AN INVENTORY OF THE ANCIENT AND HISTORICAL MONUMENTS
IN THE COUNTY OF WESTMORLAND
ACCREDITED TO A DATE BEFORE 1714
Arranged by Parishes
(Unless otherwise stated, the dimensions given in the Inventory are internal. Monuments with titles
printed in italics are covered by an introductory sentence to which reference should be made. The
key-plans of those churches which are not illustrated by hatched plans are drawn to a uniform scale
of 48 ft. to the inch, with the monumental portions shown in solid black.)
1 AMBLESIDE (B.e.)
(O.S. 6 in. (a)XXVI, N.W., (b)XXVI, S.W.,
(c)XXVI, S.E.)
Ambleside is a small town and parish at the N. end
of Windermere. The Roman station is the principal
monument.
Roman
b(1). Roman Fort, in Borrans Field at the junction
of the Rothay and Brathay rivers, lies on a flat delta
of alluvial sand, with a rocky knoll to the N.W. The
excavations conducted by Prof. R.G. Collingwood in
1913–15 and in 1920 showed the existence of two forts,
the earlier of the Flavian period and the later, partly
overlying it, of the 2nd to the 4th century. The first
fort enclosed about 1¾ acres and the second about
2½ acres.
Fort I is in outline an irregular quadrilateral; it
measures 300 ft. (N. to S.) by 250 ft. internally and
lies rather to the N.E. of the later fort (Fort II).
Excavation showed a rampart of puddled clay on a clay
and cobble foundation, a 5 ft. berm and double
ditches averaging 25–30 ft. in width. All the buildings were of wood. The main gate was in the E.
side and was a single entrance with guardrooms on
either side. The only other gate was in the centre
of the N. side with a guardroom to the W. and a crossditch to the E. There were wooden towers along the
rampart and at the angles; at the N.W. corner a rocky
knoll was used as a look-out and incorporated in the
fort, the W. lines being diverted westwards so as to
include it. The construction of the later fort
obliterated most of the remains of the internal buildings, but sufficient evidence was secured to show that
the headquarters building may have occupied the
normal position, looking down the via pratoria, with
two granaries to the N. and presumably the commandant's house N. of the granaries. The fort was
probably built during Agricola's northern campaign
in A.D. 79; in the opinion of the excavator the occupation lasted only a few years.
Fort II. The 2nd-century fort overlies the S.W.
two-thirds of the Agricolan fort and is roughly
rectangular, with internal measurements 395 ft. (E.
to W.) by 270 ft. The earlier fort was levelled and
incorporated into an artificial gravel platform for the
later structure, the site thus being raised higher above
flood-level. Unlike the early fort, the later one does
not include the knoll to the N.W. of the site, though
this may conceivably still have been used as a watchtower; instead it extends some 50 yards farther W., so
that its N.W. angle touches the old bed of the Rothay
river.
The rampart of the new fort consists of a 4 ft.
stone wall with a clay backing 10 ft. thick, separated
from the double ditches (not everywhere explored),
on the N. and E. at least, by a berm averaging 20 ft.
in width. The gates are of stone, as are the angletowers, which are of the usual pattern. The main gate
is, as before, in the E. side and is double, with guardrooms on either side. The other gates have only a
gate-passage with flanking walls. The S. gate has a
monolithic threshold 9¾ ft. long with a door-check
and two pivot holes 7 ft. 8 in. apart.
The principal buildings, which are also of stone,
face E. The headquarters building, which was
excavated in 1914 and found to be badly robbed,
measures 68 ft. (N. to S.) by 75 ft. and is of simple
plan. A 5 ft. gravel road leads into the courtyard,
which also has a gravel floor; on the N., E. and S.
sides are the foundations of a portico about 11 ft.
wide, which probably had a penthouse-roof carried
on wooden posts and dripping into a gutter set forward
2 ft. from the walls; this gutter is connected with a
drain, made of local slates, which passes under the
cross-hall to emerge at the S.W. corner of the building.
