Historic finds made by archaeologists in the Duddon Valley
Archaeologists in the Duddon Valley have uncovered over 3,000 previously unrecorded historic sites after a four-year survey of the area.
The Duddon Valley Local History Group, in partnership with the Lake District National Park Authority, found ring-cairns that could date back to the Bronze Age... continues...
Prehistoric Rock - art in Cumbria
Venue: Yew Tree Hall High Lorton (near Cockermouth)
Date: 10th July 2008
Time: 7.30pm
How to book: Not required
Price: Visitors £2
Tel: Ted Gilbertson 01900 85482
Lecturer: Dr... continues...
Archaeologists are hoping to unearth ancient treasures during excavations in a Cumbrian valley.
Volunteers are needed to join archaeologists during the digs in the Duddon Valley in the south west of the Lake District beginning on 30 June... continues...
People and the Land Settlement in the Eden Valley: Prehistoric to Present Day
Saturday 6th October 2007
Appleby Archaeology Group Autumn Conference - People and the Land Settlement in the Eden Valley: Prehistoric to Present Day at Appleby Grammar School. Event takes place between 9.30am and 4pm. Contact Harry Hawkins on 01768 864340.
A visit to Two Cumbrian Henges with Helen Caffrey. Event takes place at Eamont Bridge, near Penrith. Henges are circular ceremonial sites dating from the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age... continues...
Aspects of Prehistoric Cumbria - CNWRS study day to be held at Penrith Methodist Church, Wordsworth Street, Penrith in conjunction with the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society... continues...
A website featuring thousands of sites of archaeological interest in Cumbria's Lake District is being set up with the help of a £171,000 grant.
The district has more than 6,500 historical attractions including Shap Abbey, Castlerigg Stone Circle and Hardknott Roman Fort... continues...
£24k Grant to Bring Eden Neolithic Heritage to Life
Eden District Council's Penrith Museum is celebrating news that they have been awarded over £24,000 from the Local Heritage Initiative, a scheme run by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the Heritage Lottery Fund and Nationwide Building Society... continues...
An estimated £300,000 will have to be spent over two years to make the case for turning the Lake District into a World Heritage Site, it has been claimed. The Lake District National Park Authority has been trying since 1985 to win World Heritage status by Unesco, which is part of the United Nations... continues...
A Cumbrian museum has urged hill walkers to leave Neolithic relics where they find them on the fells. Stone axes are often found on Lake District scree slopes, and the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle is showing people how to recognise them, enjoy them but not to take them home. Whole story here
Pre-Roman body found in bedrock in Levens, nr Kendal
Human remains which could be about 4,000 years old have been unearthed by archaeologists working in a Cumbrian village. A team of archaeologists found the body curled up in the foetal position in a cavity in the limestone bedrock on a building site opposite the church in Levens, near Kendal... continues...
A lovely dialect tribute to Thomas Bland.
Taken from LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES ON PLACES OF NORTH WESTMORELAND.
BY THOS. GIBSON, M.D.
Published 1887
THE ANTIQUARY.
BY ANTHONY WHITEHEAD, OF REAGILL, NEAR SHAP.
YE strangers that ramble down't Vale of Lyvennet, To see bonny Nature and breathe the fresh air, Fra the spring at Black Dub a't way down to the Eden There's seines interesting, romantic, and rare.
Westward fra the Dub 'boute a cannon-shot distance There's cromlecks an' cairns full of auld Celtic baynes ; A temple where't Druids sang prayers to the plannets, Set aw arround wi' a circle o' staynes.
An' in times leayter still, when the Romans reayde foray, An' meayde a new wroad as they crossed ouer the fell, May be seen to this day, near the black dub ye find it, An' if you dispute me ga see for yoursel'.
There's many quere places a't way doon the valley, An' Hamelets or toons where the Brittans did dwell ; There's traces o' some to be seen in t' Lang-deayle, But men, farther larn'd, their origin may tell.
Crosby Kirk, of auld standing, next claims oor attention, Wi' awe an' wi' reverence oor minds for to fill ; Flass House is a feature 'at ought to be mentioned, An' Addison's birthplace on Meaburn Hill.
But the main pleayce I wish to point out to your notice Is Reagill, where yance leev'd the fam'd Thomas Bland, An' auld antiquary, cramfull o' queer notions As any you'll find in the length o' the land.
He kent a' the history o' t' world's creation, Fra t' making of Adam to t' birth o' Tom Thumb ; He tell't us the earth's composition was gasses, An' fowak meayde of air seayme as a baloon.
He talk'd about metals being fused by eruption,
An' how they were melted like souder or tin ; He kent aw the strata of rock fra the surface Aw t' way doon to the boiling het fluid within.
He scabbl'd off shells fra the hard rock o' limestone, An' sed they'd been fishes, some thousand years sen ; He was crack'd, that's a cartainty, out of aw question, To think of imposing o' sensible men.
Then sec a collection of rubbish an' kelder, Auld things 'at he tell't us the Brittans yance meayde ; Bits o' spears, meayde o' flint, broken millstones and trinkums, Sec a cargo o' kelder, a decent ship-leayde.
Gang when you would, between sunrise an' setting, You'd find him in't garden, or else in his den, Where he spent aw his time wi' his mell an' his chisel, His paint-brush an' canvas or scetch-book an' pen.
