[Illustration: THE LATE MARY L. ARMITT.
_Frontispiece._]
THE
CHURCH OF GRASMERE:
A HISTORY
BY M. L. ARMITT
(Author of _Ambleside Town and Chapel_)
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARGARET L. SUMNER
_Frontispiece from a portrait by Fred Yates_
Kendal:
Titus Wilson, Publisher
Highgate
1912
TITUS WILSON, PRINTER, KENDAL
CONTENTS
PART I.
PREFACE.
INTRODUCTORY.
THE DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH.
THE SITE.
PART II.
THE PARISH.
BOUNDARIES.
TOWNSHIPS.
LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH.
THE EIGHTEEN.
PART III.
RECORDS.
PATRONS.
MONASTIC CONTROL.
THE CLERGY.
THE CIVIL WARS.
THE COMMONWEALTH.
PART IV.
THE FABRIC.
THE FURNITURE.
THE UP-KEEP OF THE CHURCH.
CLEANING AND REPAIRS.
EXTRACTS FROM CHURCHWARDENS' ACCOUNTS.
PART V.
LATER PARSONS OF GRASMERE.
CHAPEL AND CURATES OF AMBLESIDE AND LANGDALE.
SCHOOLS AND CLERKS.
CHURCH RATES.
NON-RATEPAYERS.
REGISTERS.
PRESENTMENTS, BRIEFS, AND CHARITIES.
THE RUSH-BEARING.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Miss Armitt (_frontispiece_), from a portrait by Fred Yates.
Exterior of St. Oswald's Church, Grasmere, from a photo, by
Green, by permission of G. P. Abraham, Keswick, to face
Part I.
Inscription on the Alms-box, p. 3.
Date on the Great Bell (Tenor), p. 20.
Map of Grasmere Parish, to face Part II.
From the Great Bell: Churchwardens' names (Hird), p. 23.
From the Great Bell: Churchwardens' names (Wilson. Rigg),
p. 39.
Structure of the Interior of St. Oswald's, Grasmere, p. 41.
From the Great Bell: Churchwardens' names (Mackereth). p. 45.
From the Great Bell: "Churchwardens," p. 93.
Font (from Table Book of W. Hone), copied by Miss S. Armitt, p. 95.
From the Great Bell: "Gloria in Altissimis Deo," p. 99.
Ancient Window in the South Wall. Outside View, p. 101.
Profile of Stone Head, p. 104.
Carved Stone Head, p. 105.
Date on Old Bench End, p. 108.
Old Bench End, p. 109.
Old Pitch Pipe, p. 119.
Old Altar, now used as a Credence Table, p. 127.
The le Fleming Arms on the Great and Middle Bells, p. 140.
Great Bell and Hammer, p. 142.
Iron Work on the Inner Door of the Porch, p. 146.
Hinges of the Outer Door of the Porch, p. 147.
Door Handle within the Porch, p. 147.
Old Collecting-plate with Handle, p. 150.
Plan of Grasmere Church, drawn by W. Buckton, to face Part V.
From the Great Bell: "Deo," p. 161.
Founder's Mark from the Middle Bell: "E. Seller, Ebor," p. 180.
From the Middle Bell: "Soli Deo Gloria," p. 188.
The Treble, or Little Bell, p. 203.
Recess in the Porch for Holy Water Stoup, p. 209.
EDITOR'S PREFACE
The History of Grasmere contained in this little volume was
nearly ready for the press when the author, who was working
on it to the very last, was taken away. For several years she
had been collecting material, leaving no stone unturned to get
at facts and records from the earliest times, and at last she
was arranging for its publication. Her modest estimate of the
value of her work made her often anxious, but her keen love of
investigating the antiquities of her neighbourhood and country
kept her always eager. To a kindred spirit nothing could be more
interesting than to visit with her some old hall or farm or
even a site which her historic knowledge could furnish with its
original buildings, and people with its old-world inhabitants.
What she most desired was to see for herself what she wished to
write about, or, if that were impossible, something similar which
still existed, and she had a genius for reconstructing, which
made her deductions and suggestions singularly valuable.
