The Little Book of Cumbria E-Book

David Ramshaw

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 203

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

This is a fact-packed compendium of snippets from the past and present, including historical tales, legends and myths of the Lake District and the rest of the region from Barrow to Carlisle. The towns and villages all have their stories to tell of industries past and present, of natural and man-made disasters, of battles, of law and order, crimes and punishments. In The Little Book of Cumbria you will read of the people, their traditions, their heritage, language and folklore. The topics range from amusing trivia to great events that changed things forever. You can read the book from cover to cover or dip in at your leisure.

Leseprobe

First published 2018

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© David Ramshaw, 2018

The right of David Ramshaw to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7509 8820 9

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed in Great Britain

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

About the Author

Introduction

  1    The North-Western Part of the Country

  2    Carlisle, the Solway and the North-Eastern Fells

  3    The North-Eastern Fells

  4    Keswick and Borrowdale

  5    The Coastal Towns of Cumbria

  6    Grasmere, Ambleside and the Central Fells

  7    Windermere, Bowness and the South-Western Fells

  8    Ullswater and the South-Eastern Fells

  9    Honister Pass and the Central Southern Fells

10    Market Towns to the East of the Lakeland Fells

Acknowledgements

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Ramshaw is an author and local publisher. He began writing Lakeland guides with local history in the 1990s and has since won several ‘Lakeland Book of the Year’ awards. David has walked the Lake District for more than sixty years and has a wealth of interesting tales to tell. He is a committee member for the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild. David has an honours degree in physics and chemistry and taught physics for more than thirty years. He lives in Carlisle.

INTRODUCTION

Cumbria stands out from many other counties in England in that the terrain is very varied. There is the flat marshy land of the Solway Plain, with coastal towns and villages lining the shores of the Solway estuary. Inland there are remote and sometimes inaccessible fells, valleys and lakes, which form the central part of the area. Further east the land becomes friendlier with the rolling hills and fertile farmland of the Eden Valley. This remote area in the far north of England has attracted settlers for thousands of years, often for very different reasons.

After the last Ice Age it became home to Neolithic people, who lived in forts on the hilltops and foraged in the forests below. They eventually became the early farmers, who defended their mountainous land from other tribal groups. Then, 2,000 years ago, the Romans invaded to conquer and civilise England, reaching well into Scotland where they built the Antonine Wall; from the Clyde to the Forth. It might be said that this was a ‘wall too far’ and in AD 100 their frontier was brought back to Cumberland and Hadrian built his sea-to-sea wall from Bowness in the west to Wallsend in the east. He apparently decided that the lands to the north, occupied by the Picts, were just not worth the trouble of attempting further conquest.

After the Romans departed, chaos reigned again as the Saxon south tried to conquer the northern parts of England, leading to a depopulation of the area. This was soon remedied by Viking invaders, mainly from the Isle of Man. The Norsemen liked this land, which reminded them of home and, over the years, they settled in with the local population; resulting in our present native Cumbrian people. Further attempts to conquer Cumberland came after the Norman invasion with the building of castles around this mountainous land. However, the Normans were not successful in this endeavour and eventually they gave the area to the King of Scotland to govern.

By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the area immediately to the north and east of the Solway had become real bandit country, known as the ‘debatable lands’. Here the Border reiver families held sway, feuding amongst themselves and their neighbours, rustling cattle and sheep, killing, kidnapping and extorting protection money. This past lawlessness of the area is evidenced by the large number of fortified farmhouses and pele towers still to be found. The area only became really settled in Elizabethan times, apart from the Civil War and the 1745 rebellion, which caused some disruption to normal living.

Cumbria is best known, of course, for the Lake District National Park that falls within its boundaries, arguably the most scenic area of England and now awarded UNESCO World Heritage status. The Lake District has attracted visitors for hundreds of years with its narrow valleys, its lakes and tarns, all enclosed by steep-sided mountains. Poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge lived here and in Victorian times it became known as ‘the nursery of the alps’, as many of our early climbers and walkers gained their expertise in the Lakeland hills. The author has spent most of his life in the area, teaching, walking, exploring the mines, cycling and, since retiring, writing guidebooks and local history books.

