Excerpts from the Dallam Collection

The following document¹ is one of a group of informal papers in the Dallam collection which seem to have been the working papers of the Stewards of the Manor of Silverdale. It shows signs of having been revised and prepared for reading to a Jury. Its original references to a Queen and a plural Lordship date it about 1709-10 when Anne was Queen of England and Thomas Fletcher and Albert Hodshon were Lords of the Manor. By 1715, George I was King and John Gibson Lord of Silverdale.

“1) You shall enquire of all such things which concerne the Lords benefitt, as Suitors of this court, & for this you are to know that all that owe Suite to this court wherever they dwell or of what age soever they be are to attend here or to be amersed

2) If any of the Lords houses Lands custom Rents Services herrietts franchises royalties or evidences or the like, have beene withheld from them/him without their/his consent, by whome what it is & how long the same hath been withheld

3) If any encroachments be made upon the Lords Lands or upon the common without the Lords lycence or any Surcharge or abuse of the comon be by cattle or any put cattle upon the common which ought not

4) If any Tennant take away or destroy the Lords fish or fowl, or cutt or carry away any woods or take any swarms of bees swarms Eggs pheasant or partridge Eggs hawk or hunt within this Manor or doe other trespas without lycence of the Lord

5) It any Tennant within this Manor be dead whose death is not yet presented, what is come due to the Lord thereby & whoe is his next heire, that it may be knowne what is due to the Lord & of whome he may expect Suite & Service & Rent

6) If any Tennant be dead without heire Speciall or general, or if any Bastard purchas Lands & dye without issue of his body, for in all these case, the Lord is to have the Lands by escheate

7) If any Tennants have allyenated their lands, or exchanged any when, what & to whome, & what is due to the Lord thereby for the Lord must know whoe is Tennant that he may know of whome to expect his service

8) You are & must particularly enquire, if any persons have comitted any forfeitures, Freeholders may forfeit by comitting felony & beinge attainted by confession or conviccion in this case after the Queene/King has had her/his yeare & day, the Lord is to have the Lands, or by Selling their Lands into mortmaine or by Deed or Settlement or any other ways contrary to the Custome, is a forfeiture

9) Also Tennants may forfeit (as there are Severall amongst you whoe are guilty)/(if there be any Such amongst you) by doeinge of waste, Letting their houses of any sort fall down & become ruinous, by doeing of Felony, Cuttinge downe or marryeirge [sic] of Timber or other trees contrary to your decreed custome by conveyeinge passing or letting their Lands & not presenting their Deeds in due time alsoe they may forfeit by their not payeing their Rents, or not performinge their Services as Suite of Court & the like, especially if they refuse or deny

10) If any rescous or poundbreach be made of a distress taken by the Lord or his Bayleffe appoynted within this Manor or if any Rent or Service due to the Lorde is withholden whoe they are that fayles to pay or withholds the same

11) If any remove any antient bounds between Lord & Tennants or Tenant & Tenant or one Lord & another and many other ways may customery tenants forfeite their houses & lands the Seignory or inheritance being in the Lord & onely a possionary [sic] right persuant & exactly acording to custome & decree beinge vested in the Tennants

12) If any have divirted any antient watercourse out of its usual current or if any doe not make their fences good & sufficient or Top lop or cropp any trees at unseasonable time or comitt any other trespas or offence you ought to Fyne & present such ofenders & offences Lords mill [sic]

13) Now to speake for the benefitt & advantage of the Tennents for this you are to enquire if any take common that hath none, or haveinge common keepe more thereon in Summer than he can winter in his owne Lands in Winter, or chase & rechase between 2 farmes in 2 parishes, or put on cattle not comonable or inclose digg or delve upp build upon or inclose the land which ought to be common – Alsoe you shall enquire if there be any by law paine or other order made & appoyted to be kept by this Court be broken whereby a forfeiture accrews by any person being Guilty of the broach of such order or paine Alsoe if any trespes or offens be committed by any Tenant either by their goods or not repaireinge their fences, or lettinge their houses goe downe whoe they are, & whoe have neglected to pay their rents for Gentlemen on your neglect in presenting, the Lord will enter upon such lands as are forfeit, and/or if there be any other … or things enquirable & presentable within this court which I’ve omitted desire you’ll not be remiss for your owne good & Safety beinge upon your corporall oathes And when you are ready to give in your verdict shall be ready to take the same & give you any other assistance that shall be reasonable”

1. Cumbria Record Office, Kendal Archives, WD/b/S1(4). Printed here by the kind permission of Brigadier Tryon-Wilson. ↩︎

Published in Mourholme Magazine Issue 5 Autumn 1983

by J.D. Marshall [Ed: This is an amalgamation of three separate magazine articles]

The old Ward Lock Guides to towns and regions of England were in the habit of remarking upon ’Literary Associations’, and upon authors of note who had written about the districts concerned. Should these things concern a serious local historian? It is true that far too much of our time is spent in front of a flickering screen, which trains us in mental rubber-necking which does not, at the same time, involve us in any real effort, ‘we are too accustomed to the ‘ooh-think-of- that’ kind of appeal, to the satisfaction of idle curiosity. To what extent, then does it matter that famous people have trodden our lanes and looked at our magnificent scenery and – perhaps – written about it?

I think (with some reservations) that it does matter. A good and vivid writer will tell us things about our own historic landscape that we might not appreciate, or that we might not have noticed. Sometimes such a writer’s descriptions have real documentary value, and, at the very worst, a rather unfashionable or stilted author will at least tell us something about the attitudes and values of his or her own age.

Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell

The Mourholme Society’s territory is exceptionally blessed in that it has had some literary attentions from remarkable people. In at least one case, the writer’s observations were not meant to be published, but appear in private letters. Many readers will know that Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell, one of the most famous ‘social novelists’ of Victorian England, was in the habit of taking holidays at Gibraltar Tower, Lindeth, in the 1850s, and, fortunately for us, she wrote about it at fair length. Her letters were published in 1966, edited by Chapple and Pollard, and they contain numerous insights into local life. The difficulties of getting supplies of provisions are mentioned in June 1858, and Mrs Gaskell wrote:

‘Silverdale is so wild a place we may be happy to get a leg of mutton at all. I have had to dine 15 people as hungry as hounds, on shrimps and bread and butter and when they asked for more to tell them that there was no bread nearer than Milnthorpe 6 miles off, and they had to come down to oatcake and be thankful.’

