Grasmere Parish History & Directory

Directories

Ranks amongst the most frequented and picturesque districts in the region of the Lakes, in which it holds a central situation, being bounded on the north and west by Cumberland, on the south by Lancashire, and on the east by the parish of Windermere and Patterdale Chapelry. Within its limits are the lakes of Grasmere and Rydal; the tarns of Elterwater, Easdale, Coldale, Blea, and Stickle; the rivers Brathay and Rothay; the waterfalls of Stock-gill, Dungeon-gill, Rydal, and the Force; and the mountains of Fairfield and Langdale Pikes, with many other lofty eminences, upon one of which, Wrynose, at the south-west corner of the parish, the three counties of Westmorland, Cumberland, and Lancashire, form a junction at the point marked by three shire stones. The parish, which has three chapels of ease, and abounds with fine blue slate, is divided into four townships, of which the following is an enumeration, with the number of inhabitants in 1801, 1811, and 1821, and the annual value of the lands and buildings in 1815:

* About half of Ambleside Town and Chapelry is in the parish of Windermere, with which, in 1811, 394 of its inhabitants were returned, so that the greater parts of its population appears to be in that parish, which is divided from this by the Stockgill, a rivulet flowing through the town. Each township maintains its own poor. That part of Ambleside in this parish, is called above Stock, and the rest below Stock.

GRASMERE is a neat village, pleasantly situated at the head of the lake, from which it has its name about 3 ½ miles NW. by W. of Ambleside. A sheep fair is held here on the first Tuesday in September. As will be seen in the subjoined Directory, there are in the township several gentlemen’s seats, many of which are richly decked with sylvan ornaments, and command splendid views of the grand amphitheatre of mountains which surround the lake. Behind the village is the lofty pyramidical hill called Helm Crag, the summit of which is composed of vast rocks, in whose forms fancy has discovered "a resemblance to a lion and lamb, and to an old woman cowering." The CHURCH, dedicated to St. Oswald, is a neat white fabric, roofed with blue slate, and having its floor covered with rushes, which are renewed annually on that day of mirth, ceremony, and festivity, called the Rush-bearing. The church-yard is shaded by aged pines and sycamores, to which some sympathetic stranger has added a mournful yew. The church contains an amplitude of room for its small congregation, there being now three other episcopal places of worship in the parish, which, as well as that of Windermere, was anciently part of the still very extensive parish of Kendal. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the patronage of the rectory, which is valued in the king’s books at £28 11s. 5 ½ d. was purchased by Wm. Le Fleming, who, as well as many of his family, is buried in the church beneath a beautiful marble monument. Lady le Fleming, of Rydal Hall, is now the patroness, and the Rev. Sir Richard Fleming, Bart. A.M. is the incumbent. The village SCHOOL, built by subscription in 1685, has been endowed with several bequests, producing about £11 per annum. The Manor of Grasmere, in the Marquis and Richmond Fees of Kendal barony, is held under the Earl of Lonsdale, by customary tenants, who pay 3d. fines on the change of lord or tenant, and heriots when widows come into possession.

AMBLESIDE, a small market town, romantically situated in the vale of the Rothay, a mile N. of the head of Windermere, within 2 miles SSE. Of Grasmere and Rydal Lakes, 13 ½ miles NW. of Kendal, and about 273 miles NNW. of London. It stands, as has already been seen, in the parishes of Windermere and Grasmere, and is built in pleasing irregularity on the side of a hill, commanding charming prospects of the vale, the parks of Rydal and Brathay, and the extensive lake of Windermere. Excellent accommodations are to be had at the Salutation and White Lion Inns, and in lodgings; and from its central situation, the town is frequently made the head-quarters of tourists for a considerable time; as many very interesting excursions may be made from thence. It was formerly a Roman Station, and faint traces of a fortress are to be seen in a field at the head of Windermere. Most of the houses have been re-built or altered during the last fifty years, so that the town has now a modern aspect. The Market House was built about 1796, on the site of the old one, which was supported on pillars and galleried round. In 1650, the "keeper of the liberty of England, by authority of Parliament," granted to the Countess of Pembroke, "that within the vill of Ambleside, there shall be a market weekly on Wednesday, and two fairs yearly, (now held on the Wednesday in Whitsun week, and on the 29^th of October) with a court of Pie-powder, and other incidents thereunto." James II, in 1688, granted a similar charter, in which nine trustees are incorporated with power to "take reasonable toll, tollage, piccage, fines, amercements, and other profits," for the benefit of the poor inhabitants of Ambleside. Another fair for sheep is now held on the 13^th of Oct. but the market has been long in a declining state, but when sheeps’ wool was prepared by hand labour, before the general introduction of machinery, the town was crowded with buyers and sellers, called together and dispersed by the weekly tinklings of the now useless market bell, which is also in other respects disregarded, owing to a prevalent and injurious system of hawking provisions and goods from door to door. A large woollen mill, where linsey and coarse woollen goods are manufactured by Mrs. A. Cooper, was established here about the year 1797. Near it is a tannery and corn mill, and some of the inhabitants are employed at the slate quarries, and in working up the coppice wood into corves and other baskets called swills. In the town is a large Exhibition of Drawings and Prints, begun by the late Mr. William Green, and continued by his family. Mr. Green depicted the varied scenery of this interesting district with an ability and industry seldom united in one person. In the entrance upon a tour, these delineations may be useful, in showing the character of the scenes about to be visited, and on the conclusion, a selection – which can be purchased at a moderate expense – may revive at a future period the pleasing recollection of some favourite views. And Green’s Guide will long remain a monument of the assiduity with which he pryed into the arcana of these mountains. Mr. Green was a native of Manchester, and after residing some years at Keswick, settled in 1800 at Ambleside, where he died in 1823, aged 62 years. Here is also a bookseller’s shop, with a Circulating Library.

