Kingmoor House, Estate and Gardens

Kingmoor is 3 miles North West of Carlisle. The moor was granted to the citizens of Carlisle for their general benefit but from 1682 onwards the corporation leased out parts of it for private use. Kingmoor House and gardens were built between 1682 and 1712. In 1794 the house was remodelled and enlarged and in this form still survives however its surrounding farmland has all but disappeared cut through by railways and built over by a marshalling yard and a maintenance depot as outlined below.

In 1846 the then owner of Kingmoor House John Burgess, a railway contractor, entered into a contract with Brassey and Mckenzie to excavate the Caledonian railway and in 1847 a newspaper said that the extent of the cutting at Kingmoor was about 103,000 cubic yards. Land was also acquired from the Estate for the North British Waverley line which opened in 1862 and in 1937 newspapers reported that the land at Kingmoor was being surveyed for a proposed RAF Cumberland Equipment Depot. The land was purchased and the depot completed 18 months later. Further land was taken from the estate in 1959 for the Kingmoor Marshalling Yard planned by British Railways and in 1964 again land was purchased by order of the Secretary of State for Defence and became No.1 Site 14 MU.