Acorn Bank Estate, Temple Sowerby, Cumbria. Historic Landscape Survey Report

The property was known to have considerable archaeological potential, with the ostensibly seventeenth century sandstone house at its heart (Grade 1 listed); it includes an ornamental walled garden and herb garden and a designed parkland landscape, it has a working corn mill and industrial features associated with gypsum mining.
The site of Acorn Bank was within the medieval landholding that was closely associated with the village of Temple Sowerby; the Knight’s Templar and, subsequently, the
Knights Hospitaller. Physical manifestations of activity at Acorn Bank during the medieval period evidence are, however, extremely slight. There had been a suggestion, although not confirmed in a recent study, that parts of the battered foundation course of one part of the house may have been the foundations of a tower of medieval origin. Other than that there is no evidence for a preceptory on the property and, indeed, such a structure may well have been located elsewhere in Temple Sowerby. An early mill, identified as being at Temple Sowerby by medieval records, may well have stood on the same location as the present mill, though no fabric for a medieval period mill has been discovered. The most extensive evidence for medieval activity appears in the form of broad ridge and furrow cultivation, and in some places possible strip lynchets, which can be traced throughout the parkland. Possible building remains were identified through geophysical survey in parkland to the south of the current house, and although this is of
unknown date and function, it could potentially be medieval in date.