The CHAPEL, standing at the north end of the town, was re-built in 1812, by a rate levied on the proprietors in this chapelry and township. It was made parochial by the Bishop of Chester in 1675, and endowed by the landowners with a yearly salary of about £14, which they voluntarily charged upon their estates; but the curacy is now worth upwards of £70 per annum, having been augmented with an estate purchased in 1758 at Grayrigg with £600, of which £400 was obtained from Queen Anne’s Bounty in 1726 and 1746; £100 given by Dr. Stratford, £30 by Sir Wm. Fleming, and £30 by the Rev. Isaac Knipe; the remaining £40 being chapel stock. It has since received a parliamentary grant of £400, and £200 from Queen Anne’s Bounty. Lady de Fleming has the patronage of the curacy, of which the Rev. John Dawes is the incumbent, assisted by the Rev. Owen Lloyd. The FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, near the chapel, is endowed with 32 acres of land, and other property, worth altogether about £127 per annum, the present master (Rev. Wm. Sewell) having improved the estate by the erection of several new houses. For this valuable institution the town in indebted solely to the munificence of John Kelswick, gentleman, who, in 1721, bequeathed to three trustees nearly all his lands at Ambleside, for the erection of the school, and the support of the master. The school is free to all the boys of the township. PETTY SESSIONS are held on the first Tuesday in every month, at the Low Wood Inn, 1 ½ mile S. of Ambleside, seated in a small bay of Windermere, where many visiters take up their abode for some time, and find every accommodation that may be required. The township of Ambleside forms part of the Earl of Lonsdale’s manor of Windermere, and is of the Richmond Fee. Near the junction of the Keswick and Penrith roads stood Ambleside Hall, long the seat of the ancient family of Braithwaite.

CLAPPERSGATE, a pleasant hamlet in Loughrigg, 1 mile SW. of Ambleside, at the junction of the Rothay and Brathay rivers.

ELTERWATER, a small village, near the lake or tarn of that name, 3 ¾ miles W. of Ambleside, in Langdale township, where there is a Gunpowder Mill, belonging to David Huddleston and Co., of Elterwater-Hall, commenced in 1824. From 4000 to 6000 pounds of "fatal powder" is made here weekly.

LANGDALE (GREAT AND LITTLE), two hamlets and districts, forming a joint township, extending from two to eight miles W. of Ambleside, and containing Elterwater, and several other tarns, near which are the beautiful cascades of Skelwith Force and Colwith Force, and a grand assemblage of mountains on each side of the Brathay, some of which yield an abundance of fine blue slate, and are sometimes the resort of eagles and ravens. Great Langdale is held under the crown by the Earl of Lonsdale, as part of the manor of Windermere. Little Langdale was long the manor of the Penningtons, of Muncaster, "who sold most of the tenants to freehold about the year 1692," and the rest of the seigniory was afterwards purchased by the Philipsons, of Calgarth. Within the township is the large manor and demesne of BAYS-BROWNE, of Baisbrow, belonging to John Atkinson, Esq., of Cockermouth, and containing Lingmoor-Fell, and two extensive blue slate quarries. The CHAPEL stands at the foot of Silverhow, in Great Langdale, 5 miles W. of Ambleside, and it is said there was another at Chapel-mire, in Little Langdale. The curate’s ancient salary is £6 4s. 3d., but since 1743, the living has been augmented by Queen Anne’s Bounty with £800, with which four small estates have been purchased; out of one of which, near Ulverstone, the poor receive one-fourth of the rent in consideration of £51 4s. poor stock being included in its purchase money, where the other CHARITIES are noticed. The Rector of Grasmere is the patron, and the Rev. Daniel Green, M.A. the incumbent curate. The Gunpowder Company of Elterwater, in 1824, erected a School for the township, in consideration of a plot of land given them for the use of their mill."