He wad travel ten mile, wi' a sketch-bewke in nap-sack, To draw some auld shield 'at he might wish to see ; An' than fra the dots, cross lines, an' the shap on't, He wad spin oot a yarn of their lang pedigree ;
An' tell who's it was, whether duke, lord, or baron, An' how they behaved when they went a crusade ; Or, if 'twas a she 'at the shield had belanged tul, He could tell ye at yance if sh'd deed an auld maid.
He'd creatures of aw macks stuck up in his garden, Fra a Hippotamus to Whittington's cat ;
Lions, dogs, deevils, wild boars, an' teayme eagles, Beats Wombwell's Managery hollow an' flat.
There's Addison, Caesar, St. George, an' Hugh Miller, Poet Burns, an' lots mair, I forgitten their neayms ; An' busts o' girt men fra aw parts o' the world, An' some in the meun, I dare say, hed their heayms.
In the cauld days o' winter he set on a fire In a grate like a helmet, stuck in a w'hole ; A shield for his shovel, a sword for his poker, And an Indian tomahawk split the girt-cwoal.
He pay'd equal respect to a bewk-larn'd beggar,
A hawker, a squire, a duke, or a lord ; If they talk'd about science or tell't a good stowry He grappled it aw, without missing a word.
Tho' a wreck of the former, 'tis still interesting,
An' the owner will give you admission quite free ; Sea, if you be strangers, don't fear you'll be welcome, If you come up to Reagill, the Garden to see.
This blog examines mountain environments from the perspective of landscape archaeology; what people did on and around mountains and how this can inform us about how ancient and not so ancient people used, perceived and interacted with these places.
Carlisle based museum and art gallery, so could appeal to a couple with two different tastes - one with an archaeological bent, and one with an arty bent, or one with an archaelological bent, and one with a Primark bent, who leaves you there and sods off into the city centre.
Well, just read th'website to find out. Looks like it'd appeal to those without a car or push-iron. Won't appeal to the the ice-cream and boat-ride brigade, so you could be in some good company on this rascal. Looks like the boss might know his stuff too, instead of the usual crap that's spouted.
Basic. Yup, that's about it. Still, there are contact details if you want to tell 'em summat, or even join. Too few links under the Cumbria area, so this could be a starter for ten for someone.
Framework. I hate that phrase, me. Stinks of pretentious prats being overpaid to come up with fancy words for basic stuff. Still, it's not as tedious as it suggests, but make your own minds up. Enter at your peril, those of you expecting great things. Don't say you haven't been warned, 'cos you have.
John Moores University, Liverpool website, dealing with Cumbria. On the face of it, it looks ok. Funny script thingy causes a delay, but if you click "yes" when the option pops up you'll be alreet cocker.
This is a local history groups website, dealing with the Duddon vally, also known as Dunnerdale. Of interest to TMAers will be the recent ring cairn excavations at Seathwaite Tarn, now used as a reservoir. The valley is a gem of the Lakes, with very few visitors, and peace generally reigns. The track to Seathwaite Tarn isn't too hard, and, once you've turned your back on the dam, you'll find yourself in a beautiful mountain coomb.
Based in Ambleside, at the bottom of the Kirkstone Pass, this is a small museum with local finds, and wider ranging finds from Cumbria. The Great Langdale stone axe factory features.
A useful site to compare with its rival MWIS. An assessment of both will probably be good enough for those going up high to view some of the high cairns, circles, ring cairns, and axe factories. I personally find MWIS the more reliable, but in winter this site has the benefit of giving snow conditions underfoot, i.e. ice, the need for crompons, avalanche/cornice riske etc.
The Museum of Kendal, one of the oldest in the country, covering a wide range of archaeology, as well as the geology and natural history of Cumbria, and the old counties of Cumberland and Westmorland.
As part of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society (CWAAS) Website:
The Clare Fell Memorial Bursary - money awarded to under-25s hoping to undertake a project relating to Cumbrian prehistoric archaeology (or of another region, so long as they live in Cumbria).
Long Meg is now 12 feet high. Camden said "15" but Mr Robin Collingwood reminds me that this was Camden's conventional figure; when he was in doubt as to an exact statement he put down 15. Various authors, not measuring for themselves, have simply followed him. Hutchinson's 18 feet I take to be a misprint for 15.
Todd, who first reduced the height to 12 feet, mentioned that the stone was hollow at the top, "like a dish or a Roman altar"; and Gough repeated this. What it really is like was found by Mr George Watson, who got a ladder and climbed up to see. He found a V-shaped groove running across the stone in a northerly direction, very broken and jagged, as if it had been struck by lightning. Possibly the stone was thus injured between Camden's time and Todd's - the greater part of a century. Probably, however, Camden overstated the height.
At any rate the stone was not hollowed at the top to serve as an altar, or to make the Danish King's seat less insecure.
A reminder to do one's own research, even if it means remembering a ladder. From a report of a meeting of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, in the 'Penrith Observer', 26th July 1921.
I visited Castlehowe Scar Stone Circle on my way back home from Cornwall. I was disappointed to see a feed ring in the centre of the circle (picture submitted). This is not a recommended conservation option!