Beyond the courtyard is a cross-hall, with a mud floor,
averaging 64 ft. by 19 ft., with a tribunal or dais about
10 ft. square in the N.W. corner. A line of buildingstones 4 ft. wide and projecting 10 ft. into the crosshall S. of the sacellum, if it is a wall at all, is a late
insertion. At the back of the cross-hall is the usual
range of small rooms, but three instead of five in
number. The central room, the sacellum, has a sunk
strong-room approached by three steps; there was
nothing to prove that the latter construction was
secondary. South of the headquarters building is
the commandant's house, consisting of a series of small
rooms fronting on a court, forming the usual courtyard
type. It was not completely excavated, but its plan
is rhomboidal and its dimensions are 78 ft. (N. to S.)
by 69 ft. N. of the headquarters building is a
double granary, 66 ft. square overall, with outer walls
3 ft. thick and supported by buttresses. The N. and
S. walls have basement-ventilators between the buttresses; those in the S. wall are splayed inwards
and those in the N. wall, which shows signs of rebuilding, are cut straight. Of the seven internal dividing
walls, the northernmost and three southernmost are
sleeper-walls to support the floors, the remaining pair,
of the same thickness as the outer walls, are side walls
to their respective granaries, leaving an interval which
may have been unroofed. The remaining space was
occupied by wooden barracks, etc., parallel to the
longer axis of the fort; details and stratification had
been destroyed by the plough.
Ambleside. Roman Forts.
The site is now in the guardianship of the National
Trust and the excavated remains of the following
buildings of the second fort are preserved: the
headquarters building, granary, commandant's house,
E. and S. gates and N.W. and N.E. angle-towers.
The tops of all walls have been turfed and, except in
the commandant's house, the walls have been levelled
up where necessary to show the plan; the missing
walls of the headquarters building have been marked
out in stone. The ditches have not been cleared and
show only as shallow depressions.
In addition to the main fort the following subsidiary
constructions have been noted: (1) A paved area
outside the main gate probably represents the paradeground. (2) In the centre of the rocky knolls N.
of the fort a patch of ground about ¾ acre in
extent produced signs of occupation and points to the
existence of some sort of vicus (civil settlement).
(3) Against the outside of the S. rampart the excavations of 1915 revealed a deposit of cobbles and waterworn gravel 20 ft. wide sloping down towards the
lake and retained at its outer edge by large cobbles.
It continues for a short distance round the S.E. corner
as a low cobble retaining wall. Pottery found suggested it is not all of one date but had been added to
periodically. Apparently it is a breakwater to protect
the S. rampart during floods and southerly gales.
(4) S. of the S.E. corner of the fort there are traces
in the lake, at an average distance of 20 ft. from the
normal shore-line, of a wall, nowhere more than a
course high above the silt, composed principally of
water-worn boulders and cobbles. Its total length
is 270 ft. Two explanations have been put forward
that it is a breakwater or a quay. Local conditions,
e.g. depth of water and the absence of any paving and
approach from the land, appear to rule out the latter.
It appears best to consider the structure as a breakwater
against southerly gales. There is no direct evidence
of Roman date, but there seems no other date to which
it can reasonably be assigned.
In regard to the dating of the site the pottery
excavated suggests, first, a temporary Agricolan occupation of uncertain duration (c. A.D. 80); secondly, a
late Trajanic or early Hadrianic re-occupation (i.e.
c. A.D. 110–120). Thereafter, although Antonine and
3rd-century relics are not numerous, there is no
positive evidence that the site was abandoned until
the end of the 4th century. The large quantities of
'signal-station' pottery found during the excavations
suggest a fairly intense occupation after the Picts
War of 368, and it seems likely that the fort was manned
until the final evacuation of Hadrian's Wall.
The coins found during the excavations were:
Trajan, 1; Faustina II, 1; Julia Domna, 1; Constantine II, 1; Valens, 1. These and the other finds
are in the Armitt Library, Ambleside.
[See C. and W. Trans. N.S. XIV, 433; XV, 1;
XVI, 57; XXI, 1. Inscriptions, C.I.L. VII, 293;
Eph. Epig. VII, 949–950. Finds outside the Fort,
C. and W. Trans. N.S. II, 31; V, 186.]
Condition—Good; under the guardianship of the
National Trust.