LOUGHRIGG, a hamlet and district forming a manor and township with Rydal, lying between the rivers Brathay and Rothay, from which it rises boldly into a lofty and romantic fell, extending from half a mile to two miles W. of Ambleside, containing a tarn or lough or 12 acres and commanding fine views of Windermere, Grasmere, Rydal, and Elterwater lakes.

RYDAL, a village and township, including Loughrigg, and situated on the north side of the small but beautiful lake of its name, 1 ¼ mile NW. of Ambelside. Rydal is supposed to be a contraction of Rothay-dale, from the river which flows from Langdale Pikes through the lakes of Grasmere and Rydal to that of Windermere, along a picturesque and well-wooded vale. The village has recently been ornamented with a handsome Gothic CHAPEL, with an octagon spire, and dedicated to St. Mary. It was opened for Divine service in 1824, and was built at the cost of £1500 by Lady le Fleming, who endowed it with land worth £10 a year, and with money, which added to an allotment of Queen Anne’s bounty, produces £90 a year. Her ladyship conveyed the chapel to trustees, and the Rev. Fletcher Fleming is its present incumbent. The same generous lady also established a School here, and pays for the education of all the poor children in the neighbourhood. RYDAL-HALL, the beautiful seat of Lady Ann Fredicia Elizabeth le Fleming, stands embosomed in a shadypark, on a gently-rising eminence, at the junction of two vales, near the foot of the lake. It is sheltered by large oak, ash, sycamore, and other trees, of which there is an abundance in the grounds and on the side of the hill. Behind it rises the steep and lofty Fairfield and the ravine called Rydal Head. The hall is a large ancient building, which was greatly improved by the late Sir Michael le Fleming, Bart. Whose taste and liberal spirit contributed much towards the perfection of those beauties which nature has so lavishly scattered round this sequestered vale, in which the magnificent cascades called Rydal Waterfalls are conspicuous objects. A little above the hall is RYDAL MOUNT, the seat of Wm. Wordsworth, Esq. "the father of the Lake School of Poetry," who has here passed the greater part of his life, amidst scenery which, in grandeur and beauty, is scarcely equalled in Westmorland and Cumberland, and which has no doubt "contributed to enrich his imagination, to refine the natural purity of his feelings, and to produce many of the noble and exquisite descriptions of nature which adorn his poems." This charming villa looks down upon the vale of Ambleside and the lake of Windermere on one side, and the lake of Rydal, on the other; the house and gardens are in the best taste, the latter having assumed their present form under the poet’s own hand. Near it is Ivy Cottage, the residence of the Rev. Samuel Tilbrook, D.D. Bursar of St. Peter’s College, Cambridge. The Manor of Rydal and Loughrigg, was granted by Margaret de Brus to Roger de Lancaster, from one of whose descendants it passed by marriage in the reign of Henry VI to Sir Thomas le Fleming, Knight, of Coniston, and has since remained in his family, who sprang from one of the adventurers that came with William the Conqueror out of Flanders, and had a grant of Arlecdon, Beckermet, and several other manors in Cumberland, and in Furness, in Lancashire. Branches of the family were long resident at Beckermet and Coniston, before they gained possession of Rydal, where the head of the family has since been seated. Sir Daniel le Fleming was created a baronet in the 4^th of Queen Anne, having been previously knighted in 1681, be Charles II. The Rev. Sir George Fleming was bishop of Carlisle from 1734 to 1747. His predecessor, Sir William, was chosen to represent Westmorland in Parliament in 1698, 1702, 1705, and 1707, and the late worthy Baronet, Sir Michael had the same honour in 1774. Lady le Fleming the charitable relict of Sir Michael, is the present lady of the manor the tenants of which are mostly customary and heriotable, and pay 20d. fines and render boon service. The Rev. Sir Richard Fleming, rector of Grasmere and Windermere, is the present baronet and resides at Grasmere rectory.

SKELWITH BRIDGE, a hamlet in Loughrigg, on the river Brathay, near the waterfall, 2 ½ miles WSW. of Ambleside.

WATERHEAD, a pleasant hamlet at the head of Windermere lake, and in Windermere parish, but in the township of Ambleside, from which it is distant ¾ of a mile S. by E. Here resides Mr. Thomas Jackson land agent to Lady le Fleming.