Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Hird House, Troutbeck


	Hird House, Troutbeck
	Hird House
locality:-	Troutbeck Park
locality:-	Troutbeck
civil parish:-	Lakes (formerly Westmorland)
county:-	Cumbria
locality type:-	buildings
coordinates:-	NY41890581
1Km square:-	NY4105
10Km square:-	NY40

evidence:-	old map:- OS County Series (Wmd 26 8) placename:- Hird House
source data:-	Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.

evidence:-	old text:- goto source item:- wrestling; nun; Furness Abbey
source data:-	goto source Page 136:- "..." "There lived at this Troutbeck a man of amazing strength, whose name was Gilpin, commonly called the Cork Lad of Kentmere: I cannot tell much more about him, than what I picked out of the church register, and some memoirs of one William Birket of Troutbeck. He lived in the time of Edward VI. his mother was a poor woman, (some say a nun,) and begged from house to house to support herself and son, and drew to a house upon an estate called Troutbeck Park, which had been forfeited to the Crown, and of so little value that no notice was taken of it for some time. At last being granted, the grantee went to take possession, but was prevented by this Cork lad, who was then just come to man's estate, quite uncivilized, and knew no law but strength: He was thereupon sent for to London, and by fair speeches and wiles got thither: During his stay, the King held a day as he did many, for gymnastic amusements; this Cork lad observed the several combatants, but particularly the wrestlers; at last he mounted the stage (in his undyed dress, which his mother had spun him,) and threw" goto source Page 137:- "the champion with ease, and did other feats; so that the King sent for him, and asked his name, where he came from, &c. He told the King, that himself could neither read nor write, therefore could not well tell his own name, but folk commonly, says he, call me the Cork Lad a Kentmere, (which name he undoubtedly received from his corcousness, or corpulency.) The King asked him what he lived upon? he said Thick pottage, and milk that a mouse might walk upon dry shod, to his breakfast; and the sunny side of a wedder to his dinner, when he could get it. With many other such like questions and answers." "At last the King wanting to reward him as champion of the wrestlers, asked him if he had want of any particular thing and he should have it: all he asked for was the house he and his mother lived in, the paddock behind it to get peat for fuel, and liberty to cut wood for the fire in Troutbeck park. These were immediately granted him, as the whole estate would have been if he had asked it, being at that time not worth more than five pounds a year, besides the wood: no one, however, attempted to interfere with him in the enjoyment of the whole, which was not long; for tradition tells us, that he killed himself at the age of forty-two with pulling up trees by the root. He was never married, and the estate was afterwards granted by Charles the I. to Huddleston Philipson of Cawgarth. He was reputed to be a natural child, and his mother, (according to one of my authors) a nun turned out of Furness Abbey for being with child of him; he is by some called Gilpin, by others Herd." "..." "There is a beam in the house of Kentmere-Hall said to be laid up by him: ..." goto source Page 138:- "..." "It may seem strange that the name of so remarkable a man should be so ill ascertained: this paradox may partly be solved, if we recollect that he did not know his own name, and that perhaps the clergyman of the parish might, previous to his death, give him baptism; least that sacrament should, in the rude manner of his early education, have been neglected. Gilpin is a common name in this country, and might probably be the name of his sponsor."

story:-	Hugh Hird, born about 1640 of a nun who was expelled from Furness Abbey, lived here. He was a giant of a man, prodigiously strong. On his own he set a beam 30 ft by 13x12 ins above the kitchen arch in Kentmere Hall. He was summoned to the court of Edward VI, and defeated the king's wrestlers. He died, age 42, while uprooting a tree, 1682.

	personal
person:-	: Hird, Hugh
place:-	home

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