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Armboth House, Armboth
Armboth House
locality:-   Armboth
civil parish:-   St John's Castlerigg and Wythburn (formerly Cumberland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   buildings
locality type:-   haunted house
coordinates:-   NY305172
1Km square:-   NY3017
10Km square:-   NY31
evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Cmd 70 8) 
placename:-  Armboth 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 map:- Saxton 1579
placename:-  Armebath
source data:-   Map, hand coloured engraving, Westmorlandiae et Cumberlandiae Comitatus ie Westmorland and Cumberland, scale about 5 miles to 1 inch, by Christopher Saxton, London, engraved by Augustinus Ryther, 1576, published 1579-1645.
image
Sax9NY21.jpg
Building, symbol for a hamlet, which may or may not have a nucleus.  "Armebath"
item:-  private collection : 2
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old text:- Green 1814
placename:-  Armbath
source data:-   Set of prints, soft ground etchings, Sixty Small Prints, with text, A Description of a Series of Sixty Small Prints, by William Green, Ambleside, Westmorland, 1814.
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page 13:-  "... the house called Armbath. ..."
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page 14:-  "..."
"Armbath is more than ten miles from Ambleside, and about six and a half from Keswick."
evidence:-   descriptive text:- Otley 1823 (5th edn 1834) 
source data:-   Guide book, A Concise Description of the English Lakes, the mountains in their vicinity, and the roads by which they may be visited, with remarks on the mineralogy and geology of the district, by Jonathan Otley, published by the author, Keswick, Cumberland now Cumbria, by J Richardson, London, and by Arthur Foster, Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, 1823; published 1823-49, latterly as the Descriptive Guide to the English Lakes.
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Page 16:-  "... [Thirlmere] is divided into an upper and lower lake, between which a picturesque wooden bridge leads to Armboth House. ..."
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Page 111:-  "[Arm]both-house, the residence of Mr. Jackson, ..."
evidence:-   descriptive text:- Ford 1839 (3rd edn 1843) 
placename:-  Armboth House
source data:-   Guide book, A Description of Scenery in the Lake District, by Rev William Ford, published by Charles Thurnam, Carlisle, by W Edwards, 12 Ave Maria Lane, Charles Tilt, Fleet Street, William Smith, 113 Fleet Street, London, by Currie and Bowman, Newcastle, by Bancks and Co, Manchester, by Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, and by Sinclair, Dumfries, 1839.
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Page 49:-  "... Armboth House is pleasantly situated on the top of a gentle eminence under the Fells, whence the ground falls in easy slopes all round to the water's edge: the views from the house are commanding, and the eye rests upon the huge surfaces of Helvellyn and the Great Dodd."
evidence:-   old advertisement:- Atkinson 1847 (5th edn 1850) 
placename:-  Armboth House
source data:-   Advertisement for Mrs Westray at Armboth House by Thirlmere, Cumberland, 1850.
image  click to enlarge
AK2A19.jpg
At the end of a Handbook to the English Lakes, 5th edn. 
item:-  Armitt Library : A1144.27
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old map:- Garnett 1850s-60s H
placename:-  Armboth
source data:-   Map of the English Lakes, in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire, scale about 3.5 miles to 1 inch, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland, 1850s-60s.
image
GAR2NY31.jpg
"Armboth"
block, building 
item:-  JandMN : 82.1
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old text:- Martineau 1855
item:-  ghost; bell
item:-  ghost story; ghost
source data:-   Guide book, A Complete Guide to the English Lakes, by Harriet Martineau, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland, and by Whittaker and Co, London, 1855; published 1855-76.
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Page 69:-  "... There is another mystery just behind [Wath Bridge], under the Armboth Fells,- a haunted house. Lights are seen there at night, the people say; and the bells ring; and just as the bells all set off ringing, a large"
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Page 70:-  "dog is seen swimming across the lake. The plates and dishes clatter; and the table is spread by unseen hands. That is the preparation for the ghostly wedding feast of a murdered bride, who comes up from her watery bed in the lake to keep her terrible nuptials. There is really something remarkable, and like witchery, about the house. On a bright moonlight night, the spectator who looks towards it from a distance of two or three miles, sees the light reflected from its windows into the lake; and, when a slight fog gives a reddish hue to the light, the whole might easily be taken for an illumination of a great mansion. And this mansion seems to vanish as you approach,- being no mansion, but a small house lying in a nook, and overshadowed by a hill. ..."
hearsay:-  
 There was a monkey puzzle tree, Araucaria araucana, in the grounds of Armboth House when owned by Countess Ossalinsky.
The house was the setting of The Shadow of a Crime by Sir Hugh Cain.
hearsay:-  
 The house was said to have been haunted by the ghost a murdered bride.
hearsay:-  
 The Countess Ossalinsky, a daughter of the Jackson Family here, returned home when widowed. She fought the Manchester Corporation Waterworks over the valuation of her estate which they put at L25,000. She was awarded L70,000, though she might have accepted less.
personal
person:-    : Jackson, Miss; Ossalinsky, Countess
place:-   birthplace
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