Hutton township, comprises the hamlet of Hutton End,
with the Hall; Church, and several scattered dwellings, five miles N.N.W. of
Penrith. The manor of Hutton belonged as early as the reign of Edward I, to the family of
De Hoton, who took their name from the place, and was held in capite by the service
of maintaining the paling1 of the king's forest of
Plumpton; and by holding the royal stirrup whilst the king mounted his horse at Carlisle
Castle, and paying 33s. 4d. yearly, into the king's exchequer. The family who held by this
tenure assumed the name of Hutton in Foresta. In 1605, Francis Hutton sold it to
Sir Richard Fletcher, Knt., of Cockermouth, one of whose descendants, Sir Henry, was
created a baronet by king Charles, in 1640, and was killed at the battle of Rawton-heath.
in Cheshire, in 1645. The heiress of this family married Lionel Vane, of Long Newton, in
the count of Durham, whose descendant, Sir Henry Ralph Vane, Bart., of Hutton Hall, is the
present lord of the manor. He is only in his seventh year2,
being born 17th January, 1830.
Hutton
Hall, the seat of Sir Harry Ralph Vane, Bart., is a handsome mansion, standing on a fine
eminence surrounded by richly cultivated lands and thriving plantations. The Church, which
is near to the hall, was rebuilt in 1714, and is dedicated to St. James. The living is a
rectory in the patronage of the dean and chapter of Carlisle, and incumbency of the Rev
Wm. Sharpe, of Addingham, for whom the Rev. Wm. Whitelock officiates. It is valued in the
king's books at £18 10s. 1d. but is now worth £123 per annum. The church, with one
carucate of land at Hoton, was given to the priory of Saint Mary, Carlisle, by Robert de
Vaux, and this grant was confirmed by Henry II and Edward II. The present edifice consists
of a nave and chancel, with a bell turret, and in the interior are several mural monuments
to the Vane and Fletcher families. There is in the churchyard, a grave stone for one of
the ancient family of the Huttons, bearing a cross-florée, on one side of which is a
bugle horn, and on the other, a shield charged with a crescent on a canton. There was
formerly a chantry chapel, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, at Bramura, in
this parish, which was founded by Thomas de Capella, but having gone to decay, in 1361, a new
chantry was founded in the church by Thomas de Hoton, who endowed it with 44 acres of
land and six messuages, in addition to the lands formerly settled on the chantry at
Bramura. After the dissolution of the chantries, it was granted by Edward VI to Thomas
Brende and his heirs.
There were until lately at Upper Row, on Hutton Common,
the vestiges of Collinson Castle, an ancient fortification about 100 yards square, with a
ditch 30 feet wide, and a trench 4 feet deep. Several hand mill stones have been found
here, but no record or tradition has yet pointed out the erection or demolition of the
building. There is a tradition that Charles II drank of the well which is near this place,
on his way through the parish, in 1651. Elfa hills are two singular ranges of
gravel mounds in this parish, 25 yards high, and two furlongs in length. They are
surrounded by a low and swampy ground, where many marks of trenches appear, and where
quantities of human bones have been found. Two urns, filled with ashes were found in 1783,
at Blencow bank. Hutton School was endowed, in 1715, by Thomas Fletcher, Esq., and
others, with a messuage and lands in Marrwhins, which, with an allotment on the enclosure
of Inglewood Forest, consist of 15 acres, now let for about £20 a year. Sir H. R. Vane,
Bart. is trustee. John Dockray, who died in 1737, left 10s. a year to be distributed to
the poor at Christmas.
Thomas Close, a hamlet and township, 8 miles N.N.W. of Penrith, is a manor, held under the duke of Devonshire. From the circumstance of human bones having been found here, it is conjectured that it was a burial Place for the soldiers.
Mannix & Whellan, History, Gazetteer and Directory of Cumberland, 1847