Mrs Gaskell, in the original letter, even gives us the the pronunciation of Milnthorpe (‘Milthrop’), and, for the rest, we are sharply reminded that carrier’s carts were apt to be slow or non-existent, and that a Victorian family could face real privation in taking a holiday.

The habit of fairly well-to-do Victorian families was to rent houses for holiday purposes, and to stay away from home for up to a month. Hence, in an undated letter (c1850), Mrs Gaskell writes about ‘our annual migration to the sea-side’, and, during a longish stay, one could acquire numerous guests. Mrs Gaskell added: ’And we are keeping holiday in (the) most rural farmhouse lodgings, so that our children learn country interests, and ways of living and thinking.‘ In 1852, she was at the Lindeth lodging again, and she remarked: ‘We may have the tower-house at any time, but there it was so close’. (Here, then, is solid evidence – she did stay in this edifice, as the story goes, but historians are often right to distrust literary folk, and there is considerable tension and suspicion between the two interests! The history of the Lake District is bedevilled by scribblers who repeat each other’s stories, but let that pass). Nor was the closeness, or fug, in the Tower the only problem; letters tended to get lost in the country lanes, and the place swarmed with poultry, and, no doubt, their characteristic scents. But Mrs Gaskell helped in the tasks of the adjoining farm as well as entertaining guests. She also used Silverdale as a base for visiting eminent friends in the Lake District, and travelled to Kendal, and then to Windermere to meet, among other people, Mrs Wordsworth and the widow of Dr Arnold at Fox How near Rydal.

She was again at Silverdale in the August of 1855, and seems to have been in and out of the place from July to early September. She was excitedly collecting material for her famous Life of Charlotte Bronte, Three years later, she explained why the Morecambe Bay scenery so entranced her (in a letter of 25 July 1858):

I think – and it is pleasant to think — that one is never disappointed in coming back to Silverdale. The secret is I think in the expanse of view – something like what gives its charm to the Campagne – such wide plains of golden sands with purple hill shadows – or fainter wandering cloud-shadows, & the great dome of sky – (We have not sate up all night on our tower this time, partly because there have been no tranquil nights…)

So, we know what the Gaskell family did as a special treat when the weather was suitable. They sat on the top of the famous tower, doubtless watching the moonlight spraying across the damp sands when the moon was in the right quarter, and, perhaps, watching the sunset in the evenings, and feeling the impact of the dawn to landward in the early morning. And here is a comment on the changes of over a century. The countryside really was quiet in those days, and one could find blessed peace and solitude. This passage could have been quoted to the irresponsible and insensitive people who wish to dam up the Bay and to turn it into a still pond for motor boats.

Let Mrs Gaskell make a few more comments. It should be mentioned that she visited Poulton (Morecambe), Grange, Seascale and other places in the area. But she and her family were still visiting Silverdale in the summer of 1861, and their connection with Morecambe Bay plainly lasted for over a decade. Their descent on Lindeth, which commenced in the July of that year, had its disadvantages. The post was not only dreadfully slow: the postman rode a pony ’almost as old as himself to Lancaster every morning to fetch the letters; delivers them to Yealand; walks here; gets thirsty on the road; drops his letters, or forgets in which of his various pockets he has put them…’ The family, it appeared, were starved of reading matter, and our local resorts had a long way to travel before they became more than ‘adventure playgrounds’ of a testing kind.

Elizabeth Gaskell died suddenly in November 1865. Many members of the Mourholme Society will have read her Mary Barton, or North and South, or Cranford (a description of her home town of Knutsford, and the most delightful of all). Her home at 84, Plymouth Grove, Manchester, is safely in the hands of that city’s university, and has become a museum dedicated to her. When we visit it, we shall also remember that she forsook it sometimes to visit our own lanes.

Edwin Waugh

The opening of the railway line from Carnforth to Ulverston (1857) brought numerous travellers and settlers on the fringes of Morecambe Bay. One of the most remarkable visitors by rail, one who had a great affection for Silverdale and its district, was the Lancashire dialect writer and topographical author, Edwin Waugh (1817-1890).

Waugh is perhaps best known for certain dialect poems, like ’Cum Wham to thy Childer an’ Me’ and ’Besom Ben’, and he lived through, and partly created, a great resurgence of dialect writing in his home county. Like many of his fellows, he had to ’addle’ a living in ordinary pursuits for much of his life, and until the age of forty, he worked as a journeyman printer, secretary and salesman, chiefly in the environment of industrial Manchester, which he heartily disliked. Like many thousands of intelligent artisans, he had a profound hankering for the countryside, and had, as a young man, been drawn into the exploration of the Lancashire moors. In his first published volume, Lancashire Sketches (1855), he exploits the possibilities of local speech to the full, and, just as interestingly, he was later enabled to do so in the case of Lonsdale and the Lake Counties, especially when he published a further volume, Rambles in the Lake Country and its Borders (1861)¹.

It will be noticed that this was written soon after the opening of the through coastal railway route. Indeed, the last mentioned book contains numerous references to the railway:

’Before the railway was made, the old way of crossing the sands from Lancaster to Ulverston must have been very striking..,(p.44); ‘the new line of railway from Lancaster to Ulverston winds by Silverdale, with the grand features of land and sea full in sight’ (p.47).

Surely this sounds just like a guide book? Yes, indeed, this is just what Waugh was really writing. He was advertising our quiet corner of England in persuasive style, resting his approach on the new accessibility of the area and the growing taste for travel which was now reaching to the artisans as well as the ‘middling’ groups in society. He has a highly personal style, loaded, it is true, with the usual Victorian clichés and phrases; but, all the same, it succeeds in being fresh and lively, and one can be sure that he has really looked at the area he is writing about. His evocation of Grange-over- Sands is superb, giving us a picture of the Crown Inn before it had reached its later uninteresting respectability. And, of course, one should never forget that he helped to make our own area popular, or fashionable. Since the great majority of our students of local history are ’offcomers’, we must feel some sympathy with Edwin Waugh.

