Tithe Barn

History

Opened About the 1470s

Built

About the 1470s, for Prior Thomas Gondibour

Listed

Grade I, 1 June 1949

South wall

Sandstone, 3 feet 7 inches thick

Restored

1969-71; reopened 6 May 1971

By some centuries the oldest building on this site, and it was never a pub. It's a medieval monastic barn that happens to hold a licence.

It was built around the 1470s for Thomas Gondibour, Prior of the Augustinian Priory of St Mary from 1465 to 1507 — the priory whose church became Carlisle Cathedral after the Dissolution. Grade I listed since June 1949. Squared red sandstone, some blocks carrying masons' marks, a graduated sandstone flag roof, and a south wall along Heads Lane three feet seven inches thick. Oak roof trusses on heavy timber posts inside.

That it stands inside the city walls at all is unusual, and says something about how unsettled this border was — most tithe barns sat out among the fields they served. The north side was originally open so sheaves could be pitched straight in.

Its later life is a catalogue of odd jobs: stable, then from 1824 the Carlisle Dispensary in the two eastern bays, then a dwelling, then a joiner's shop. Parts of the west end were taken down in 1875 before they fell down. By the sixties it was derelict and facing demolition until the newly formed Carlisle and District Civic Trust took up the fight in 1965. St Cuthbert's Church restored it from April 1969, and the Mayor reopened it on 6 May 1971. Money ran out before the west end could be finished in stone; that waited nearly thirty more years.

It's the church hall now, hired for parties, receptions, concerts and meetings. Not a walk-in pub — the bar comes with the function.

It stands a few doors from the Sportsman on the same short lane. Two very old survivals, one still pouring.