Ecclesiastical
b(2). Parish Church of St. Mary, to the S.W. of
the town, is an entirely modern structure of 1854.
It contains from the older chapel of St. Anne (a chapel
of Grasmere), re-built in 1812 and still standing N.E.
of the town, the following:—
Fittings—Book: Authorised version of the Bible
of 1611, bound in boards and leather with brass mounts.
Plate: includes a cup and steeple-cover (Plate 55)
of 1618 given by James Newton to the chapel in 1684,
secular cup with embossed bowl and foot, scrolled
brackets to stem, steeple-cover also embossed; also a
pewter flagon, cup and alms-dish.
Condition—Modern building.
Secular
a(3). Market Cross, in the market-place, is an
octagonal tapering shaft of stone, perhaps of mediæval
date, set on a modern base.
Condition—Good.
a(4). House on Bridge (Plate 61) over Stock Gill,
360 yards N.E. of the church. The Bridge is a rubble
structure of one span with a segmental arch. On the
middle of this is set the small square House, projecting
slightly on two sides over the stream. It is a rubble
building of two storeys with a slate-covered roof and
has exposed ceiling-beams. Both house and bridge
are probably of late 17th or early 18th-century date,
and the house is said to have been built as a gardenhouse.
Condition—Good.
a(5). Low Sweden Bridge, over Scandale Beck,
¾ m. N. of the church, is a rubble structure of one
span with a roadway about 10 ft. wide. The arch is
segmental and the bridge may perhaps date from the
17th century.
Condition—Good.
a(6). High Sweden Bridge, over Scandale Beck,
about ¾ m. N. of (5), is of similar construction to that
just described. It is about 6 ft. wide and has no
parapets.
Condition—Good.
Monuments (7–17)
The following monuments, unless otherwise
described, are of the 17th century and of two storeys.
The walls are of rubble and the roofs are slate-covered.
Some of the buildings have exposed ceiling-beams.
Condition—Good or fairly good.
a(7). Nook End Farm, house, 120 yards S.S.W. of
(5), was built perhaps early in the 18th century and
contains a moulded batten and plank partition of the
local type.
a(8). House on the W. side of Nook Lane, 650 yards
N.N.E. of the church, has been much altered. On the S.
front is a tablet with the date 1661, and a second tablet
bears the initials and date M.H. 1818.
a(9). House, 100 yards S.W. of St. Anne's Chapel,
was built perhaps early in the 18th century.
a(10). Chapel Hill, house, 25 yards S.W. of St.
Anne's Chapel, has a cross-wing at the N.E. end and
a second wing on the N.W. side. A door on the N.W.
front is panelled and has a scutcheon-plate dated 1693.
Several windows in the building retain their solid
frames with mullions. The chimney-stacks have
original cylindrical shafts. Inside the building is an
original newel staircase with solid steps and there are
some old battened doors.
a(11). Oaks Farm, house, two tenements, 120 yards
E.S.E. of St. Anne's Chapel, has a wing on the N. side
In it is an original window with a solid frame and
mullions. Inside the building is a partition of the
local type with moulded muntins and planks; there
are also two old panelled doors.
b(12). Two Warehouses, S.E. of the market-place,
were built perhaps early in the 18th century. The
eastern one has two original windows of four lights
with mullions and diamond-shaped bars.
b(13). House and shop, at the N.E. corner of Church
Street, has an added kitchen at the back and a separate
block still farther to the W. The shop is mainly
modern. The original N. chimney-stack has a
cylindrical or oval shaft.
b(14). House, two tenements, on the W. side of
Old Road, 730 yards S.S.E. of the church, retains an
original window with solid frame and mullion.
b(15). Low Fold, cottage, 30 yards S. of (14).
b(16). Wateredge Hotel, 1,150 yards S. of the church,
has been much altered and added to. It contains two
old panelled doors.
c(17). High Skelgill, house, nearly 1½ m. S.E. of
the church, is of late 17th or early 18th-century date.