11/06/2026
This week's Carlisle listed building is Petteril Bank.
A Grade II* listed house built in 1829 for John Fawcett, an attorney. The original 2-storey house has a 2 bay entrance facade and 4 bays to the garden front. There is a late 19th century extension with 3-storeys and 4-bays at the left rear.
The entrance facade has off-centre Gothic ribbed panelled doors in a pointed surround with pointed side lights under heraldic shields and a 5-light overlight of coloured heraldic glass. The garden front has an off-centre full height bay window, flanked by gabled parapets and the right bay has a narrow French window. The extension has 2- and 3-light stone mullioned windows and a prominent bay window on the entrance facade.
The interior is Gothic and complete, except for Jacobean carved wooden fireplaces in the hall and front room. There are stone stair arches and a panelled dado in the hall and stairs, and the wooden staircase has fretted rails and moulded wooden handrail. A heraldic 2-light stained-glass stair window incorporates the city and Fawcett arms.
The Carlisle Journal of 1829 records the theft of tools from a workman "now working on the new building erecting by John Fawcett at Petteril Bank". This date is confirmed by local directories which show that John Fawcett was living in The Crescent, Carlisle in 1829 but in 1834 was of Petteril Bank. At this period Rickman was working on a number of projects around the city - Holy Trinity Church and Christ Church 1828, Devonshire Street Reading Rooms 1830, Brunstock House and Scaleby Castle c1830, and Rose Castle 1829-1834.
From 1909 the owner of the house was Lady Gillford, daughter of the 12th Earl Home (aunt of Alec Douglas Home), hence the name Lady Gillford House. After her death in 1951, the house was acquired by the Cumbria County Council. The building, with a 21st century extension, is now Carlisle Archive Centre (part of Cumbria Archives) and Carlisle Register Office.