In Rambles in the Lake Country, there are three complete chapters, making a ‘Book’ on its own near the end of the volume, with ‘Silverdale’ as the subject. In the opening sentences, Waugh remarks

‘I sometimes think it strange that I should have lived so long in Lancashire without hearing of the place before’.

Not too surprising, for the author was raised in Rochdale, a very different place, and was a young man when the first railways were built. He goes on to say that ‘the life of this retired spot is all rural repose‘, and he keeps to the theme consistently. He writes of the ‘quaint manners, language and peculiar way of life of the inhabitants’. He used the Silverdale station as his starting point, and turned left towards Slackwood and Silverdale Green, but remarks that Silverdale itself is hardly a village; there is only a ‘village part… nearest to the sea, where the two hotels, and the little hat-full of a post office, with three or four other dwellings, stand within a few yards of one another’. The author asks for ‘Mister Fawcett o’ th’ Victoria Inn’, and there was indeed such a place at that time, as well as a post office and grocery – both appear in the Mannex Directory of North Lancashire for 1865. The ‘Victoria’ was ‘a large, plain white-washed building upon high ground’, and the author discovers later that his bedroom in the inn was used by the Salford M.P. Joseph Brotherton, a famous campaigner against the Corn Laws. There are other bits of local history: ‘This is the table ‘at old Lord Derby’s steward used to receive his Arnside rents on’.

Waugh, like Mrs Gaskell, looked with fascinated eyes at the awe-inspiring sweep of the tide-empty sands: ‘Out towards Lancaster the water was in full sight, bright and smooth as a mirror’. He noted the existence of a solitary cottage known as ‘the Bath House’. More strikingly, he noticed a drove of cattle on their way from Kents Bank to the Warton shore, another piece of striking lore, because one does not usually think of the Bay as a drove road! Yet it plainly was one, and, of course, cattle regularly crossed the Solway sands in the same manner. The landlord later tells him that ‘if you’ll be up in good time i’ th’ mornin, you’ll see maybe eighty or a hundred fishin’ boats in the bay – like a fleet cornin’ up to tak th’ place’.

So, the shrimping and other vessels were as numerous as that, even in 1860, before Morecambe had properly appeared. These evocations of rural peace and quietude were, of course, enjoyed when the Carnforth furnaces had not been built, and when Barrow’s first ironworks was only beginning to smear the horizon with its smoke. Meanwhile, it is not likely that Waugh was inventing many, or any, of these observations, because he had a remarkable ear for speech, and he paints pictures of individuals emitting dialect and strange expressions. The impression, much of the time, is of a silence so unearthly that one can hear the sea going out or coming in across the Bay – not something that most of us notice today. At the same time, it should not be thought that Waugh was so sensitive that he painted scenes different from those of most other people; it was simply that he came from industrial Manchester, where the iron tyres of drays and lorries were beginning to make a frightful noise on the flags of the streets, and where hooters, whistles and buzzers were becoming the rule. Likewise, Silverdale was very thinly settled; one had to look hard to pick out the houses. We need the assistance of vivid writers to interpret the quality of life and scenery in the past.

Local history is not all ’facts’ of a down-to-earth kind; it calls for imagination in order that it can be properly understood. We are lucky that Edwin Waugh visited the district when he did.

Many of the ’literary associations’ of our area are mere accidents, glancing and fortuitous. How could it be otherwise? Hundreds of distinguished people have passed through Carnforth station on their way round the Bay, all of them carrying their own unforgettable impressions of the district, and some of them taking away images that were less than pleasant.

I recall that Lord Bullock, somewhere in his writings, describes how he stood on Grange-over-Sands station and heard the news of the outbreak of the last war. Our area has attracted distinguished scholars of one kind and another, and one only wishes that more of them had written about it. On another occasion, however, one of the most gracious of our novelists in this century did leave a charming note behind her. Many members of the Society will have read, and been enthralled by, Winifred Holtby’s South Riding. Much of Winifred’s story is told in Vera Brittain’s Testament of Friendship, and her personality is immortalised in Winifred’s own letters, which have been published (Letters to a Friend, 1971). One can imagine this tall, eager, unspoilt young woman journeying through Carnforth one autumn day in 1922, when memories of the war, and university, were still keen. Alas, she did not say anything about Mourholme territory, but, on her way to lecture in Seascale, she did stop in Grange, and wrote a letter ’On a rock by the sea at Grange-on-Sands, Oct. 9th:

‘The station comes right up to a rocky beach, and is practically washed by the sea. It’s a glorious day, windy and sunny, with seagulls blowing about the air, so down I came to a rock…The sea in front of me is molten steel. The sky is a faint, steelish blue, and there are sea birds crying. I wish that my paper could smell of salt for you…‘

Published in Mourholme Magazines Issue 5 Autumn 1983, Issue 6 Winter 1983 and Issue 7 Spring 1984

by David Peter

Inspired by the excellent talk on the origin of place names, given to the Society in December 1982 by Mr J. Hughes of Kendal, the writer of this article was tempted to look more closely at place and other names in his own locality and to try to determine their origins and meanings.

The area selected, namely Silverdale, formed part of the ancient parish of Warton, and it is hoped that as a result of this exercise other members of the MLHS may become sufficiently interested as to ‘tackle’ the place names in their own neighbourhoods. Many of the explanations and origins given below are derived from the works of Professor Eilert Ekwall. It seems strange that he, a Scandinavian, should have been such an eminent authority on English place names. Many of the names, however, have too local a significance to have been considered by Ekwall. In a number of such cases the meanings are obvious, but where this is not so, possible explanations have been suggested.

Silverdale (together with Arnside) occupies a rocky peninsula bounded by a line of low cliffs. It is almost completely surrounded by water and marsh. In fact until relatively recent times it was to all intents and purposes an island. There is little or no evidence from its place names that it offered much attraction to the English (mainly Anglian) or later the Danish invaders who penetrated and settled in N.W. England in the centuries after the departure of the Romans, although their presence on the mainland of N.W, England is evidenced by the number of settlements in Lancashire and Cumbria with the following typical name endings:

In the Warton area, for example, there are many examples of these:

However, it was not until the invasion of N.W.. England, around 900 A.D., by peoples of Scandinavian origin, whose ancestors had much earlier rounded northern Scotland and settled in Ireland and the Isle of Man, that the place names suggest permanent settlements in the Silverdale peninsula, typical Norse words are

Names of Settlements

Silverdale

Popular theories as to the origin of this name are:

• a. that it derives from the colour of the exposed carboniferous limestone rocks which underlie the whole area, and
• b. that it relates to the silver birches, a common tree in the woodlands hereabouts.

