A CUMBERLAND VALLEY Ron George has travelled widely in Europe, South and North America and the Middle East. He was born in London, and after training as a telecommunications engineer he worked in South America for twenty five years before returning to England. After retirement he lived in Lorton for twenty one years where he helped his wife, Stella, to run the White Ash Barn Tea Shop, whilst simultaneously researching this local history and tracing his own family roots back to 16th Century Cornwall. In 2000 he and his wife moved to Ontario to join their two daughters and their families. Cover photograph: Wayside cottages, High Lorton. Photograph by Michael Grieve A Cumberland Valley A History of the Parish of Lorton Ron George Bovate Publications First published in 2003 Copyright © 2003, Ron George Re-published by www.derwentfells.com in this open-access e-book version in 2019, under a Creative Commons licence. This book may be downloaded and shared with others for non-commercial uses provided that the author is credited and the work is not changed. No commercial re-use. Citation: George, Ron, A Cumberland valley, a history of the parish of Lorton, Bovate Publications, Ontario, 2003 Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-9733239-0-6 Typeset by CityScape Books cityscapebooks.co.uk Published by Bovate Publications 60 Chant Crescent, Unionville Markham, Ontario, L3R 1Y8 Canada Printed and bound in Great Britain By Antony Rowe, Eastbourne iv This book is dedicated to my four granddaughters, for each of whom during their early years, “White Ash” was their home from home; to my two daughters, for whom it was a refuge from the hurly- burly of city life; and to my wife, who made it so for them. This book is intended for the general reader and for those who have come to love the valley by residence or visiting. However, Chapters 9, 13 and 14 are the result of lengthy and detailed research and they invite further action from the more historically minded reader. Ron George A Cumberland Valley A History of the Parish of Lorton Contents Page Chapter 1: Preface 1 Chapter 2: Introduction 11 Chapter 3: Historical background 18 Chapter 4: The land and those who worked it 33 Chapter 5: The community 74 Chapter 6: The folk of Lorton ‘Parish’ and their churches 89 Chapter 7: Schooling and education 112 Chapter 8: Paupers, the poor and the poor law 118 Chapter 9: Life and death 124 Chapter 10: The famous and nearly-famous sons and daughters of the Vale of Lorton 144 Chapter 11: St Cuthbert’s Church 157 Chapter 12: Buildings 168 Chapter 13: Population 199 Chapter 14: Migration 210 Chapter 15: Into the 21st century 217 Epilogue 223 Abbreviations 225 Glossary 226 Bibliography 229 Index 232 A Cumberland Valley A History of the Parish of Lorton List of Figures Page Figure 1.1 Schematic of Lorton Parish Registers 7 Figure 2.1 Sketch map of the Parochial Chapelry of Lorton 16 Figure 3.1 Genealogical table showing the derivation of land tenure in Scotland, Northumbria and the Lorton valley 30 Figure 3.2 The de Lucy family and the Baronies of Allerdale and Egremont 31 Figure 4.1 Schematic of High Lorton dwellings and their occupiers, 1649 68 Figure 4.2 Gilbrea, 1999 69 Figure 4.3.1 Terrace Farm (W), 1999 70 Figure 4.3.2 Terrace Farm (E), 1999 71 Figure 13.1 Population of the Parochial Chapelry of Lorton 207 Figure 13.2 Seasonality of Weddings 207 Figure 13.3 Analysis of Marriage and Bridal Pregnancy 208 List of Tables Table 4.1 Use of Copyhold Land Holdings, Over Lorton 1649 40 Table 4.2 Analysis of Copyhold Closes, Over Lorton, 1649 41 Table 4.3 Analysis of Copyhold Closes, Over Lorton, 1840 42 Table 4.4 Mean Agricultural Inventory values, 1576 – 1720 50 Table 5.1 Analysis of Trades, Crafts and Labour, Lorton, 1851 – 1891 86 Table 5.2 Analysis of Trades, Crafts and Labour, Brackenthwaite, 1851 – 1891 87 Table 5.3 Analysis of Trades, Crafts and Labour, Buttermere, 1851 – 1891 87 Table 9.1 Analysis of 181 ‘Lorton’ Inventories, 1576 – 1727 138 Table 9.2 Analysis of the Apparent Distribution of Wealth, Lorton, 1576 – 1720 139 Table 13.1 Average Age at death in the 19th Century, Chapelry of Lorton 202 Table 13.2 Age at first marriage 203 Table 14.1 Census of Population, Lorton and Loweswater, 1801 – 1891 213 Table 14.2 Lorton Census, 1851 – Origins of Population 215 Appendices Appendix 1.1 Sources. 