She was at no time strong, and for this reason her work was
perpetually liable to interruption, still her indomitable courage
and her endless patience enabled her to do wonders, and, though
never able to work for long together, bit by bit she got through
a great deal. How hard she worked and how carefully, no one
who reads her book, and sees the number of facts she has got
together, and notes the numerous references to books which she
had examined, can fail to perceive. Over and over again she
had to give in for a time, but her bright intelligence quickly
reasserted itself, and she was ready on most days to discuss the
subjects which for the time absorbed her. And this she did with
a delighted eagerness, and always with that humour which is the
salt of all conversation and companionship. On birds and their
habits she spoke with authority, and could always contribute much
valuable information obtained by personal observation. Generally
the first to hear and see the newly arrived summer migrants, and
able to distinguish the note of each, she thought no trouble too
great if it led to the chance of seeing some rare kind nesting in
the neighbourhood. Equally keenly would she follow up the threads
of some local history, for she had the true scientific spirit
and a genuine passion for archæology, so that by constant study
she had accumulated a surprising mass of information relating to
old historic Westmorland, and to Ambleside, Rydal and Grasmere
in particular. Of Ambleside she has already published a little
pamphlet, called _Ambleside Town and Chapel_. The present volume
is her completed work on Grasmere; and the History of Rydal, and
more especially of Rydal Hall, a more considerable work on which
she had been engaged for many years, has advanced so far that we
hope soon to see it published. Indeed some chapters of it have
already appeared in the columns of the _Westmorland Gazette_.
We had long ago arranged that I should help in seeing her work
through the press; and with her usual thoroughness and care, she
had got the present volume so far ready that my task has been but
a superficial one, accompanied throughout by the "one pure image
of regret" that she did not live to see, herself, the fruits of
her long labour.
W. F. RAWNSLEY.
THE CHURCH OF GRASMERE.
ERRATA.
Page 6, _for_ Galway _read_ Galloway.
" 19, _note_ 25 this pavement is not really old.
" 130, _for_ Lough _read_ Luff.
" 141, _Copia Pax Sapientia_. No Latin words are on this bell.
" 182, _note_ 182 _for_ Fox _read_ Cox.
" 191, _for_ Tremenhere _read_ Tremenheere, _and for_ Philipps _read_
Phillipps.
" 199, _for_ Swathmoor _read_ Swarthmoor.
" 208, _for_ customery _read_ customary, _and in note_, _for_ Brown
_read_ Browne.
[Illustration: ST. OSWALD'S CHURCH, GRASMERE.
_Photo. by Green, by permission of G. P. Abraham, Keswick._
TO FACE PART I.]
PART I
PREFACE
INTRODUCTORY
THE DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH
THE SITE
[Illustration: Inscription on the Alms Box]
PREFACE
Grasmere draws many pilgrims in these latter days. It has become
the Shrine of Nature and Poetry, for within its graveyard lies
buried nature's austerest and most sincere interpreter. The
natural beauty of the spot, combined with its associations,
has given rise to a copious literature; and its praises have
been rehearsed in poetry and prose of a high order. But by the
historian Grasmere has been neglected. Its geographical position
has tended to its eclipse. In ancient times locked up from the
world in the farthest chamber of the mountains, and still the
remotest parish of Westmorland (itself a neglected county),
it has missed the attention of the careful chronicler, and no
serious attempt has been made to penetrate its past. James Torre
(1649-1699) indeed in his MS. collections for a history of the
Archdeaconry of Richmondshire, compiled a list of five rectors
who had served the parish of Grasmere before the Reformation; but
no searcher has followed up his efforts. Nor has the excellent,
though necessarily limited, information given in the pages of
Nicolson and Burn (1770) been since filled up or supplemented.
The following historical sketch makes no pretensions to
completeness, which would be beyond both the writer's powers and
opportunities. It began as a small thing, a chapter merely in the
yet unfinished "Chronicles of Rydal." But there seemed a need for
the publication of such facts as had been gathered together; and
in response to an expressed desire, the sketch that had been laid
by was overhauled, expanded and prepared for press. It contains
(there is little doubt) some unsuspected errors and oversights,
for which the reader's leniency is asked.
The information has been collected from many sources, public,
private, and traditional. The earliest comes from the Record
Office, where there are treasures still to be explored. For
the seventeenth century--and particularly the period of the
Civil Wars--the MSS. at Rydal Hall have yielded facts of great
interest, especially those culled from the account-sheets of
Mr. Richard Harrison, who was agent and executor of Squire John
Fleming.