It now appears certain, however, that it was the valley or dale (Old Norse, dalr) settled by one Selvers, a Norse personal name, which produced the name of the place. The earliest form of it (1199) was ‘Selredal’.

Arnside

Arnside was the summer pasture (Old Norse (ON), saetr) of a farmer called Arni

Lindeth

Lindeth may in fact be the oldest settlement. The earliest form of the name was ‘Lyndeheved’ (Old English (OE) linde = lime tree; OE heafod = hill summit).

Names of Natural Features

Barrow

There are four possible explanations of the origin of this word; OE burg = fort, OE bearu = grove or wood, OE beorg = tumulus or burial mound, and OE beorg = hill or mound.

In Silverdale, the fourth of these is the probable origin. Examples: Middlebarrow, Castlebarrow, Gait Barrow, Trowbarrow, and further afield, Cringlebarrow and Whitbarrow. The ’trow’ part of Trowbarrow is an abbreviation of ’trough’, and this refers to a natural trough or trench, varying in width and depth, which emerges from Leighton Moss, runs in a northerly direction across the face of Trowbarrow for four miles and then disappears into the Kent channel near Sandside. ’Brow’, as in Heald Brow, could be either a corruption of ‘barrow’ or possibly derived from OE bru = slope.

Slack

From ON slakki = shallow dell or valley. Examples, Waterslack, Elmslack, Slackwood, Dogslack (Well), Orchard Slack (near Cove), and further afield, Witherslack and Hazelslack.

Bottom

From OE botm or ON botn = valley or dell. Examples, Bottom’s Lane, Bottom’s Farm

Haweswater

From OE Earnwulf = a personal name or OE heafod = hill or ON hals = a col (pass between two hills) plus ‘water’.

This small lake was at one time referred to as Arnside Dub. ‘Dub’ = a small pool or pond.

Eaves

From OE efes = border, edge of wood (later also brow of hill). Eaves Wood is now National Trust property.

Know Hill

From OE knoll = hillock.

Cow’s Mouth

Possibly a landfall, provided by a break in the cliffs, for cattle drovers driving their herds across the Kent Sands to markets in industrial Lancashire.

Heald

From OE hielde = a slope. Example, Heald Brow.

Jack Scout From OE ac = oak, or ON eik = oak; and ON skuti = high rock or precipice.

Moss

From OE moss = marsh or bog’ or ON mose = marsh or bog

Examples, Leighton Moss, Haweswater Moss, Silverdale Moss, and Arnside Moss.

Jenny Brown’s Point

There are many fanciful explanations of the origin of this name. What is certain is that a man called Brown farmed in this area in the 17th century. It seems reasonable to assume that Jenny was a member of his family. Close to the farm (Dykes Farm) there is a row of several houses known as Brown’s Cottages.

Cove

From OE cofa = a recess or cove

Quick Sand Pool

The lower reach of the stream which drains Leighton Moss. The name is self explanatory.

Silverdale Green

‘Green’ was the name given to public grass land situated near to a village. The Enclosure Acts gradually swallowed them up. The name, however, persists in many places, as here.

Potter Hill

The Wallings Lane-Elmslack Lane area was the site of one or more potteries in mediaeval times. Much evidence of this in the form of shards and domestic utensil fragments has been unearthed whilst the gardens of new properties built here in recent years were being developed. The source of clay was the shoreline of Haweswater (fields called Clayholes). Markets were probably quite local, but may have included Cartmel and Conishead Priories and Furness Abbey across the sands.

Names of Roads

Gate

Probably from ON gata = road. Examples, Emesgate, Bradshaw Gate, Waterslack Gate, Ford Gate. ’Gait* as in Gait Barrow probably means ’goat’.

Stankelt Road

From OE stan = stone and ON kelda = spring or well Stankelt Road was formerly (1817 Enclosure Map) called Levens Field Road. Levens was the name of a fanner in Lindeth. His name is now preserved in Levens Way.

Park Lane

Either (a) a corruption of Parrock (enclosure)

or (b) so called because of the park-like appearance of the adjoining fields, created by the planting of many trees (mainly oaks), singly and in groups, by the Inman family who lived at Hill House and owned this land in the first half of the 18th century.

At one stage (1848 O.S. Map) it was called Mine Road. A field near Red Bridge Farm is called Mine Field. It has also been known as Chapel Lane.

Wallings Lane

Members of the Walling family at one time owned the land on both sides of this lane.

Inman’s Road

This is the main track through Eaves Wood. The Inman family for many years lived at Hill House (later Woodlands).

Hollins Lane

From OE holegn = holly

Emesgate

No ready explanation is forthcoming as to the meaning of the ‘Emes’ part of this word. Could it be a corruption of ‘Eaves’ and thus the road to Eaves Wood?

Red Bridge Road

So called after the colour of the soil in this area (copper or iron ore). Formerly (1817 Enclosure Map) it was Myers Road.

Lindeth Road

It was formerly Sand Lane (1848 O.S. Map).

The Row

OE raw = a row of houses, a street. Several groups of old cottages still exist. They now merge with modern housing.

Townsfield

This name survives, and is applied to an unadopted road/footpath which connects Cove Road and Emesgate. This was the name given in the north of England to the common arable land of the village, before it was enclosed. The common field was divided into strips among the villagers. Much of what was once the ‘Town’ field has now been built on, but two large fields remain under grass.

Names of Farms

Silverdale is an unusual village, in that it has not grown up around some central point, determined by natural advantages. Rather has it developed as a series of separate farmsteads. Over the years certain of these increased in size as more land was brought under cultivation, necessitating additional workers and therefore extra accommodation. More recently, modem housing developments have linked up certain of these early settlements to produce a village, to which shops and other facilities have been attracted. Possible explanations of the names of a number of the farms have already been given under previous headings; for example, Slackwood, Red Bridge, Waterslack, Bottoms, Bradshawgate, etc.

The following farms with interesting names have not so far been mentioned.