Cumbria has a rich history of human occupation and development, enough to fill a hundred books. In this ‘little book of Cumbria’ the intention is to entertain the reader with interesting and amusing information about the inhabitants, the places where they lived, their folklore and their relationship with the land over the years.

David Ramshaw, 2018

1

THE NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY

ASPATRIA

Spatrie, as pronounced by the locals, or Aspatria is an ancient settlement and seems to have been home to a group of Norsemen who fled to the area from Ireland around AD 900. In 1789, a surgeon by the name of Mr Rigg employed a group of labourers to level a mound called Beacon Hill, situated close behind his house at Aspatria. After reaching a depth of about 1m they dug into a cavity walled around with large stones and found the skeleton of a Viking chief, almost complete and more than 2m long. At the head of the gigantic skeleton lay a sword of similar size, with a remarkably broad blade, ornamented with a gold and silver handle. The scabbard of the sword was made of wood, lined with cloth. The workmen also unearthed several pieces of armour, a dirk with a silver-studded handle, a golden-buckled belt, and a breastplate. The artefacts are in the British Museum. The village stands at the northern end of the West Cumberland Coalfield and there have been mines in the area since the sixteenth century. However, the last pit in the town closed in 1940.

WIGTON

The Romans had a cavalry station, Maglona, known locally as Old Carlisle, just to the south of the town with a large civilian settlement. From here they could react to incursions from north of Hadrian’s Wall. After Roman rule, Wigton was within the native British kingdom of Rheged, most likely of Anglian origin. Wigton and most of Cumberland were a part of Scotland in 1086 when the Domesday Book was written for William I, so are not included in it.

GEORGE MOORE

The most famous son of Wigton is George Moore, merchant, millionaire and philanthropist. In 1825, aged 19, George left rural Wigton to make his fortune in London. After several weeks of looking for work and being rejected he seriously considered emigrating to America. Then he was told to get in touch with a Cumberland man, Mr Ray, a partner in the firm of Flint, Ray and Co., haberdashers of Soho Square. Mr Ray came from an old Cumberland family who owned Lesson Hall near Wigton for many generations. Cumbrians in exile are a loyal clan, and Mr Ray immediately offered George accommodation and employment at £30 a year. Many years later, a fellow employee of Mr Ray commented that George ‘was the most unlikely lad in England to have made the great future that he did’. Throughout his years as a commercial traveller George put in relentless hours covering the length and breadth of the country. His ethics were so clean and his standards so high that his friend Charles Dickens, no less, portrayed him as the eponymous lead character in his collection of literary sketches and reminiscences, The Uncommercial Traveller.

Eliza’s Memorial.

George never forgot his native Cumberland. In 1857, now very rich, and recently widowed, he bought Whitehall, the scene of his wild and carefree boyhood. This he renovated over the next few years.

George erected a splendid memorial to his wife, Eliza, in the form of a fountain, which still stands in the centre of Wigton.

During his lifetime, George Moore gave away a fortune to establish training opportunities for young men, to set up libraries, and to enhance the work of schools and hospitals. Even after his death the bequests listed in his will, granted to around sixty charities and to family members, totalled around £220,000. Today that would be equivalent to £18.7 million. George died by accident in English Street, Carlisle, at the age of 70. A horse bolted free from livery stables in Lonsdale Street and careered wildly up Bank Street and into English Street, where George was standing outside the Grey Goat Inn (where House of Fraser stands today). The passing animal felled him to the pavement. He was carried into the inn and died soon after.

