- Wray Castle
Wray Castle is a large private house built near
Ambleside in in theGothic Revival style in 1840. It is now owned by the National Trust, and is open from 30th of June. The grounds are known for their selection of specimen trees -wellingtonia ,redwood ,gingkoa ,weeping lime and varieties ofbeech .The house was originally built for a retired
Liverpool surgeon, Dr. Dawson. who built it and the neighboring Wray Church using his wife's fortune. After Dawson's death in 1875 the estate was inherited by his nephew, Preston Rawnsley. In 1877 Preston's cousin,Hardwicke Rawnsley , took up the appointment of vicar of Wray Church. In 1929 Wray Castle and 64 acres of land were given to the National Trust by Sir Noton and Lady Barclay.Beatrix Potter summered in the house when she was 16 in 1882. She bought nearby Hill Top in 1905 with royalties from her first few books. She bought considerable tracts of land in the area, including most of the land surrounding Wray Castle, though she never owned the castle itself.A ship, the "Wray Castle", was named for the site. It was one of five large vessels built at the Williamson shipyard at
Workington for the Lancaster Shipowners Company, the others were "Greystoke Castle", "Lancaster Castle", "Lowther Castle" and "Pendragon Castle". The Wray Castle was the fourth, an iron four-master launched in March 1889.References
* [http://www.visitcumbria.com/nattrust/wray.htm Ambleside - Wray Castle]
* [http://freespace.virgin.net/r.cadwalader/maritime/square/Thomas.htm Gwynedd Maritime Database - Fleet of R.Thomas & Co of Criccieth and Liverpool]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
