Holmrook is a linear village in the English county of Cumbria. It lies along the A595 road on the west banks of the River Irt. The B5344 road connects it to Drigg, with its railway station less than two miles to the west.
Two miles north-east along the Irt valley is Irton Hall, a large mostly 19th century house which incorporates a 14th century pele tower.[1]
Holmrook Hall was a Victorian country house, at one time owned by the Reverend Charles Skeffington Lutwidge. His relative Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as the author, mathematician and photographer Lewis Carroll, used to come and stay occasionally.[2]
During World War II, Holmrook Hall was requisitioned by the Admiralty on behalf of the Royal Navy, with locals told that its was a rest home for shipwrecked and distressed sailors. In actually fact, strategically located between ROF Drigg and ROF Sellafield, it was the Royal Navy bomb and munitions training school between 1943 and 1946, under the title HMS Volcano. Defined as a Top Secret site, it trained both Royal Navy personnel, the Special Boat Service and Norwegian expatriates in the war time use of explosives and demolition. Among the graduates of HMS Volcano were:[3]
Post war, the hall fell into disrepair, and was later demolished. Today, only the stable block remains, converted into housing.