From all sources, however, the information obtained is
fragmentary, and facts are disappointingly isolated. Always there
is something beyond, that we want to know and cannot find out;
and so the story of the great Restoration Tithe Dispute has no
ending. The Presentments have been only available for a limited
number of years. The church registers are defective. Even the
church-wardens' accounts, which begin at the Restoration, are not
complete. It is fortunate, however, that the second volume of
these accounts, long missing, and strangely recovered from papers
found at the house of descendants of a former parish clerk, was
copied before it was again lost. There is a gap of seven years
between the third volume and this copy, owing no doubt to the
last leaves of the second volume having been torn off.[1]
[1] Vol. I. ends in 1735. Vol. II. overlaps four years and begins
in 1732, but the pages from 1734 to 1739 and from 1743 to 1750
are missing, and no entries are made for 1778 and 1779. The vol.
ends in 1883.--ED.
The writer has received more help and kindness than can well be
acknowledged. Thanks are specially due to Mr. Stanley le Fleming and
Sir Gerald Strickland for granting ready access to their muniments;
to Dr. Magrath, author of _The Flemings in Oxford_; to the Revs. W.
Jennings, J. H. Heywood, and M. F. Peterson for permitting the church
documents to be consulted; to Messrs. W. Farrer, J. A. Martindale,
and George Browne for their kind contributions of antiquarian
knowledge; to Mr. W. Buckton I am indebted for the plan of the
church.
INTRODUCTORY
HOW THE CHURCH WAS FOUNDED IN NORTHUMBRIA
All history begins with geography. Grasmere was from early times
the centre of a parish that embraced the twin valleys of Rothay
and Brathay, whose waters drain into the lake of Windermere, while
the lake empties itself into the great bay of Morecambe. Therefore
Grasmere has always belonged politically to the fertile region
round about the bay, and the history of that region--from the time
when the Celt enjoyed it, onward through its conquest by the Angle,
its aggregation with the province of Deira and the kingdom of
Northumbria, still onward through its conversion to Christianity and
its connection with the central church government at York as part
of the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire--is the history of Grasmere
herself: and to understand the origin of her church, it is necessary
to briefly indicate the main events in the kingdom of Northumbria and
the Church of York.
The actual rise of Christianity within the valleys can only be
conjectured. The Celts who dwelt here through the rule of the Roman
may not have embraced the faith, but some whisper of Saint Ninian's
mission must surely have come to them, if not his direct teaching,
as he passed on his way from Rome through Cumberland, to found at
Whithorn in Galway a new religious community, like the one his great
teacher Saint Martin had founded at Tours. The mission of Saint
Patrick too, who in the fifth century returned to finish the work
of conversion and church establishment in Ireland, must have been
noised abroad, for his name is imprinted on many a spot hereabouts;
Patterdale or Patricdale,[2] with its well named after him, being
distant barely ten miles from Grasmere.
[2] Inquisition post mortem of William de Lancaster, 1246.
The holy Kentigern is known to have made missionary excursions from
Carlisle into the mountains, before 573; and Crosthwaite, where he
planted a cross, is but 13 miles from Grasmere, along the line of
the Roman road from Kendal to Old Carlisle. With this artery of
communication open, it is impossible that tidings of the new faith
should not have reached our valley before the close of the sixth
century.
Soon these tidings were to come from the east as well as the west,
borne by the triumphant arms of the invading Angles. Truly Ethelfrith
who, in winning the battle of Chester, first laid our mountain
fastnesses open to his kingdom of Northumbria, was a heathen; but his
successor Edwin embraced Christianity and brought Paulinus, a member
of Saint Augustine's mission, to preach the gospel (627). At York,
the capital of the kingdom, a Christian church was built, a second
one even being started in stone to replace the wooden structure; and
the new bishop moved about with the king and his court, preaching and
baptizing. The valleys of Northumberland and Yorkshire, which were
the scenes of his labours, are named by Bede, who knew them well; but
it is not known that he crossed into Westmorland.
