Morton Estate, where toffs made their home
Last updated 05:11, Friday, 24 October 2008
The Cummersdale enclosure map in Cumbria Record Office, drawn in January 1770, shows Joseph Borriskill’s ground on Wigton Road between Suttle House and Morton Head, just over a mile and a half west of Carlisle.
A house is marked on the map set back from the road exactly where Morton Cottage is today although it was then known as Kell.
Directly opposite, on Orton Road to the north, across fields, was Kell House which would seem to have taken its name from the main building.
Who lived at Kell is not stated on the map but it is reasonable to assume that it was Mr Borriskill.
No published directory lists gentry living there at this early date and it would not be the grand house it is today.
At what point the name was changed to Morton Cottage remains a mystery, but when it was offered to let with 60 acres in August 1827 that was what the house was called.
Nor is it known with any certainty when the Gale family bought the house and farm which were in the same building, just as Morton Manor was.
In an article on the Gale family, the Carlisle Journal stated in 1928 that Morton Cottage was their home for 83 years. As the last Gale died there in 1914 their arrival date would be 1831 – if the information in the newspaper was correct.
It could well have been this family who changed the name and rebuilt the house in a style befitting their status.
Robert Gale married Mary the sister of Humphrey Senhouse of Netherhall, and a cousin, Isabella Gale, married Henry Curwen of Workington Hall, so the Gales of Carlisle were well connected and must have had some wealth.
The only son of Robert and Mary, Gustavus Gale, entered Carlisle Grammar School in April 1773, but his father had already died, and the year after he left school in 1777 his mother also died.
Although Gustavus Gale was Cumbrian born he seems to have spent much time in other parts, marrying Elizabeth Bas.
Their son, Gustavus (2), was born in 1790 at Lowestoft but was sent to Carlisle Grammar School in 1798.
Little is known of his life, but Gustavus (2) kept a commonplace book between 1818 and 1849. This was full of well-known quotations and illustrated with his own line-drawings and watercolours.
As for an occupation, Gustavus (2) was described in the 1861 census as a retired draper. However, on the previous census he was entered as a proprietor of houses and land, meaning that he lived on his own means.
When AR Davies wrote in the 1928 Journal about the Gales he said that before moving to Morton Cottage “they lived in Lowther Street in the house now the Liberal Club”.
If this is true the sums do not add up. The Lowther Street house was built in 1830 for Mrs Dacre and her executors did not sell until 1834.
Directories show that the Gales were at Morton Cottage by 1847. Gustavus (2) had married Mary Blamire of Kirkandrews on Eden and they had numerous children.
Tragedy struck when their only son, Gustavus (3), died at St Bees School age 17 in 1853. A daughter, Lydia, also died young in 1862.
It was at Morton Cottage that Gustavus (2) passed away in 1867, aged 74, and was buried at Kirkandrews, followed by his wife in 1876 aged 78.
All the surviving daughters, Mary, Margaret, Johanna and Hannah, died at Morton Cottage between 1898 and 1914. None of them had married.
The house was then put up for sale, Fred Telford describing the property as “perhaps one of the most charming to be found near Carlisle standing as an elevated plateau (135 feet above sea level), upon a rich sandy subsoil, on the western side of the city, and, in consequence, clear of the city smoke and commanding splendid views of the delightful and lovely surrounding country”.
The purchaser at £4,600 was Michael Young, previously of Currock House, a horse trainer and dealer.
When he decided to retire in 1928, Mr Young sold to Mr A King of Wigton Hall for £6,670.
The farm was then let to Messrs W Irving and Son. While sitting inside the farmhouse Elizabeth Irving was shot by a man standing outside in March 1939. She was seriously injured and the culprit got seven years for attempted murder.
Land alongside the road became the Morton Cottage Estate and a petrol station was built before World War Two.
At Morton Cottage in 1940 was Mrs Allan Story and Ronald Irving by 1961, with Mary Stockdale at the farm.
Latterly, William Wilkinson lived there until, in 1989, the house was converted into Morton Cottage Residential Home.
