Old Shippen, The Castle Inn, Main Street, Hornby, Lancaster, LA2

For more than four hundred years, the Castle Inn has stood at the heart of Hornby, welcoming travellers, traders and farmers through its doors. On market days the village filled with the sound of cattle and the talk of the people who had walked them in from the fells.

Today that story takes a new turn. The Old Shippon is one of only six homes — three houses and three apartments — that Holmes and Interiors have carefully crafted within this Grade II listed landmark. It is a home where honest country stone meets light, space and the comforts of modern life.

The heart of the home is a wonderful open-plan kitchen, dining and living space — a long, generous room that runs the full length of the house. Along one side, a wall of glazing floods the space with light and opens the view to the garden, so the room changes with the weather and the seasons.

At one end, the kitchen is designed for people who love to cook and entertain, with a run of units, integrated appliances and a large central island with seating for breakfast, homework or a glass of wine while dinner is on. Beyond it, the dining area has room for a table for six, and the living area offers space for a large sofa and a dedicated media wall — one sociable space where everyone can be together. A useful store keeps everyday clutter out of sight.

From the living space, a hallway leads to the bedrooms. The principal bedroom is a calm, generous double with fitted storage and a window to the front, and Bedroom Two is ideal for a child, a guest or a home office. A modern shower room serves the ground floor, making this a home with genuinely easy single-level living.

A staircase rises to a peaceful first-floor retreat. Bedroom Three sits privately above the rest of the house, with fitted storage and its own shower room alongside — perfect for visiting family, an older child who wants their own space, or a quiet guest suite.

Behind a façade of warm, weathered stone, The Old Shippon is approached through a traditional iron gate into its own private walled garden. Low stone walls with dressed copings, a sunny terrace with room for a bistro table, climbing roses and potted olive trees create an outdoor room that feels instantly settled — the perfect place for morning coffee or an evening glass of wine. Solar panels set into the roof help to keep running costs down, a thoroughly modern touch for a building with centuries of history behind it.

A nod to times gone by ...

Shippon is an old northern word for a cow house — the stone-built byre where cattle were sheltered, fed and milked. Its roots run back to the Old English scypen, and across Lancashire and the Dales the word lingered on in farmyards long after it had faded elsewhere.

For centuries Hornby lived by its livestock. Victorian gazetteers described the parish as wholly agricultural, a place of fewer than a hundred houses where cattle fairs were still held on alternate Tuesdays through the summer months. Beasts were walked in along the old drove road from the fells, and the Castle Inn stood right at the centre of it all: where deals were struck, drovers were fed and farmers settled up over a pint.

An inn at the heart of a market village needed its working buildings, and among them was the shippon — a simple, sturdy range of stone where cattle could be housed close at hand. The Old Shippon takes its name from that heritage. The thick stone walls that once kept out the Lu...

Life in Hornby ...

Hornby is one of the Lune Valley's loveliest villages, with the River Wenning flowing through it and Hornby Castle rising above. Across the road stands St Margaret's Church with its unusual octagonal tower, and the Main Street is lined with Georgian houses and stone cottages.
Lancaster lies around nine miles away and Kirkby Lonsdale around eight, with regular bus links to both and to Ingleton. The Forest of Bowland, the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District are all within easy reach — endless walks, cycle rides and country pubs on your doorstep, and a quiet village to come home to.

Four centuries at the heart of Hornby ...

Hornby was laid out as a planned market town in the thirteenth century, and the Castle Inn has always stood at its very centre — facing the old market place and the gates of Hornby Castle, whose story stretches back to a medieval pele tower. One of the castle's most famous owners, Sir Edward Stanley, fought at Flodden in 1513 and was made Lord Monteagle for his courage.
There has been an inn on this site since at least the late 1500s, when it was kept by Henry Chatburn, a local linen merchant and deputy bailiff of the Hornby Castle Estate. When the turnpike road arrived in the 1750s, the inn's fortunes rose with it, and the handsome Georgian building you see today took shape: squared sandstone, chamfered quoins, slate roof and elegant sash windows.
This was a coaching inn in the truest sense. Stage coaches between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale halted here, and local tradition holds that passengers riding on the roof could step straight into the inn through an upper door ra...

General Information

EPC Rating: TBC
Council Tax Band: TBC
Tenure: Freehold
Utilities: Mains-connected utilities

The service charge and ground rent are yet to be confirmed. All details are subject to verification.

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Disclaimer

These particulars are intended as a general guide only and do not form part of any offer or contract. Whilst prepared in good faith, Lune Valley Estates Ltd has not independently verified all information and cannot guarantee its accuracy. All measurements, floor areas, plans, photographs and descriptions are approximate and for marketing purposes only.
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