South of Aspatria and Wigton lies Bassenthwaite Lake, to the north of Keswick and bounded by the mountain of Skiddaw to the east at 931m (3,054ft). Bassenthwaite is noted for being the home of Britain’s rarest freshwater fish, the vendace. More than ten years ago it was declared as being ‘locally extinct’ until it made an unexpected reappearance in Derwentwater in 2013, then the only known remaining native habitat for this fish. However, in autumn 2016, a fish community survey of Bassenthwaite Lake recorded a single young vendace specimen.

The reader may be surprised to be told that Bassenthwaite Lake is the only lake in the Lake District. Surely you have all heard the question posed by many jokers in the past: ‘How many lakes are there in the Lake District?’ Answer: ‘One, Bassenthwaite Lake. All the rest are waters or meres, of course.’

As one travels north from Keswick on the A66, the steep slate scree slope of Barf is seen to the left with a large white-painted rock standing near the top of the scree. This is the Bishop of Barf, a memorial to a foolish wager. In 1783 the newly appointed Bishop of Derry, now Londonderry, was in the area and stayed at the Swan Hotel in Thornthwaite (now unfortunately closed, called Swan House, privately owned and part let as holiday accommodation). He wagered that he would ride his horse up the side of Barf and onwards to the summit of Lord’s Seat. Unfortunately, on attempting this feat, his horse fell on reaching the height of Bishop Rock, killing both horse and rider. The bishop was laid to rest at the base of the mountain and to commemorate his rather foolhardy enterprise the rock, known as the Bishop’s Clerk, was painted white by patrons of the Swan, who maintain the bishop in his pristine white coat to this very day. Since the hotel closed, local villagers have continued this tradition. The fee paid to patrons painting the rock was set at one shilling and a quart of ale.

Bishop Rock.

OSPREYS AT WHINLATTER

Whinlatter Forest, immediately to the south and west of Barf, is a great recreation area for visitors with all the usual facilities provided by the Forestry Commission for the public. However, in April 2001 Whinlatter became the first place in the Lake District where ospreys successfully bred. We know for certain that ospreys have not bred in the Lake District for at least 150 years. From 1916 onwards ospreys passed through Cumbria when migrating and they did breed (more or less undetected) in Scotland between 1916 and 1954, when a pair bred successfully on Speyside, the now famous Loch Garten site.

In 1998 it was decided to build a number of artificial nest sites at Whinlatter. Mating was observed on one of these sites in 2000. Very few people were aware of this. Even fewer people were aware that, in 1999, an osprey nested near the River Eden, south of Carlisle. However, the breeding failed at the egg stage. These birds returned in 2000 and successfully reared a single chick, the first in Cumbria for at least 170 years and the first recorded in England since 1842. This led to the formation of the Lake District Osprey Project in 2000 from three organisations: the Lake District National Park Authority, the Forestry Commission and the RSPB.

The birds returned in April 2001, as did the start of their protection. Foot-and-mouth disease ravaged Cumbria, an advantage and a disadvantage. Staff were released from other duties, making around the clock protection easier but due to animal welfare restrictions, access was difficult at the best watch points.

In those early days the top of Barf was an ideal site (kept quiet at the time) to watch the ospreys on their nest from above, until in April 2008, they decided to nest on the other side of the lake on a previously prepared artificial nest. Since then the official viewpoint has been on the lower slopes of Skiddaw Dodd. At the time of writing in 2017 a total of twenty-six chicks have fledged at Whinlatter, a great success story and a great tourist attraction.

THE EMBLETON SWORD

Embleton is the small village under Ling Fell between Keswick and Cockermouth. In the early part of the nineteenth century a Celtic sword, known as the Embleton Sword, was found in a field adjacent to Wythop Mill near the great stone, thought to be the site of an ancient battleground. The sword was in its sheath ornamented with enamels of various colours. It was placed in the Peter Crosthwaite Museum, Keswick, but it eventually found its way to the British Museum. It is believed to date from 50 BC and is probably the best example of its kind in Britain. In 1985, on hearing that the sword was miles from its ancestral home, three apprentices at Workington’s British Steel plant determined to make a steel replica. The sword was forged by the apprentices and the scabbard was made and decorated by Mrs P. Beaty of Cockermouth. In April of that year the replica sword, a truly beautiful object, was handed over to the village at a ceremony in St Cuthbert’s Church, where it now resides.