8 Appendix 4.1 Court Leet Verdicts re.to Water Courses 57 Appendix 4.2 Beating the Bounds, Lorton 59 Appendix 4.3 Histories of Gilbrow/Gilbrea, Highside, Terrace 60 Appendix 6.1 List of Lorton Clergy and Clerks 101 Appendix 6.2 List of Wythop Clergy 103 Appendix 6.3 List of Buttermere Clergy 104 Appendix 6.4 Information about the Livings for this area 105 Appendix 6.5 Five Early Terriers 106 Appendix 6.6 Number of Confirmations in the Valley in Recent Years 108 Appendix 6.7 Extracts from the Religious Census of 1851 109 Appendix 7.1 Teachers a Lorton School 116 Appendix 8.1 Extracts from the Lorton Burial Register 123 Appendix 9.1 Peter Peel’s Inventory, 1586 141 Appendix 10.1 The Winder Family 150 Appendix 11.1 Church Inventories in 1552 166 List of Photographs (Before Chapter 1) 1. A View of the northern end of the Vale of Lorton ref p 14 2. Crummock Water and the middle valley ref p 14 3. The southern end of the Vale of Buttermere ref p 14 4. John Wilson Robinson ref p 145 5. Wordsworth’s Yew ref p 146 6. The one time farm house, “White Ash” ref p 176 Acknowlegements My path whilst researching this book has been considerably smoothed by the ever helpful staff of the various record offices; the Public Record Offices in London, Chester, Preston, Whitehaven, and Carlisle. My special thanks for their time generously given goes to Mr. David Bowcock and Mrs. Susan Dench in the Cumbria Record Office at Carlisle. To Dr. Angus Winchester I offer my sincere thanks for his early inspiration and later guidance. I am very grateful to Mr. Derek Denman, the Chairman of the Lorton and Derwent Fells Local History Society for his advice and corrections in several matters of fact, and for making available to me the results of his most recent research, particularly regarding the Brewery and Threadmill. I must also record my great debt of gratitude to Mr. Michael Grieve, the untiring Secretary of the Society for his generous help with editing, advice and unstinting assistance in helping to get the manuscript to the point of publication which cost him so many very late nights. It should go without saying that any remaining errors are mine alone. Finally, I must acknowledge that without the encouragement, tolerance and forbearance of Stella, my wife, this work would never have been accomplished. Chapter 1: PREFACE 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: W. Wordsworth Here by the stream it stands alone, As verdant and as hale As when the Britons bows were drawn To guard this lovely Vale. John Bolton I first came, with my wife, to live in Lorton “aht t’baack ’nd nainten aeirty” as our neighbours say. To us that means 20th October 1980. When the dust of activity of our move had settled we quickly felt very much at home. The initial feeling of being the “new boys” was inevitable but nevertheless we felt very quickly that we belonged, and at ease. Some of our new neighbours were “off-comers” like ourselves, but no small credit is due to those of our neighbours who were true locals. Both groups made us welcome. Our new home was quite obviously old, and, being quite unschooled in architectural history, I guessed perhaps 200 years old. It was called “White Ash House”. My wife and I would dearly have loved to call our new home by the same name we had used for the home we had just left, because of the very special significance that name had for us. We had come prepared for this, having brought the old nameplate with us. In the end, we decided it would be inappropriate to the locality, so we dropped the “house” and called the whole property by the name by which it became so well known, “White Ash Barn“. This seemed reasonable because, quite obviously the buildings were originally a farmhouse and barn. But I was puzzled because “White Ash” did not sound either local or even particularly Cumbrian, and we are surrounded by names that so clearly are historical and Cumbrian. So why was it called “White Ash”? I began to wonder too about it’s past; who had lived and loved here? Who had been born and died here? What had they done? How had they lived? This was the first house I had ever lived in that was more than one hundred years old, and only the second that was more than fifty years of age; its background and history intrigued me, and I resolved I would try to find the answers to all these questions. This book is the result of that quest. Had I known at the outset what I know now of the extent to which my search would take me, of the cost in time and effort, as well as money, I doubt that I would have embarked on it.