INTRODUCTION. in the Following Pages Will Be Found the Result of A
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XVI.—The Ancient Settlements, Cemeteries, and Earthworks of Furness. By H. SWAINSON COWPEB., Esq., F.8.A. Read December 12th, 1889. INTRODUCTION. IN the following pages will be found the result of a somewhat careful examination of all the existing ancient sites in the district of Furness, in North Lancashire. The remains themselves are very varied in character, ranging from the rude enclosure of dry-built masonry to the burh of the Anglo-Saxon lord. The accompanying illustrations represent all the most important examples of these; and, as far as I am aware, every site (excepting some groups of cairns, which on parts of the fells are innumerable) will be found described with some detail in the text. For the piirpose of this enquiry, a personal examination has been made of every site in the district. Besides this, I have consulted every work that contains men- tion, however slight, of the subject.0 For the most part, these notices are neither a The following are the most important notices on the subject, with a brief statement of the character of each, and an abbreviation used in the text of this paper for reference: 1. The Antiquities of Furness: by Thomas West, Close's edition (Ulverston, 1805), contains plans of Aldingham Moat, and the TJrswick stone walls (pp. 391 and 397). W.I1. 2. Archaeologia, xxxi. 448-453, contains a paper by C. M. Jopling, "on the subject of Remains ascribed to the era of the Druids in Furness, north of Lancashire." Plans are given of Urswick stone walls, enclosures at Appleby Slack, Birkrigg, a circle on Kirkby Moor, and also a map, all of which are more or less useless. Arch. 31. 3. The Prehistoric Remains of Furness and C art met; a paper read by Henry Barber, M.D., before VOL. Lilt. 3 G Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 07 Dec 2018 at 07:24:56, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900005944 390 The Ancient Settlements, Cemeteries, and Earthworks of Furness. copious nor accurate; the plans of Close and Jopling being nearly useless; and the deductions are in general vague and unscientific. A large proportion of the remains have indeed never been noticed in print, and one of the most important of the series has, to all intents and purposes, been overlooked altogether. The plans accompanying this paper are plotted in every instance from a per- sonal inspection and survey; and are mostly the result of careful measurements with the tape. The smaller offsets were, however, in some cases taken by pacing. On the plan of the " Homesteads" on Heathwaite Fell, exceptional care has been bestowed, part of it being practically surveyed by Mr. C. W. Dymond, C.B., F.S.A., who accompanied me to that place on one occasion, and to whom I am much indebted for many useful suggestions and hints. Although, therefore, these plans may not be able to claim extreme accuracy, they have, perhaps, as much as is sufficient for the objects they represent; and, even if they only induce others better qualified than myself to execute more accu- rate surveys, they will serve an useful end. I think, however, that no errors of importance will be detected. There is but one stone circle in good preservation and of any size in Furness; and, as it has been pointed out by Messrs. Flinders Petrie, C. W. Dymond, and others, that remains of this class require the utmost accuracy and care in plan- ning, I have left it alone.a Many of the remains I have visited several times in order to correct or verify first impressions; the settlement at Heathwaite Fell no less than four times. The plans are, for the most part, laid down to the scale of 50 feet to the inch. The deviation of the compass is rectified as nearly as possible; it being in this district in 1888-9 between 20° 30' and 21° west of north. It will be noticed that in the plans of most of the stone-walled enclosures, the walls are indicated by parallel lines, with the intermediate space dotted, while in a few they are shown by the slight shading usually applied to an earthen bank. the Royal Archaeological Institute in 1868, and printed in pamphlet form at Ulverston. It contains some useful information, but is unillustrated. Barb. 4. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, iii. 241-265, contains a valuable paper on the Archaeological Remains of the Lake district, by J. Clifton Ward, F.G.S. C. and W. iii. 5. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, ix. 200-205 and 497-504, in " Some Prehistoric Remains in North Lonsdale, by H. S. Cowper." C. and VV. ix. a Jopling gives a plan quite conventional and useless. