Levens Hall, Kendal, Cumbria- Building Investigation

Rural Solutions proposed the conversion and the extension of the former stable block
at Levens Halls, Cumbria into office space. The stables are of seventeenth century
date and a Grade II listed building (HER Number 22165) and, thus Cumbria County
Council’s County Historic Environment Service recommended the undertaking of a
building investigation of RCHME level II standard, prior to the redevelopment.
The investigation comprised a detailed survey of the building in order to provide an
outline of its form, development, and phases of alteration. A documentary study was
also undertaken in order to identify any recorded alterations to the building, owners
and known uses and development. It examines the area from prehistory through to the
twentieth century. It revealed that Levens Park and its immediate environs has been a
palimpsest of human activity, with late Mesolithic microliths and blades, Bronze Age
timber trackways, Iron Age inhumation burials, and Roman pottery and coins
representing successive phases of activity over 6,500 years
The medieval and post-medieval period are represented in the record mainly through
the exploitation, and improvement of, the natural landscape. The digging of peat was
particularly prevalent, in part due to the local iron working industry. The improved
trade and transport links that this engendered would ultimately lead to the
construction of the railway in the mid-nineteenth century.