A Monastic Landscape

A history by Andy Warner Lady Alice de Rumeli’s dilemma have been settled year round. But the land was incredibly poor, giving a subsistence living that barely supported the tiny population – never mind paying taxes to a remote It is the year of our Lord 1195. A noble lady kneels in front feudal overlord. So by gifting some of her mountainous of the altar in the small rather gloomy chapel of her castle. waste to Fountains, maybe she was looking after her soul, Something is weighing heavily on her mind, and she prays but she may also have been cutting her losses. The plan to Sancta Maria for guidance. Her great worry is her soul. seemed to have worked, for in 1209 she sold the rest of her She is rich, she owns much land, and she holds a great deal Borrowdale estate to another great Cistercian house, this of power. But one day judgement will be passed on her, time Furness Abbey. It cost them £156 13s 4d. Not a bad so what is to become of her soul? Purgatory? Damnation? days work, and surely now her soul was safe. The thought makes her shudder, and she prays harder still. Then the solution suddenly comes to her, like a revelation. The worst wool in the realm The Lady is Alice de Rumeli, heiress to the Barony of Allerdale. The lady was actually very pious, she may well What the monasteries brought to the valley was a have already been the benefactress of the rebuilding of determined sense of purpose. The barony might have Crosthwaite Church around 1180, but was that enough? given up on Borrowdale, but the monks certainly would It clearly was not, for in 1195 she granted lands at not. One of their underlying creeds was that austerity Crosthwaite, Watendlath and Stonethwaite to the great and hard toil brought you closer to God, values that Cistercian monastery of Fountains Abbey. On the one would be much needed if the valley was to become more hand it was a very spiritual act, hopefully safeguarding viable. One of the first things they did was to change the her place in heaven, but was it not also a hard-headed emphasis of farming away from cattle, and on to sheep. business decision? From an agricultural point of view this would make better use of the land. It has been the same ever since! In the valley bottom the “thwaites” were enlarged, and the land was drained. Town fields were developed close to the settlements allowing farmers to work strips of land to grow basic crops, a precursor of today’s allotments. By the time of the Dissolution the floor of the valley would look pretty much as it does today. The main commodity from all this industry was wool, one of the great currencies of medieval England. Borrowdale’s wool was not brilliant, a statute from 1380 describes it as the ‘the worst wool in the realm’. A network of packhorse trails were developed to transport the wool out to the monasteries, and these have become the bridleways that fellwalkers now use to access the hills. The beautiful lands of Borrowdale were granted to the great Cistercian monastery of Fountains Abbey The abbeys had granaries, at Grange in Borrowdale for Furness, whilst Fountains maybe had two, at Watendlath, What had Lady Alice inherited? The lands in the five and at Monks Hall in Keswick. These possibly also townships around her castle at Cockermouth had been functioned as the main administration units where settled and cultivated for many centuries. The yield was monastic law was dispensed, rents and dues paid, and plentiful and would pay her well in taxes. In contrast her petty disputes settled. Early in their history the lands lands around Keswick were incredibly poor. Borrowdale nearer to the actual monasteries were worked by the had only been settled relatively recently, when an influx lay brethren, who would return to the Abbey at night or of Norse settlers from Ireland and the Isle of Man pushed after a short period. This could not be the case with the up into the wild mountain valley looking for summer Borrowdale holdings, which lay scores of miles away. As grazing for their cattle. Unlike other valleys, at that time the monastic lands expanded (all those pious souls to (about 900 AD) Borrowdale had not been settled at all. save!) it is probable that the order adapted to the change The terrain was still a densely wooded wilderness, remote, by altering their management to suit the circumstances. isolated and largely uncharted. But the Men of the North The record books for both houses show that by the late were used to this, and their transhumance agriculture 15th and early 16th centuries the farmers held the land (moving cattle to summer pastures) suited it. They started with tenant rights. We also know that in 1418 a Royal to make clearings (tveites – thwaites) in the woodland Survey of Borrowdale for Henry V gives details of 41 farms and they named the various features in their own dialect. granted to Fountains Abbey. They had an average of 3 Fell, Tarn, Force, Longthwaite, Stonethwaite, Seatoller, acres of enclosed land for which a total rental of £28.10s. Borgerdalr, all Norse names. As their families grew, so a bit per annum was paid. Today the same area is worked by less more land would be taken, and eventually the valley would than 10 farms.