The earliest part of the building is a tower of fourteenth or fifteenth century date.
Woodwork
There are oak-panelled interiors, including the Inlaid Chamber, where the panelling is inlaid with floral and geometric patterns in pale poplar and dark bog-oak. The contents of the Inlaid Chamber were sold to the Victoria and Albert Museum in the 1890s and it was displayed as a reconstructed period room. The return of the panelling to its original location at Sizergh was advocated by among others Mark Girouard, an authority on England's country houses. The panelling returned in 1999 under a long-term loan. In 2017 it was reported that transfer of ownership to the National Trust had been made formal. The bargeboards probably date from the seventeenth century.
Paintings
The Castle contains a variety of paintings, including the following:
*a portrait of Mrs Anne Strickland by Harriet Strickland, and a portrait of Lady Edeline Sackville.
Portraits gallery
History
The Deincourt family owned this land from the 1170s. On the marriage of Elizabeth Deincourt to Sir William de Stirkeland in 1239, the estate passed into the hands of what became the Strickland family, who owned it until it was gifted to the National Trust in 1950 by Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland's grandson Lt. Cdr. Thomas Hornyold-Strickland, 7th Count della Catena. Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII and a relative of the Stricklands, is thought to have lived here after her first husband died in 1533. Catherine's second husband, Lord Latymer, was kin to the dowager Lady Strickland. It was extended in Elizabethan times. Sir Thomas Strickland went into exile with James II. Around 1770, the great hall was again expanded in the Georgian style.
Literary and Media interest
The Castle was featured in the ITV documentary Inside the National Trust. A room, now restored and known as the Inlaid Chamber, is the subject of Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poem The Queen’s Room, Sizergh Hall, Westmorland published in 1835.
Garden
The garden has a lake and a kitchen garden as well as an award-winning rock garden. The rock garden, which was constructed in the 1920s, is the largest limestone rock garden belonging to the National Trust. Sizergh houses part of the National Collection of ferns which are to be seen in the rock garden, the stumpery and the orchard.
Estate
In 1336 a grant from Edward III allowed Sir Walter Strickland to enclose the land around Sizergh as his exclusive park. The estate covers.
Biodiversity
There are various types of habitat on the estate. For example, in 2014 it was reported that 35 ha of wetland habitat was being created in the Lyth Valley on the western edge of the estate. The project received funding from Natural England as part of a higher level stewardship scheme. It is hoped to attract bittern and other wildlife. Sizergh has received support from the Morecambe Bay Nature Improvement Area which was launched in 2012. It received three years of government grant funding. Projects continue under the auspices of the Morecambe Bay Partnership, a registered charity.
Birds
The Sizergh estate is a good place to see birds. For example, hawfinches are attracted to the area because of its hornbeam trees, and these birds sometimes come close to the main car park.
