Brief History of the Collection
The collection was started in 1570 by John Senhouse, Lord of the Manor of Ellenborough. He collected inscribed stones from the Roman fort and civilian town lying along the coastal ridge above the Manor House and, as was the practice at that time, set them within the walls of the family mansion Alneburgh Hall, later renamed Netherhall.
In the eighteenth century Colonel Humphrey Senhouse employed a man to preserve and record any carved stonework brought to light during the wholesale removal of much of the Roman Fort to provide building stone for the new town of Maryport. Some idea of the quantity of stone involved can be gained from a visit to Crosscanonby Church. Here, forming the chancel arch, you will see the complete archway to the northeast gate of the fort, re-erected in the church at Humphrey Senhouse’s behest.
Netherhall was vacated by the Senhouse family in 1962 and from then on the fabric of the mansion building and the associated outbuildings rapidly deteriorated. Concerns about the future of the collection led Roger Senhouse and Brian Ashmore to recover some 125 items from the ruins of the Mansion in 1965 and place these in the safety of the Mansion’s coach house.
The energy and determination of Brian Ashmore and Joe Scott Plummer, heir to the Senhouse estate, led eventually to the housing of the collection in the building known as the Battery (a Royal Naval Artillery Volunteer Drill Hall built in 1887 to train naval gunners) where it has resided since 1990.
Following years of vandalism, and finally a catastrophic fire in 1979, all that now remains of Netherhall itself is the 14C Pele Tower.