Edwin's overthrow gave Northumbria to the pagan king of Mercia, but
it was soon regained by Oswald, who identified himself completely
with the new faith. He brought Aidan, who had been educated in the
Celtic Church (now firmly settled in Scotland) to fill the place of
the departed Paulinus. But instead of taking up the bishop's seat
at York, Aidan with the strong predilection shown by his church
for island-sanctuaries, chose Lindisfarne to be the centre of his
missionary efforts in Northumbria. Here Finan succeeded him in 651,
and rebuilt the first rude edifice, constructing it of hewn oak
thatched with reeds.
King Oswald (slain at Maserfeld, 642) was shortly after succeeded
by Oswy, an ardent disciple of the new faith, as was Alchfrith his
son. Alchfrith acted as sub-king in Northumbria under his father.[3]
He endowed a monastery at Ripon, which was presumably within his
dominion, and placed there Eata, abbot of Melrose, with a little
band of Scotic monks. At this time there was a young priest named
Wilfrith, lately returned from a journey to Rome (658), with whom
Alchfrith made fast friends. Convinced by Wilfrith that the practices
of the Anglo-Scotic church, where they differed from those of
Western Europe, were mistaken, he turned out the monks of Ripon,
when they refused to alter their customs, and gave the establishment
over to Wilfrith, to rule as abbot. The kings attempted to settle
the differences of practice between the churches at the synod of
Whitby (664), where the counsels of the Roman party under Wilfrith
prevailed; and this caused the retirement of Colman, bishop of
Northumbria, who refused to conform. It was now necessary to supply
his place, and the kings, father and son, seem without disagreement
to have selected each his own man, presumably for his own province;
thus making two bishops instead of one.[4] While Alchfrith chose
Wilfrith for his bishop, and sent him to Gaul for consecration, Oswy
chose Chad, sending him to Kent to be consecrated as Bishop of York
"for him and his" by the Archbishop. But by the time that Wilfrith
had returned from his foreign journey, things were changed at the
court. Alchfrith was dead, possibly slain in rebellion against his
father; and Wilfrith, deprived of his patron, settled down quietly at
Ripon as abbot, while Chad ruled the whole church of Northumbria from
York.
[3] Bishop Browne in _Theodore and Wilfrith_, pp. 20 and 36,
inclines to the opinion that this sub-kingdom embraced the
western rather than the southern portion of Northumbria, as
generally supposed, in which case it would include those portions
of Lancashire and the western coasts northwards, laid open by
Ethelfrith's conquest at Chester.
[4] See _Theodore and Wilfrith_. The same.
But when Oswy died (670 or 671) and his son Ecgfrith succeeded, Chad
retired, and Wilfrith was made sole Bishop. Now began a very active
and happy period of his life. Enjoying undivided power, a position
which suited his nature, he moved about his huge diocese, everywhere
creating new foundations and building fresh churches. With skilled
workmen under him, he was the great architect and builder of his
time. First he turned his attention to the head church in York, which
had become, since Oswald's days, ruinous. After building there an
edifice unique in its time, he took his masons to Ripon, and there
he built a basilica of dressed stone with pillars and arches and
porches. He also enriched its altar with vases, and a vestment of
purple and gold, and laid upon it a book of the Gospels, marvellously
illumined, and enclosed in a gold and jewelled case. Wilfrith made
the dedication of this church, which was attended by King Ecgfrith,
and by tributary kings, reeves and abbots, an occasion of great
splendour. Standing before the altar, with his face towards the
concourse of people, he recited the names of the lands with which
Ripon was endowed, as also of certain sanctuaries of the Britons
which were taken over by it.
Now this enumeration of lands, said to be given by princes with the
consent of the bishops, is of great interest.[5] Were these lands
within Alchfrith's former sub-kingdom--the nucleus being his monastic
endowment?--and was it intended to create a bishopric there at Ripon,
separate from the one at York? Certainly the great tracts of country
mentioned were to be ecclesiastically ruled from Ripon, whether by
abbot or bishop.
[5] For the meaning and scope of these early gifts to the church,
which not only embraced whole villages, but even hundreds and
provinces, see Maitland's _Doomsday Book and Beyond_, p. 498.