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 07 Dec 2018 at 07:24:56, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900005944 The Ancient Settlements, Cemeteries, and Earthivorlcs of Furness. 391 The former method is used where it is possible to ascertain, with any degree of certainty, the original thickness of the wall; the latter where they are too ruinous for this. In some cases, also, the defence may have been nothing but a stone rampart, without any true walling. The slope of the ground in the vicinity of an enclosure or group of remains is indicated approximately by arrows : > = gentle slope. .—s>—> = moderate slope. ^-5,—> = strong slope. >>>—=> = steep. »;>;>—==» = very steep and precipitous. These arrows always fly down hill. Besides the plans and descriptions ox the ancient settlements and dwellings, I have added some account of the primitive sepulchral and miscellaneous remains in the district. This I had at first no intention of doing, but I found the two classes of remains to be so intimately connected, that an account of some sort seemed indispensable. This paper therefore may upon the whole be regarded as a prehistoric survey of Furness, and I have spared no trouble to render it as complete as possible. A series of well-conducted excavations upon some of the sites would probably prove of the greatest value. Many of these remains are small and in themselves insignificant, especially if compared with the great hill-forts and extensive earthworks found in other dis- tricts. But remains such as these should be studied as a series, and it would be highly interesting to compare them with those in other districts of similar geolo- gical formation, as in parts of Wales. THE REMAINS. The district of Furness is the most northerly part of Lancashire, and with Cartmell forms a district known as Lonsdale north of the Sands. Furness itself is bounded upon the north by the river Brathay, upon the east by Windermere and the river Leven; whilst on the west the river Duddon divides it from Cumberland, and its southern side is a sea-board fringed by the broad, dangerous sands of the Duddon and Leven. 3 G 2 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 07 Dec 2018 at 07:24:56, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900005944 392 The Ancient Settlements, Cemeteries, and Earthworks of Furness. Its extreme measurements are twenty-five miles from Elterwater on the north to Concle on the south, and twelve from a bend in the river Dnddon near Ulpha on the west to the foot of Windermere on the east. It is divided in two natural divisions, High and Low Furness, the former being the southern extremity of the Lake district, and a land of heath-grown fells (of hard Silurian slate), containing two lakes, Coniston and Esthwaite. These fells extend also some way into Low or Plain Furness, but south of Ulverston it is chiefly an agricultural undulating country (mainly of mountain limestone and red sandstone), containing, however, some high ground called Birkrigg Common. It is principally, as is generally the case, on the high ground that the remains we have to treat of are to be found. In all, there have been observed about thirteen sites of ancient occupation ; but possibly some, such as single lines of embankment crossing a fell, do not of necessity carry evidence of ancient habitation with them, and others may be either residential or sepulchral. There are besides these, innumerable sepulchral mounds and two or three stone circles, which may owe their origin to more important rites than those of simple burial. The entire series may be conveniently divided into I. PREHISTORIC. 1. Residential or semi-military : A. Ramparts or entrenchments unassociated with enclosures but associated with sepulchral remains. B. Enclosures of a single rampart or wall. 2. Settlements : A. Dry built, stone-walled enclosures, containing more than one court or apartment, and distantly or closely associated with sepulchral remains, extensive walled enclosures, or outlying stone walls. B. Of anomalous form. II. MISCELLANEOUS. A. Dwellings. B. Sepulchral. c. Religious ? III. POST-ROMAN AND ANGLO-SAXON EARTHWORKS. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. INSEAD, on 07 Dec 2018 at 07:24:56, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900005944 The Ancient Settlements, Cemeteries, and Earthworks of Furness. 393 It must be understood that in this classification the term " prehistoric " has its widest sense, for, although it is possible that the sites thus classed are pre- Roman, it cannot be actually stated that they are all so until excavations have been undertaken on a somewhat extensive scale.