Embleton Sword.

CORPSE ROAD FROM WYTHOP/EMBLETON AND LORTON

The inhabitants of Wythop and Lorton talk about an ancient corpse road that linked the two villages. One story is that in the past there was no burial ground at Wythop, as Wythop was a township and chapelry within the parish of Lorton, and coffins were transported on horseback to High Lorton for internment. This is supported by the fact that some of the pews at Lorton Church were marked ‘Wythop Pews’. The route wound its way through Burthwaite, around the edge of Wythop Moss, over Widow Hause via Darling How and Skawgill Bridge to High Lorton. The name Widow Hause on the OS map gives this route some credence. It is supposed to be possible to see the raised stone resting places for the coffins along the route, but the author has yet to find them.

A possible alternative route is the well-graded path traversing the northern slope of Ling Fell and labelled Corpse Road on the modern OS map (Copse Road on the older versions). This route is more direct, although it does climb rather high up the fell and becomes indistinct at Tom Rudd beck.

KELSWICK CHAPEL

The remains of the old chapel, built in 1473, are still to be seen alongside the track that passes through Chapel Wood below Sale Fell. Chapel Wood is said to be the oldest surviving oak planting in the British Isles. The chapel, rebuilt in 1673, had no vestry, chancel, turret or spire. There was no font or burial ground, hence the need for a corpse road. The Wythop church bell hung in a tree near the east window. This had the disadvantage that the church bell would toll whenever there were gales, striking fear into the God-fearing local farmers. The church fell into disuse in the eighteenth century and was pulled down in 1865. For many years a church service has been held at the site of the old chapel on the third Sunday in August.

SILICA BRICKWORKS (SHAREPUFFING SCANDAL)

The visitor walking the remote track past Wythop Hall towards Beck Wythop may wonder at the signs of past industrial activity presented by the remains of the old silica brickworks. This was an ill-fated venture to produce fire bricks from the local quartz rock. A share prospectus to raise £120,000 was floated in 1932 and the building of the works provided work for fifty men over a two-year period. The plant, including kilns, a very tall chimney and a crusher, was duly completed with an overhead cableway being commenced to link the crusher with the quarry. Meanwhile, the kilns were fired up and about 50 tons of bricks produced in the first few days. Alas, that was all that was ever produced! On the next firing the kilns were somehow overheated and they all collapsed. This was rather fortunate for the instigators of the venture as it turned out there were no workable reserves of quartz in the area. No local money was involved. People the author has spoken with locally maintain that everyone, including the directors, knew the venture was not viable and that it was an example of a swindle known as ‘share puffing’. The works have since been pulled down and all that remains are the foundations of the plant and, in the forest, the plinths for the proposed cableway.

FLOODS IN NORTH-WEST CUMBRIA

Keswick, Cockermouth and Workington hit the headlines in November 2009 when the worst floods in living memory hit the towns. The greatest disruption occurred in Cockermouth. The River Cocker joins the River Derwent in the middle of the town so that the watershed from both the Lorton and the Derwent valleys met here, ‘reared up’, overtopped the banks and flooded large areas of the town before travelling onwards to Workington, where all the bridges were destroyed or damaged. In particular, the main road bridge connecting North and South Workington was washed away, resulting in the tragic death of PC Bill Barker, who was warning people to keep off the bridge when it suddenly collapsed under him. Continuous rain over the whole catchment at that time was the cause and it was later deemed to be a once-in-1,000-year flood. Yet, in spite of millions being spent on flood defences since then, in 2015, only six years later, these new defences were overtopped once more in all three towns, as well as in Carlisle. This book is being written in the summer of 2017 and there are still people who have not yet been able to return to their homes.