Moreover, in the confused and certainly corrupt list of names that
has come down to us of Wilfrith's remarkable recitation, several have
been localized within that last conquered portion of Northumbria
lying to the west, which may have been called by the Celts who lost
it, Teyrnllwg.[6]
[6] See Rhys' _Celtic Britain_ for a suggestion that Edwin's
conquest and Teyrnllwg may represent a considerable portion of
our district, also "Rydal" in _Westmorland Gazette_, May 2nd,
1903. Mr. Farrer, while noticing this point in _Victorian History
of Lancashire_, vol. ii., considers that better authority could
be desired. For the list of names of gifts to Ripon that have
come down to us, see Canon Raine's _Historians of the Church of
York_. Amounderness, between the Ribble and the Cocker, is one.
Cartmel is probably another. The region "dunutinga" may possibly
be referred to the Duddon and beyond, where still are manor and
fells called Dunnerdale, and the hamlet of Old Dunning Well and
Dumerholme. Donya is the name of some explored earthworks at
the junction of Bannisdale beck with the Mint, north of Kendal.
"Goedyne" suggests "Gadeni" or "Cadeni," a name applied to the
people of the Borders. See Prof. Veitch's _History and Poetry
of Scottish Borders_. The lands of William de Dunnington are
mentioned in the _Furness Abbey Coucher Book_, ccviii.
Whatever had been Alchfrith's intentions about Ripon, Wilfrith's
were clear in thus making it the church centre for a district as
wide as a diocese. In effect, it was a diocese; though only for a
short time was there a recognized Bishop of Ripon. And this was after
Ecgfrith and Wilfrith had unhappily quarrelled, and Wilfrith had
been expelled from Northumbria, when Theodore, the new archbishop,
who had been called north to re-organize the huge diocese, made
finally five bishoprics out of it; and Eadhed (after temporarily
ruling a see at Lindsey) became, according to Bede, the Bishop of
Ripon. But upon the reconciliation of Wilfrith with King Aldfrith,
who succeeded Ecgfrith, Eadhed retired from Ripon, and Wilfrith again
took possession of it, and ruled it--though only as abbot--until his
death.
Wilfrith's inauguration of Ripon, which took place in the period
of his sole prelacy of Northumbria (671 to 678) was then an event
of great importance for the district round the great Bay, and for
Grasmere; indeed it is hardly too much to say that its results lasted
over a thousand years. For in spite of the bishop's loss of power,
his scheme ultimately held good. When the long dark days of Danish
anarchy were passed, the western district which he gathered in to
the fold of Ripon emerged as an ecclesiastical entity, and it kept
its bounds through the administrative changes of the Norman kings,
which carved out of it the barony of Kendal, and made of it parts of
Westmorland, Cumberland, Yorkshire and Lancashire. The archdeaconry
of Richmondshire, which was formally constituted a section of the
diocese of York in 1090, is in fact almost identical with Wilfrid's
province of Ripon. It is true that Ripon ceased to be its centre,
that establishment sinking again into a monastery, which lay indeed
a few miles beyond the boundary of Richmondshire; while a new
centre was created at Richmond, a little town without significance
standing in another Yorkshire vale.[7] This great church province
was ruled over by an archdeacon, who possessed almost the powers of
a bishop,[8] until it was transferred by Henry the Eighth in 1541
from the diocese of York to that of Chester; and it remained intact
until 1847, when it was broken up among what are now the dioceses of
Carlisle, Manchester, and Ripon.[9] Our own part of it became the
archdeaconry of Westmorland, under Carlisle.
[7] In 1140 Alan, earl of Richmond is stated to have oppressed
Ripon; and in 1143 he assaulted Archbishop William by the shrine
of St. Wilfrith within the church. _Mem. of Ripon._ Surtees
Society.
[8] Wills and inventories of the Archdeaconry of Richmondshire.
[9] This did not take effect, however, until after the death of
Bishop Percy in 1856. _Victoria History of Cumberland._
After Wilfrith had lost favour at the Northumbrian court, and carried
his grievances to Rome, King Ecgfrith secured the co-operation of
Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury (669) in the organization of
the Northern Church. As has been said, there are indications that
church work went on busily in the district of the great Bay. St.
Cuthbert, who had served his apprenticeship as a monk at Ripon, was
made bishop in 685 and administered his great See from Lindisfarne.
