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.
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 rather than clamber down to the street. In the early nineteenth century the inn served as a meeting place for the castle estate; by the 1860s the local petty sessions were held here every other Tuesday, on the same days the cattle market filled the village. Within living memory, Hornby danced in its upstairs ballroom.
Even the ground beneath holds secrets. When the building was recorded by archaeologists, they uncovered an old capped well, possibly medieval, and an early fireplace that may once have served for brewing.
EPC Rating: TBC
Council Tax Band: TBC
Tenure: Leasehold – 250-year lease (TBC)
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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