Green Farm

Now derelict, it is part of the Silverdale Green nucleus.

Bank House

Possibly from OE banke or ON bakki – sloping ground or hill. It could also be attributed to

• (a) Sand Bank, it overlooks the shore and the river Kent,
• or (b) Bank, the home of a banker (cf. Waithman).

Dyke Farm

Land drainage ditches and channels of streams running into the sea are known locally as Dykes.

Fleagarth Farm (site of)

From either Danish flaeg = flag (iris) and other water plants (many still grow in this area), or ON fla = a small ledge on a hill side, plus ’garth’ = enclosure.

Myers Farm

From ON myrr = marsh or bog or Mid. English mire = marsh or bog

Gibralter

Many attempts have been made to explain this name, by splitting the word into three syllables, producing something like ‘the home of the family of …’. The true explanation is probably something very much simpler. It was at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century that the farms in this area, previously built of wood, were replaced by stone buildings. In 1704 Sir George Rooke captured Gibraltar, and it is not unreasonable to assume that in a moment of intense patriotism the new farm buildings made of stone on this site were given the name ‘Gibraltar’. No doubt its position on top of a rocky eminence, overlooking the sea, was vividly reminiscent of the Rock of Gibraltar.

Challan Hall Possibly from OE cealc = chalk or limestone, or possibly Challan was a family name.

Ossliff

From OE Oslaf = a personal name or ON Oswulf = a personal name or ON Osmund = a personal name

Names of Houses

The names of houses, especially of older properties, can often provide valuable information about the local ’scene’. A few examples from Silverdale will serve to illustrate this point.

Tower House

This is sited close to Gibraltar Farm and was so called because of a three storey summer house erected in its grounds in 1842 by a Mr Henry Paul Fleetwood. It is one of the few of the many summer houses (Belvederes or Gazebos) built by the owners of the larger houses in Silverdale around the middle of the last century which survive and have been well maintained. It is of particular interest because in the 1850’s Elizabeth Gaskell, the Victorian novelist, came to Silverdale with her children for their summer holidays and stayed at the adjoining farm. It appears certain that some of her books were at least conceived and possibly written in Lindeth Tower.

Wolf House

Nearby is Lindeth Lodge, popularly known as the ‘Wolf House’. In recent years it and its outbuildings had been converted into a very successful Art and Crafts centre, but now is holiday lets. There is a local ‘theory’ that the name ‘Wolf House’ derives from the fact that from it, on the opposite side of the Kent estuary and some four miles distant, Humphry Head is visible. This is one of the several places where the last wolf in Britain is reputed to have been killed. Actually, the house is so described because over the front door the coat of arms of the Fleetwood family has been incorporated into the stone work. Above the coat of arms and part of the crest is the figure of a wolf, and below the family motto, ‘Homo Homini Lupus’ (Man is a wolf to his fellow men).

Waithman House

This is one of the oldest houses in the village. It was once owned and occupied by a Quaker business man and banker of that name. He was interested in the manufacture of linen (for example, mills at Holme based on locally grown flax), and he probably helped finance the drovers who landed their cattle at nearby Cow’s Mouth after crossing the Kent Sands.

Old Post Office

The reason for this name is obvious. It is now a private residence, having ceased to function as a post office about the turn of the century.

The Shieling

This house at Richmond Hill was built about 1880 by Mrs Gaskell’s daughters. The name means a ‘summer pasture’ or a ‘homestead used only in summer’. It could be interpreted as perpetuating their mother’s idea of escaping from the smoke and grime of industrial Manchester to this rural retreat. From 1914 to 1948 it was the home of Mr Gordon Bottomley, author and poet.

Windyridge

This house is situated on Wallings Lane. It was occupied for 55 years, from 1919 to 1952, by the novelist William Riley. It was so called after the title of his most successful book, which was actually written in 1912 before he came to live in Silverdale.

Gray Green

This is one of the older houses on the ‘Green’. No suggested origin of the word ‘Gray’ is forthcoming. It is just possible, however, that it is derived from ‘Crayke’ (Welsh craig = a rock) and that Gray Green is a corruption of Crayke Green. It is certainly built on a rocky eminence.

Pye Hall

Possibly from OE pie = gnat and OE hath – low lying ground beside a stream or at the edge of mosses. It is an old house built on a slight eminence in a low lying area. This was obviously once swampy and was possibly, therefore, infested by insects.

Castlebarrow (The ‘Pepper Pot’)

Published in Mourholme Magazine Issue 4 Summer 1983

Silverdale Gate Names – Published in Mourholme Magazine Issue 5 Autumn 1983 in Notes and Queries

Mr Peter suggests that the ‘gate’ place names come from ON gata, ‘a road’. I think it is more likely that the Silverdale ‘gate’ names come from OE geat (Norn. pl. gatu), ’an opening, a gap’, often used to mean an opening in a fence and by implication a bander used to close it. In 17th century Silverdale documents the word appears as both ’yeat’ and ‘gate’ and refers unmistakably to gates or barriers. Ford Yeat and Winder/ Winter Gap Yeat were at Waterslack, the gate at the ford and the gate at the winder gap. The second element in ’winder/winter’ may be ON erg, *a summer hill pasture’, and ‘winder gap’ may have meant ‘the opening into the windy summer hill pasture’. The Bradshaws, who gave their name to Bradshaw Gate, were 16th century millers (a clue, perhaps, to the location of the Silverdale windmill). Emesgate, however, is a problem. Mr Peter suggests that the first element might be a corruption of ‘Eaves’, but the early documents have only various spellings of Emes (Eames, Emms). I wonder if it isn’t another ‘locating’ word like Ford and Winder Gap. OE efen, efn, emn meant ‘even, flat, level’. Whether it is possible that emn, which produced Emborough, could have produced Emesgate is a question I can’t answer, but it is easy to see why a gate here might have been identified as the gate ‘at the level place’. The terrain at Emesgate is certainly level; it is, in fact, the only really broad plateau-type area in Silverdale. NYT Source: A.H. Smith, English Place-Name Elements. Part I English Place-Name Society XXV (1956).