Into his charge Ecgfrith expressly gave Cartmel with its Britons, and
the newly-conquered district round Carlisle. Carlisle became indeed
a thriving church centre, with royal nunnery and monastery, and
with missions spreading round it. Bede has drawn a striking picture
of the bishop's visit to the ruined Roman city, when a vision of
the king's overthrow came upon him; as well as of his last meeting
with St. Herebert, the hermit of Derwentwater, who was wont every
year to seek his counsel. The district of Cartmel he placed in the
charge of the "good Abbot Cineferth," as if it were too distant from
Lindisfarne for his immediate care. But, while his own easiest route
to Carlisle would be by the straight road along the Roman Wall, he
would not be ignorant of that other road striking northwards through
the mountains from the great Bay. He may, indeed, have travelled
this road himself on his missionary journeys, and even have halted
to preach in the vale of Grasmere. It is certain at least that some
of the holy men working for the Anglo-Scottish Church at this period
must have done so. With the defeat and death of Ecgfrith the glory
of the Northumbrian kingdom came to an end indeed; but the church
continued to prosper; and in the two hundred years between that event
and the final relinquishment of Lindisfarne as a See, on through the
ravages of the Danes, it wrought a mighty work, not only in the old
kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira, but in the region westward. Many
of our existing foundations may well date back from that time; and
it is probable that the ruined or entirely vanished chapels of our
district were built in that age of piety.[10] We know from Bede
that there was a monastery at Dacre in Cumberland, which existed at
least until 926.[11] It has been suggested that a certain monastery,
founded by a Northumbrian nobleman in the reign of Osred (slain in
717) was situated at Heversham in Westmorland.[12] Certainly at
Heversham may be seen the fragments of a cross wrought in patterns
such as experts ascribe to the Anglian school of workmanship
introduced by Wilfrith.[13]
[10] See "Lost Churches in the Carlisle Diocese." _Transactions_
Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, vol. xv.
[11] See _Victorian History of Cumberland_.
[12] See Bates's _History of Northumberland_.
[13] See _Sculptured Crosses of the Diocese of Carlisle_.
Calverley & Collingwood.
Then too a thrilling event in hagiological history touched our parts
nearly. When the monks of Lindisfarne fled before the ravaging Danes
with St. Cuthbert's body, they went westward for safety, and their
wanderings brought them into Cumberland and Westmorland.[14] A gap
in their travels which the antiquary has yet failed to trace may
possibly have been filled by a route through Craven--that perpetual
haunt of refugees--and about Morecambe Bay.
[14] See "Translation of St. Cuthbert." _Transactions_ Cumberland
and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, part 1, vol. ii.
Certainly a well-used road must have passed not far from our district
in the days of Northumbrian anarchy, when Danish kings and allies
reigned alike at York and at Dublin. Windermere indeed is associated
with the murder (741) of two young princes of the royal house.[15]
[15] See D. F. Hodgkin's _History of Northumberland_.
THE DEDICATION
To the question so often asked, When was the church of Grasmere
founded? no more than a conjectural answer can be given. The district
formed part--though a remote one--of Northumbria, and doubtless
shared in the conversion of that kingdom. Even before that time it
may have been touched by those successive missionary efforts, which
have been happily classed as the Romano-British of Ninian at the end
of the fourth century, the Irish of Patrick in the fifth century,
and the Kymric of Kentigern in the sixth; and these efforts were
followed up by the steady work of the Anglo-Scottish monks, and the
establishment under the Anglian kings of an organized church.[16]
[16] See "Lost Churches in Carlisle Diocese," _Transactions_
Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, vol. XV.
The dedication of the Grasmere church favours the supposition that
its foundation was early. Its name-saint is King Oswald, who planted
a cross as a standard in the battle by which he gained Northumbria,
and who was killed at Maserfeld by the heathen Penda in 642. He
became the idol of the Northumbrian christians, and his relics were
cherished in many a shrine. When danger threatened Lindisfarne, his
head was placed for safety in the coffin of St. Cuthbert;[17] and
with this sacred burden the monks, as stated above, fled westward,
wandering for years in parts adjacent to Westmorland, if they did not
actually cross its borders.
[17] Where it is still, with the mark of a cut from sword or
battle-axe plain to see.--ED.
