| Warter...living in an estate village |
WarterC. How did the whole village become the property of one landowner?
The estate had its origins in the Middle Ages when the greater part of Warter was owned by the monks of Warter Priory, an Augustinian monastery that was established in 1132. The village church stands on the site of the priory church and in the field to the north can be seen the earthworks of the other monastic buildings. When Henry VIII closed down the Priory in 1536, its buildings and land were acquired by the Duke of Rutland. From around 1630 the Warter estate was owned by the Stapleton family from whom it passed by marriage in the late 17th century to Sir William Pennington of Muncaster Castle
[www. muncastercastle.co.uk] in Cumberland.At first the Penningtons did not own the whole village but during the earlier 18th century they purchased all the other freehold land in Warter. They then reduced the number of village houses by a third. By 1787 the Penningtons owned everything except two small plots of land and the church and churchyard.
The Penningtons lived part of the year at Muncaster Castle, part in London and part at Warter Hall, known as Warter Priory by 1840, a house they built a mile from the village. Sir John Pennington, baronet, a friend of William Wilberforce, was created 1st Lord Muncaster in 1783.