By Desmond Holmes

The earliest documentary evidence we have for the castles of the Barony of Kendal is the treaty of 1216 made between Gilbert FitzReinfred, Baron of Kendal, and King John. Gilbert supported the barons’ rebellion of 1215 against King John; its failure resulted in his suing for peace and the imposition by John of a crippling fine and the seizure of Gilbert’s fortresses, the castles of Morhull and Kendal.

The site of Morhull was lost. Historians, including the late Dr William Farrer, suggested that it probably lay somewhere in the vicinity of Dockacres Farm. As a result of research done by Paul Booth and members of his group, investigations were made in the Dockacres area. There was discovered a concentration of medieval pottery and finds which archaeologists now accept as proof of the existence of a large and important household during the medieval period. Whether the complex of buildings listed in an Inquisition of 1347 were of stone or timber cannot be ascertained, the site having been completely destroyed by gravel workings.

Tom Clare, an archaeologist who worked on the rescue excavations, is convinced that the buildings were entirely of timber construction and consequently would have left no remains. It should be noted, however, that there are accounts of the 18th and early 20th centuries of the remains of mortared freestone walls on the site. It is perhaps possible that these walls had replaced the pallisades of an early motte and bailey castle.

Fortunately at Kendal, the caput of the Barony, there are substantial remains of two castles. A motte and bailey, probably Norman, stands on high ground 730 yards west of Highgate. The large level area on its western and northern flanks is the former Beast Banks cattle fairground. This castle consisting of an earthen mound protecting a triangular shaped bailey has not been excavated and its builder is not known. This type of structure was in widespread use during the Norman period and good examples can be seen at Sedbergh, Halton, and Hornby. It was probably replaced in the late 11th or early 12th century by the stone castle which stands on the hill to the east of the town.

Built on a site dominating the borough of Kendal and the upper Kent Valley, it takes the form of an enclosure castle. It relied on the strength and height of a roughly circular curtain wall surrounded by a deep dry ditch to protect the residential and domestic buildings built within the courtyard or bailey. There is no evidence of a keep but there are substantial remains of four wall towers. The southern tower is the largest and could have provided accommodation for the castle’s constable, the official responsible for the defence and maintenance of the castle. It may have been the tower which in 1409 Agnes, the widow of John Parr (Lord of Kendal), was awarded as part of her dower described as the ’Troutebeck tower ‘, together with a granary and shares in a stable and dovecote, all within the castle.

The entrance to the castle was from the north through a gatehouse of which very little remains. Excavations have revealed it had round fronted towers. It would probably have had a portcullis, and a drawbridge would have been required to cross the ditch. The ruins of the hall built on cellars stands to the east of the gatehouse site. The Royal Commission Survey of 1956 suggests a 14th century date. The earlier hall and domestic buildings may have been originally of timber. A complete excavation of the castle courtyard could give us much more information.

Gilbert FitzReinfred acquired the Barony of Kendal by his marriage to Heloise de Lancaster, whose ancestors had been Lords of Kendal from at least the early 12th century. Their descendants, the Brus, Roos, and Parr families continued to hold Kendal castle until 1571 when William Parr, Marquis of Northampton, died without legal heirs. A survey made in 1572 for his widow Helen details the ruinous state of the castle; only the hall block and the dove cote remained within the courtyard. Helen exchanged her dower rights with Queen Elizabeth for lands elsewhere and the Queen disposed of the castle and park lands, separating it from the Barony.

After passing through the hands of numerous owners the castle was acquired by Kendal Corporation and opened to the public to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1897. William Parr’s sister Katherine, who married Henry VIII, was, according to the 17th century historian Sir Daniel Fleming, born in Kendal castle. Her parents were, however, attached to the court as her father was Comptroller to Henry VIII, and they had a house in Blackfriars near the Royal Palace of Brideswell. If Sir DanieI is correct there must have been compelling reasons for Katherine’s mother to travel north to Kendal for the birth. Queen Katherine died in 1548 at Sudeley castle in Gloucester, the home of her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour. Some years ago her prayer book was acquired for the town and is now on display in Kendal’s Town Hall. A letter from Katherine to her brother William was sold quite recently at Sotheby’s.

The history of the castle suggests that the Parrs, an extremely ambitious family who acquired estates in Northamptonshire and were drawn to the Court, lost interest in Kendal castle as a residence and allowed it to fall into a condition beyond repair.

Notes and Queries

[Ed] Morhull is also spelt Mourholme in other document, hence the name of the Society

Now We Shall Never Know By Tom Clare

The succinct article on the castles of the Barony of Kendal raised again the question of whether Mourholme was of timber or stone. Whilst it is possible some of the stonework reported at earlier times – and sometimes attributed to Roman docks, etc – belonged to the mediaeval structure, no solid evidence was found in the salvage reconnaissance undertaken in 1974. This is, however, not surprising; the portion of the presumed site then remaining being too small to be an indicator of anything other than rubbish pit. Rather than be convinced that the building was wholly of timber, I believe the evidence does not allow us to say what materials were used. One possible clue is, however, the apparent smoothness of the ridge on which Hallsteads barn stood prior to the commencement of quarrying. The barn is thought to have stood on the site of the castle and the smooth character of the ground not usually what we would have expected if the site had once been a substantial masonry structure. But we should not forget that half-timbered buildings usually require light masonry and that the rebuilding of many manor houses in stone in the 14th century and after allow the suspicion of a late use of timber ‘fortifications’ in the area.

Works consulted:

• Nicholson and Burn, History of Westmorland and Cumberland (1777).
• Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Westmorland (1936)
• William Farrer, Records of Kendale, Vol 1 (1923).
• Tom Clare, Archaeological Sites of the Lake District (1981).

Published in Mourholme Magazine Issue 5 Autumn 1983 and Issue 6 Winter 1983

By Robert Ashmead and David Peter

Origin of Mineral Deposits

Much of North Lancashire and South Cumbria, including the Warton, Silverdale, and Arnside area, is overlaid with a thick deposit of carboniferous limestone. In these limestone beds there is a variety of mineral deposits, most of which have been explored and many worked over a long period of time. They include, in so far as this district is concerned, particularly iron and copper, neither of which however is present in any great quantity.