A well in the Grasmere valley shared the dedication with the church,
and indeed may have been antecedent to it, as a place of resort.
It is at the foot of Kelbarrow (formerly Kelbergh,[18] the hill
of the spring); and the Celts were wont to decorate their _kels_
or springs with votive offerings of a heathen kind. The church,
however, always took care to possess herself of such wells, absorbing
any sanctification that was ascribed to them; and the water of St.
Oswald's well continued to be carried to the church for baptisms
until quite recent times.[19]
[18] Monkbergh by Windermere has become Mountbarrow.
[19] The spot was pointed out to Mrs. Simpson by the Rev. Edward
Jefferies, who from 1840 was curate in charge.
Church and well are not, however, close together. The well springs in
the flat meadow between the path to the Wray and Wray Beck, but it
is now covered in. The adjacent bay of the lake is called Well-foot,
and the bridge over the beck has the same name; and when the Wray
property was "boundered" in 1683, the "welfoot bridge" was spoken of.
It is suggestive that the farmstead close by owns the name of
Pavement End, being formerly known as Padmire. Could it be proved
that the name is an ancient one, the idea that the spot was much
resorted to of old would be confirmed, since the causeway went so far
and no farther.[20]
[20] I find, however, in deeds of the early seventeenth century,
only _Padman_ hereabouts. Or is this a mistake for Padmar? Padman
appears in the register.
THE SITE
The present site of the church may not have been the original one. It
is hardly a likely halting-place for a travelling preacher. The Roman
road which traversed the valley could neither have been the present
one, that leads to church and village, nor the straight cut from Town
End that passes the Swan Inn. Both of these cross the flat bottom;
and the Romans from the summit of White Moss (by which they certainly
entered the vale) would never have dropped into the marsh below (even
now water-logged in places), only to climb out again, to that gap
of the Raise that plainly beckoned them to their goal northward.
Instead, they would maintain their level as far as might be, and
keep along the firm slope of the fells at a height of some 300 to
400 feet; then, with only two rapid becks to ford, they would come
easily and gradually to the ascent of the pass. It is interesting to
find that along this presumed route there exists a line of scattered
homesteads; while the modern road below was--until the recent spurt
in building, vacant but for a cottage and the Swan Inn; and this last
stands in reality on an ancient cross "loaning" between the higher
road suggested, and the village. Many of these homesteads have been
turned into houses for the wealthy, and great alterations have taken
place; but a track the whole way may still be made out, though hidden
in places by private drives and occupation roads. From White Moss it
dropped but little at first, passing behind the highest of the modern
houses, according to the belief of old people, who say that this
section of it, though remembered, was stopped up before their time.
It touched How Head, a farmhold now deserted; then the Hollins,
Forest Side, Ben Place and Beck Houses. It crossed Greenhead Gill and
passed behind Knott Houses, Winterseeds and Gillside, continuing by
the present ford over Tongue Gill, whence the pass is soon gained.
Now of these names many represented of old not one house, but a
couple or even a group. Doubtless most of them were planted by the
Norse settlers either upon or below the Roman road, on some spot
conveniently above their meadows and common field; and devious lanes
would in time become trodden between one and another, to the final
discarding of the old straight track. Still this can be traced in
places; and a bit to be seen above Winterseeds is probably the actual
Roman road. A stone celt was recently found in the beck close below
it. A quern was also found not far off.[21] The fact that a smithy
existed until recently at Winterseeds--which is only reached now by
climbing the steep brow from the main road--is strong presumptive
evidence of an old line of traffic passing by it. There the last
of the smiths, John Watson, made the ironwork of the present outer
church-door. When he became old, a smithy was set up on the lower
road, at Tongue Gill.
[21] See _Transactions_ Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian
Society, N.S. 3, p. 419.
Now it is a singular fact that a field lying a little below this
road, near the gateway of Forrest Side, bears the name of Kirk How.
And there is a tradition attached to the spot. It is said that the
church of the valley was to have been built here, and that the
materials were even gathered together ready for the start; when lo!
they vanished in the night-time, only to be found upon the present
site, and that a second attempt only produced a like result, the
inference being conveyed, by sly looks and chuckles on the part of
the narrator, that the task had been wrought by some supernatural
Being, not to be lightly mentioned. Whether this was the Hob, or
Hobthrush who played so large a part in the stories of the past,
cannot be said, but the legend, in its humorous fearlessness, and
love of a practical joke, is characteristic of the dalesman,[22]
and coupled with the name of the field it is suggestive. It seems
possible that here, at a spot where a traveller upon the road might
so conveniently halt and set up his cross and portable altar, an
early rude (perhaps timbered) structure may actually have once stood.
