Claife Station and Cottage, Ferry Knab, Windermere, Lake District - Archaeological Building Survey Report

A programme of building survey was requested by the National Trust of Claife Station and the nearby Station Cottage and courtyard, on the west side of Lake Windermere (SD 3884
9547). Claife Station was built in the last decade of the eighteenth century as a belvedere upon the site of an eighteenth century Picturesque viewing station. It became a popular landmark in the nineteenth century, hosting parties and other events before declining in importance in the later nineteenth century leading to its eventual partial ruin in the second half of the twentieth century. The survey was intended to provide a mitigative record in advance of, and to inform, a programme of restoration works to the surviving elements of the Station building. It follows on from a Conservation Management Plan for Claife Station prepared by Sarah Rutherford (2008) for the National Trust. The present survey was undertaken in accordance with a project brief by the National Trust and provides a detailed survey record of the buildings in their current state, informs their interpretation, their development, and the function of the respective elements of the buildings.
The initial pavilion or building of Claife Station on the site was commissioned by Rev William Braithwaite, designed by John Carr (1723-1807), and constructed probably between 1794 and 1799. Only part of the original building survives, but a curved and cantilevered stone staircase and the enclosing angled walls indicate that Carr’s design was
of the Neo-Classical style. In 1801 John Christian Curwen bought the Station and the surrounding pleasure grounds. Subsequent to this, the building was remodelled with a
design possibly by George Webster of Kendal which modified and extended the building in accordance with the changing fashion of what ‘picturesque’ should comprise and by the
early part of the nineteenth century this was towards a medieval revival, ‘gothic’ style.