There are two main schools of thought as to the origin of these minerals. On the one hand it is suggested that they were derived from a thick deposit of New Red Sandstone, quite rich in iron, etc., which once covered the limestone, but which has been largely worn away. Some of the mineral matter, leeched out by water, has accumulated in the cracks and cavities in the underlying limestone. Others however believe that magma, or hot water and gases, with mineral matter in suspension or solution, and welling up from great depths, filled the faults and fractures in the limestone. One or other or possibly both these processes have produced the ores which are now found in irregular masses, veins, pipes, or flats, even though in limited quantities, throughout this area.

Minerals to be Found Here

The main mineral found in this district is iron. This takes many forms, the two chief being:-

• Haematite – Ferric Oxide (Fe20j). This varies from red, earthy powder to a dark compact, shiny mineral. It contains 70% metallic iron.
• Limonite. An iron ore with water. It is in fact natural rust. It is soft and earthy and contains 48-60% iron.

Other forms of iron to be found hereabouts are

• Siderite – Ferrous Carbonate (Fe CO^). It is usually brown in colour. Its iron content is low (45/9*
• Pyrites/Marcasite (Fe S2). ‘Fool’s Gold’, 54% sulphur , 46% iron.

The next most common mineral to be found here is copper. It occurs in close association with iron. The chief forms are:

• Malachite (Green, 57% copper) and Azurite (blue, 55% copper). Carbonates of copper usually found together.
• Cuprite – Copper Oxide (CU2O). It is reddish brown. Formed by the weathering of other ores, it is usually found near to the surface.

Other minerals found locally are

• Manganese Oxide. Used to toughen steel.
• Pyrolusite – Manganese de-oxide (Mn O2).

Non-metallic deposits include:

• Calcite (Ca COj). The most common of the carbonate minerals.
• Aragonite (Ca COj). Harder than calcite, eg. mother of pearl lining of sea shells.
• Dolomite. Similar in crystal form to calcite but harder.
• Gypsum. Used for Plaster of Paris, plaster board, etc.
• Quartz (Si O2). One of the most common minerals. It comprises 12% of the earth’s surface and is a constituent of many rocks.

The Chief Mines on Warton Crag

They are located particularly in the Crag Foot area, where minerals were recovered in three main places:

• 1, Lower Mine (South Level) This lies closely behind the cottages adjoining the old chimney at Crag Foot. From this point there was an extensive interconnecting network of workings. The main shaft (Laycock’s Shaft) is blocked. The adit is 400 ft. long and runs northwest.
• 2, Higher Mine (North Level). Sited 1/2 mile E.N.E. of the Lower Mine, in Grisedale Wood, the remains of an extensive series of workings are still to be seen here. Most are now inaccessible. The main shaft was Gillow Shaft. These two areas were first worked in the 18th century for copper. The mining here can be linked with the bell pits and adits, still identifiable on Heald Brow, on the opposite side of the valley. The copper extracted from all these sites was smelted at the works at Jenny Brown’s Point. This lasted for barely ten years, however, and the buildings, except for the chimney which still stands, were demolished in 1802. The search for copper was inspired by the need to produce bronze, a mixture of copper and tin, to make cannon for use during the Napoleonic Wars. By way of interest, the tall chimney at Crag Foot has nothing to do with the mines. It was erected in the middle of the last century to provide the flue for the engine at the pumping station sited there to drain water off Leighton Moss.
• 3. Crag Foot Mine, including Windy Scout Mine Sited some 4 mile S.E. of the Lower Mine, its main building measured 80 ft by 20 ft and was adjacent to the now blocked main shaft. Only the foundations and the winch beds remain. The ore was raised by means of a steam engine which was housed on the opposite side of the shaft to the main building. A short distance to the north was a small concrete reservoir, which still exists. To the south of the main building were the crushing basins. These were also worked by the steam engine.

The main mineral obtained from the Crag Foot Mines was oxide of iron (Haematite). It occurred at depths of from 0-/0 ft. Open cast mining took place at the eastern extremity, near Occupation Lane, and this was the first area to be developed. Deeper workings were opened later. The ore was really of poor quality, and hardly suitable for smelting. It occurred chiefly in pockets. There does not appear to have been any particular method of mining it. The miners spotted a deposit and worked at it, or tested it and left it. Some rich deposits were left, probably deliberately (as for tin in Cornwall). They knew it was there and left it for a ‘rainy day’. When the demand increased and prices rose, or when there were no other discoveries, they returned to it.

The oxide was first broken into small lumps, and then crushed. After this it was sifted, mixed with water, and placed in wooden troughs. Then the water was run off and the resultant ‘mud’ was dried. Finally, it was graded into different ‘meshes’ and packed into kegs. In the early days it was despatched by pack horse or wagon, but after 1857 it was sent by train from Silverdale station. It was sent to Lancashire towns, and to Lancaster in particular where it was used by Williamson’s and Storey’s (both major shareholders in the mining company) for the making of red linoleum. Other good customers were to be found in Liverpool and Manchester. Some of the finances of the mining companies were derived from these two cities. In addition, the treated ore was used in the manufacture of red paint, hence the local name applied to the workings: the ‘Paint Mines’. Known also as ‘Reddle’ or ‘Ruddle’, it was used by farmers for marking their sheep.

Other Minor Workings in the Area

There were quite a number of other smaller mineral excavations on the Crag: Fairy Hole Mine, Potts Wood and Three Brothers Mine, Warton Crag Mine and B.S.C. Mine, none of which appears to have been very productive. Actually the whole of the Warton, Silverdale, Yealand, and Arnside area is scarred by the excavations left by mining prospectors:

• Arnside, White Creek Mine at Blackstone Point
• Silverdale, Red Rake at the Cove, Jack Scout, Heald Brow, and Challan Hall
• Yealand, Cringlebarrow

Over the years vegetation has covered most of the evidence, making it difficult often to identify the sites.

History of the Mining at Crag Foot

The mines in this area seem to have been worked very spasmodically and for limited periods, when the prices were high or when the demand justified it. Such occasions were followed by closures for lengthy periods. Not many people seem to have been employed at any one time. The census of 1851 refers to ‘four men down below and two men and a boy above the ground’.

Eighteenth Century

Iron ore was mined at Yealand in 1757, actually at Yealand Redmayne Common, near Round Top on Cringlebarrow. In this same year an agreement was made by George Gibson (of Leighton Hall), with Anthony Tissington of Alfreton in Derbyshire for a term of 21 years stipulating ‘no obstruction or interference to be made with Leighton Furnace’. The mine referred to was at Crag Foot, but it was worked for only two years.