Cockermouth owes its name and existence to the river system. The nearby Roman camp of Dervenitio, modern Papcastle, was situated at the northern end of a crossing of the River Derwent, which flows from east to west just north of the present town centre. This was an important road junction in the support to Hadrian’s Wall. Other Roman forts are scattered along the coast from the end of the wall at Bowness, at Maryport, at Ravenglass and inland at Hardknott Pass. Nowadays Cockermouth is an attractive market town, very popular with walkers, exploring the north-western hills. The town is also famous for its association with various well-known people. The poet William Wordsworth was born here and, surprisingly, two other famous people were born in the small village of Eaglesfield, only a couple of miles south of the town. One was the mutineer Fletcher Christian, and the other was the father of atomic theory, John Dalton.

Dalton was a keen meteorologist, which involved a lot of mountain climbing: until the advent of aeroplanes and weather balloons, the only way to make measurements of temperature and humidity at altitude was to climb a mountain. Dalton was often accompanied by Jonathan Otley (mentioned elsewhere in this book), who was one of the few authorities on the heights of the Lake District mountains. John Dalton climbed Helvellyn once a year for about forty years, in his words: ‘to bring into exercise a set of muscles which would otherwise have grown stiff’. Once, caught in mist, they were slowly descending when Dalton exclaimed: ‘Not one step more! There is nothing but mist to tread on!’ Thus he saved the party above Red Tarn.

Travelling south into Lorton Vale, the next village encountered is Low Lorton next to the River Cocker. High Lorton adjoins above and to the east and, as its name suggests, is safe from flooding, unlike its neighbour. High Lorton is famous for the Lorton Yew, described by Wordsworth as follows:

There is a yew-tree, pride of Lorton Vale,

Which to this day stands single, in the midst

Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore:

(...)

Of vast circumference and gloom profound

This solitary tree! a living thing

Produced too slowly ever to decay;

Of form and aspect too magnificent

To be destroyed.

This poem probably saved the tree. In 1898 Edmund Bogg described the tree as being ‘now only a wreck of its former glory’. He continues:

In its pride and strength the trunk measured twenty four feet in circumference; one of its own branches was some years ago wrenched off right down to the ground. At another time the tree was actually sold for fifteen pounds to a cabinet maker from Whitehaven, and two men began to stub it up, but fortunately a gentleman from Cockermouth, hearing of its proposed destruction, made overtures to the owner, and thus preserved, though shorn of its ancient dignity, the pride of Lorton Vale.

The tree can still be seen today on the green behind the village hall in High Lorton. Incidentally, the large barn-like building, which is now the village hall, was originally a bobbin mill and later a well-known local brewery now based in Cockermouth.

DEATHS IN A FLOOD AT LOWESWATERAND OTHER DISASTERS

Further down the valley is Loweswater with Crabtree Beck flowing into it from Loweswater Fell above. There have been many lives lost over the years in the district due to both natural and man-made calamities. One such happening was recounted by Edmund Bogg in 1902:

Many years ago a small reservoir, or tarn, on the hill above the lake, burst, and came rolling in one huge wave towards the lake; a farm stood in its path, and one of the occupants, a girl who was outside the house, saw the dark mass of water sweeping downwards. Darting into the house, she informed the inmates (the master and a female) of the occurrence. These two had just reached the outside of the door in their endeavour to escape, when the wave caught them both, swept them into the lake, and their bodies were never discovered, whilst strange to say, the girl, who was first to discover the inundation, was saved by the water forcibly banging the door in her face and holding her prisoner, when she was in the act of following the other persons.

Recently, while researching for another book, the author came across a contemporary newspaper account of the event. It differs considerably from Edmund Bogg’s version, which was presumably handed down by word of mouth over a seventy-year period:

Carlisle Journal, 26 July 1828 (abridged):