A well, too, for baptism was not far off. There is one in the grounds
of the Hollins whose water has remained in repute, and which was
examined by an expert at the time (1843) when an effort was made to
establish a hydropathic cure in Grasmere.[23] The water was then
pronounced finer than that of St. Oswald's Well; but as the owner of
the land would not sell, the establishment was placed at the Wray,
close to St. Oswald's. The enterprise, started by Mr. Phillips,
and conducted by a resident doctor and a German bathman, was not
successful, and was given up in five or six years. If the well at the
Hollins ever had a name, it is now unknown.
[22] The same legend is attached to three Lancashire churches,
the foundations of which date back to Saxon times. One is St.
Oswald's, Winwick, where the saint's well was once a place of
resort. Tradition has preserved, in the case of St. Chad's,
Rochdale, some particulars of the elfish rabble who wrought the
change. See _Memorials of Old Lancashire_, vol. --, p. 91-92.
[23] From Edward Wilson, parish verger till November, 1906.
His father, a joiner like himself, did the woodwork for the
hydropathic establishment.
It is hard not to let conjecture play round this tradition of a
change of site. Might it not actually have been made? Could it be
connected with the turning of Grasmere into a manor, and with the
parcelling out of a demesne in the valley? The barons of Kendal,
of whom Ivo de Talbois was the first, possessed all these parts,
from the time of Henry I. He and his successors governed by feudal
methods, through agents. There was here no intermediary lord between
baron and vassal; and the baron's officers--his bailiffs and his
foresters--would be placed in secure houses or fenced lodges, whence
they would control and govern. A demesne of Grasmere is mentioned on
the death of William de Lindesay, 1233, and a manor and park in a
charter of 1297.[24] The woods sold by Henry the Eighth in 1544 were
the residue of the lord's forest; he being the inheritor of the Fee.
[24] Inquisition post mortem. _Calendar Patent Rolls_, 25 Edward
I.
Now we may reasonably suppose this demesne to have been planted in
Kirktown, as the present village came to be called, where the meadows
were rich and the soil deep for ploughing, but distant from, and
below the ancient line of road with its scattered homesteads. The
demesne made a village nucleus; for all the accessories of a manor
house would spring up about it. We know the lord's brewery was not
far off, at Kelbergh, where springs--beside the holy one--are still
abundant.[25] In a rental, dated 1375[26] that concerned the part of
Grasmere then held by the Hotham and Pedwardyn families, it is stated
that "Richard Smyth holds the forge and should render 12d and 1d,"
with the addition that he pays 2s 0d per annum for "Kelebergh." From
another document we learn that certain tenants of Grasmere pay an
unspecified sum for the brewery of Keldbergh.
[25] The modern house built upon the knoll had a well within
it, and behind the house--where a hidden runner gushes out by a
rock--there are traces of old pavement.
[26] Levens Hall MSS.
This manorial centre was united to the high line of road on the other
side of the valley by several ways. One, a footpath, still passes
hard by Kirk How, a now disused smithy being upon it. Two others
approach and meet to cross Raise Beck together by White Bridge, the
name indicative of a stone fabric at a time when timber was commoner.
Here the village pinfold still stands.
What more natural than that the church should be added to this
central group, and at a time perhaps when enlarged space and entire
rebuilding of an existing edifice required to be done? The site by
the river would afford deep soil for burial. To such a change of site
(supposing it were made) there would naturally be opposition from
some quarter; whence the tradition.
This, however, is but conjecture. The fabric of the present church
shows no feature that is of a certainty older than the introduction
of manorial rule into Grasmere; while it may be as late as the
fourteenth century. But before considering the question of its age,
it will be well to point out other evidences of the existence of a
church in the valley before record began, and then pass on to such
scant records as time has left to us.
[Illustration: Date]
[Illustration: The PARISH of GRASMERE its Townships and Churches]