, published by Charles Thurnam, Carlisle, Cumberland, 1835. click to enlarge PR1215.jpg In centre of composition stands the guildhall, decked with guild banners, ladies and gentlemen wearing eighteenth century dress walking by it or approaching the entrance. To right of composition stands a public house on the street corner with an ragged beggar taking alms from a lady who holds a boy by the hand. One of a series of 17 copies of works by Robert Carlyle and published by Thurnam as Carlisle in the Olden Time inscribed at bottom left on print:- "Drawn by M E Nutter from an Original Sketch" printed at bottom centre:- "THE TRADES' GUILDS." inscribed at bottom right on print:- "On Stone C. Haghe" item:- Tullie House Museum : 1978.108.74.9 Image © Tullie House Museum

evidence:-	old print:-
source data:-	Print, lithograph, The Trades Guilds, Carlisle, Cumberland, by Matthew, Ellis Nutter, engraved by C Haghe, published by Charles Thurnam, Carlisle, Cumberland, 1835. click to enlarge PR1359.jpg In centre of composition stands the Guildhall, decked with guild banners, ladies and gentlemen wearing eighteenth century dress walking by it or approaching the entrance. To right of composition stands a public house on the street corner with a ragged beggar taking alms from a lady who holds a boy by the hand. The work was executed as one of a series of 17 copies of works by Robert Carlyle published by Thurnam as Carlisle in the Olden Time item:- Tullie House Museum : 2004.1.25 Image © Tullie House Museum

evidence:-	database:- Listed Buildings 2010
source data:-	courtesy of English Heritage "/ 5 AND 6 / GREENMARKET / CARLISLE / CARLISLE / CUMBRIA / I / 386762 / NY4003855976"
source data:-	courtesy of English Heritage "Formerly known as: Redness Hall GREENMARKET." "Includes: Nos.58 AND 60 FISHER STREET." "House (sometimes called Redness Hall), then Guildhall, now cafe with museum over. Documentary evidence suggests that the present building replaced an earlier structure which was burnt down in the fire that broke out in Carlisle on 4th May 1391 which also destroyed many other properties. The hall was probably constructed between 1396 and 1407 for Richard de Redness. An L-shaped, 3-storey, timber-framed building with 5 bays along Fisher Street and 3 bays on Greenmarket. Cumbrian slate roof laid to diminishing courses with one stack remaining at northern end of Fisher Street wing. The ground floor was probably open originally but it is now filled in with stuccoed walls and round-arched windows. The large timber posts are still evident and retain some of their decorative mouldings. The upper floors have moulded jetties and cornices. Only the posts are visible externally, the rest of the framing is hidden by rendering, together with weather-boarding on the first floor and medieval brick tile on the second floor. The framing of these floors is visible on the inside and consists of tall rectangular panels; those on the street side of the building are divided by a mid-rail and the lower half of these panels contain pairs of curved braces (rising from the tie-beam to a post or an intermediate stud). The framing of the cross-walls at first floor level has large concave braces (rising from the wall posts to the tie-beam) on each side of the building. The pattern on the second floor is slightly different, for the bracing on the street side consists of large convex/tension braces (rising from the tie-beam to the wall post). The opposite bracing is concave like the floor below. The infill of the panelling is mainly wattle and daub with medieval brick tile on the second floor. Some panels remain unrendered for display inside the museum. The original roof construction, although altered, still survives over the 5-bay Fisher Street section and consists of 4 crown posts. The crown posts are jowled on both sides and have a rectangular section. Part of the original collar plate survives with convex down-braces from post to tie and concave up-braces from post to plate. Although now hipped, the roof of this wing was originally gabled. The roof over the 3 bays of the Greenmarket wing appears to be a later replacement and consists of canted queen posts, clasped purlins and collared rafters. The purlins are clasped between the rafter and a canted or raked queen post which is jowled on the lower side. One of the trusses (which appears to be identical to the others) is clearly an insertion with a supporting post that is pegged onto the original timber framework. Documentary evidence suggests that these alterations to the medieval building, including the infilling of the ground floor, might have occurred between 1573 and 1662. Such a date for the queen post roof would be quite reasonable. The Greenmarket elevation has, on the first floor, Yorkshire sash windows with glazing bars and on the second floor sash and Yorkshire sash windows with glazing bars in brick reveals. Medieval gargoyles are plaster casts of originals in Carlisle Cathedral, first placed here in 1844; all except one on facade are 1978 replacements. Beside some windows are fixed hooks to support guild flags. Fisher Street elevation has ground floor 1988 shop windows; upper floor 2-light C15 cusped-headed window; plank-faced oriel with upper small casement windows with glazing bars. Other windows are casements and Yorkshire sashes." "INTERIOR: complete except for removal of some internal partitions and no original stairs. Most of the timber-framing and roof trusses are exposed. Bronze plaque on stairs states that this opened as a museum in 1978. Further details are given in the Guildhall Museum leaflet."

	BZH15.jpg Shoemakers' room. (taken 17.9.2013) BZH16.jpg Merchants' room. (taken 17.9.2013) BZH17.jpg Weights and measures (taken 17.9.2013) BZH22.jpg Dishevelled loom in the Weavers' room. (taken 17.9.2013) BZH23.jpg Weavers' banner (taken 17.9.2013)

	BZH19.jpg Roof beams. (taken 17.9.2013) BZH20.jpg Roof beams. (taken 17.9.2013) BZH21.jpg Timber framed wall. (taken 17.9.2013)

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