In 1782 there was renewed activity at Crag Foot. Robert Gibson (the land owner from Leighton Hall) granted a lease to a company of miners to ‘sink in any part of the common’. An encroachment was made on adjoining land belonging to a Mr Townley. This led to a law suit by Townley on Gibson in 1788 which Gibson lost. No doubt some of this activity in the second half of the eighteenth century bore a relation to the needs of Leighton (iron) Furnace, which operated from 1711-1813.

Mining in the Nineteenth Century

Much of the following information relating to mining activity on the Crag in the nineteenth century has been derived from two local newspapers. The Lancaster Guardian and The Lancaster Gazette. Selections from the advertisement and comment columns of these two papers are given below, as they illustrate vividly the rapid changes which took place in the fortunes of the several enterprises involved.

1836-1841

1836 An agreement was made between ’Edward Dawson of Aldcliffe Hall, John Pratchett of Liverpool, and Thomas Cartwright of Llanassa (Flint), Corn Merchant, to mine for copper, iron, ironstone, lead, tin, calomine, fossils, etc., which can be found under all the enclosed lands of the said E. Dawson, in the parish of Warton for 24 years from Sept last…permission to set up any steam engine etc…One tenth share of all minerals to Edward Dawson.’ Barrow Scout Mine was the only one opened on this land with any success.

1837 A lease was made on 14 Feb between R. Gillow of Leighton Hall and four merchants and one gentleman, all Liverpool Trustees of the Warton Crag, Silverdale, and Leighton Mining Company, for 23 years. The mines were reported to be quite rich in copper. Opened at this time were North Level and Gillow’s Shaft of Higher Mine and Laycock’s Shaft of Lower Mine.

Work was suspended in this year on account of water. A steam engine was installed to deal with this, but a severe three, month frost hindered the work.

1838 (13 Jan) The sale of the five shares in the Warton Crag, Silverdale, and Leighton Mining Company, advertised to take place on 15 January at the King’s Arms, Lancaster, is postponed.

1840 The company ceased to work.

Advert (12 Sep): ‘Valuable mining materials to be sold by auction at the mines at Warton Cragg, including the undermentioned machinery and materials. One 14″ cylinder condensing high pressure steam engine, with Boiler. Two horse whims, one capstan, cast iron pipes for three shafts, anvils, bellows, vices etc. Twenty tons of red paint. Apply Captain Nicholas at the mine.’ By way of interest, there were only two miners, both Welshmen.

1860-1881

1860 Interest was again being shown in the mine. 1865 Iron oxide was being extracted. Mr H. Walduck of Manchester was acting as agent. (He was also agent for the Carnforth Haematite Company.)

1869 (3 Nov) ’It is encouraging to know that the efforts of the energetic searchers for iron ore in the neighbourhood of Silverdale and Arnside are meeting with success. The owners of the workings at Silverdale are able to send off several wagon loads per week. At Arnside also a large quantity of iron ore has been found.’

1876 Walduck became sole agent for several small local mining and quarrying companies.

1877 On the death of R. M. Shipman (one of the partners), Walduck became a partner. Thus was formed the Warton and Silverdale Mining Company, with Walduck as managing director. He lived at West Lindeth in Silverdale.

1877 (19 May) The death occurred at Cragg Foot, Warton, of John Patten, iron miner, aged 67 years.

1879 The Warton and Silverdale Mining Company reported £10,000 Capital in 1,000 shares of £10 each, with the power to increase to £20,000. Up to this time, some 2,305 tons of ore had been sold in Silverdale for £18,533 (£8 per ton).

1880 The company ran into debt. Rent was owed to Dawson, and Gillow was suing for damage to property and rent arrears of £147-5s.

1830 (3 Mar) Advert: ‘Wanted by the Warton and Silverdale Mining Company at Silverdale near Carnforth a clerk to take charge of books, keep mens’ time, and to act as Secretary. Apply by letter stating qualifications and salary to Messrs Boddington and Ball, 1 Princes St, Manchester.’

1881-1890

1881 (19 Feb) ‘Crag Foot Mines. Important sale of mining plant and machinery under a distress for Imperial taxes…Plant and machinery, bar and hoop iron, weighing machine, tram rails, grindstone, pump, gearing and rods, iron piping, two cwts blasting powder.’ The following week (23 Feb) the sale was cancelled.

1881 (June) A new lease was granted between T.R. Gillow of Leighton and the Warton and Silverdale Mining Company.

(2 Aug) The newspapers reported that the Warton Mining Company with offices at Cragg Foot had been charged with having no lightning conductor on the explosives store, exposure of iron and stone, no exclusion of matches, and not kept free from grit. Mr Walduck, Company Secretary, was fined £2.10.0 on one charge, other charges dismissed.

1883 The recently formed Warton and Silverdale Company did no better than previous ventures, and the Dawson property was sold for £510.

1884 (23 Feb) The papers reported a claim made against Mr H. Walduck under Employers’ Liability Act for the balance of wages due to Mr William Armer, miner, at the Paint Mines on Warton Crag. Case adjourned. There was little activity at the mine due to competition from other cheaper paint manufacturers.

1890 (25 Mar) The company was dissolved.

1891-1894

1891 The mine was reopened by the Warton Mining and Colour Company (Regd. Office, 86 King St, Manchester). The venture was no more successful than the one it replaced. Mr Walduck was still agent, but on his death in June 1892 the company closed down and was disposed of in 1894.

1894 (27 Jan) ‘The Warton Mining and Colour Company in liquidation. Auction of the whole of the leasehold interest in Warton Mines producing Warton native Oxide of iron.’

1894 (3 Feb) ‘Warton mines for auction in Manchester last Friday. Only one bid… withdrawn. believe negotiating sale privately.’ Thus ended a period of spasmodic mining activity on Warton Crag spread over 150 years.

Notes

Peter Ashmead, Robert Ashmead’s son, with members of the Lancaster Cave and Mining group, spent much effort and many hours exploring the mines and collecting the data concerning their history. His work, the full report is the primary source for this article.

Published in Mourholme Magazines Issue 5 Autumn 1983 and Issue 6 Winter 1983