Crosby Ravensworth Directories

Crosby-Ravensworth Parish

Is generally a fertile and open district, except at its southern extremity, which forms part of the wild and mountainous township of Birkbeck Fells. It is nearly six miles in length and three in breadth, and is bounded by the parishes of Shap, Orton, Appleby St. Lawrence, and Morland. It contains an abundance of limestone, and is divided into the four townships of Crosby-Ravensworth, Mauld's Meaubrn, Reagill, and Birkbeck Fells, and its population in 1841 amounted to 909 souls. The value of its lands and buildings, in 1845, was £7313., and its rateable value is £6466. 6s. 3d.

The total number of vicars, since 1303, is twenty-one. Walter, who was elected Bishop of Carlisle, in 1223, constituted a perpetual vicar in this church, and allotted to him the altarage, and twenty acres of land with two tofts, on condition that he paid 20s. a year to the monks of Whitby, who were also to have the tithe of wool and lamb of the whole parish, with two-thirds of the tithe of the village of Meaburn. In 1845, the tithes were commuted for £142. 6s. 4d. viz., rectorial, £98. 3s. 3½d., and vicarial, £44. 3s. 0½d.

The manor of Crosby-Ravensworth passed from the Alverstains to the Hastings, Threlkelds, and Pickerings; the latter of whom sold it, with part of the demeane, in the reign of James I., to Sir John Lowther ; to whose descendant, the Earl of Lonsdale, it now belongs, but the estates called Bank and Row, on the east side of the Lyvennet rivulet, form part of Mrs. Howard's manor of Garthorn, most of which is in Asby Parish. The park, in which Sir Lancelot Threlkeld kept his deer, lies a little south of the village. It is now called Crosby Gill, and is said to have been enclosed with a wall three yards high. A little south of this place is Black Dub*, where King Charles II. halted and regaled his army, on his hasty march from Scotland in 1651. This solitary spring, which is the source of the Lyevennet, is surrounded on all sides by uninclosed moors, and though this place is now so silent and deserted, it was once the great thoroughfare from Scotland, through Lancashire, to the metropolis of England. On the 13 August, 1843, a rustic obelisk was errected here, to commemorate the circumstances of King Charles and his Scottish army having died there, and drunk the waters of the spring. The obelisk has on one side the following inscription, carved by Mr. Thomas Bland, of Reagill:-

Gilts is a hamlet in this township, near Blasterfield, and the source of the Lyvennet, two miles N. of Orton.

Birkbeck Fells township is a lage mountainous district, partly in the parishes of Shap and Orton, containing about thirty scattered houses, distant from three to five miles and a half S. by E. of Shap, and forming a lordship within the manor of Crosby-Ravensworth, belonging to the Earl of Lonsdale. Most of the tenements have been sold to freehold, the lord reserving only the royalties, and suit of mill after the 20th multure, and power to enclose 200 acres of the common, and should the tenants agree to enclose the remainder of the common, the lord is to receive 6d. an acre as rent. The rateable value of Birkbeck Fells is £353. 13s. 2d.

Shap Wells are situated at Lodge How, a wild, heathy and desolate eminence, in the part of Birkbeck Fells, which is within this parish, three miles and a half S. by E. of Shap, half a mile E. of the great high road leading from Kendal to Carlisle, and about 150 yards W. of the Lancaster and Carlisle railway. Dr. Burn, who wrote about seventy years ago, says, "by the side of the river Berbeck, was discovered some few years ago a spa water, now know by the name of Shap Well, to which in the summer sesson, is a considerable resort. It is impregnated with sulphur, and smells like rotten eggs, or the barrel of a musket just fired, and bath been found serviceable in scorbutic disorders." In 1828, a chemical analysis and medical treaties of this spa was published by Dr. Alderson, of West-house, Yorkshire, who was assisted in the composition of the work, byDr. Fyfe, lecturer on chemistry in Edinburgh. The doctor, in his preface, syas, that its operation is milder than the Harrogate purgative spa, and much more active than Gileland water, and that it will be found in many essential respects superior to the Middleton spring, and greatly to be preferred to the waters of Croft. Indeed, it is said that there is not a medicated spring in the kingdom more generally efficacious than the Shap spa, in rousing the energies of the debilitated stomach, and inspiring the whole frame with new animation, giving to the blanched and cadaverous cheek, the glow of health, and to the turgid and spiritless eye, the sparkle of life and energy. The water is remarkable for the great quantity of saline matter which it contains, there being in every pint, wine measure, 26.26 grains of muriate of lime, 14.62 grains of muriate of soda, 4.68 grains of sulphate of soda, 0.92 grains of carbonate of soda, 0.7 grains of carbonate of lime, with traces of iron, 0.1 grains of selica, 1.0 grain of vegetable matter, and 0.5 cubic inch of carbonic acid, with, it is supposed, 00.02 grains of magnesia, making the total quatity of saline matter 75.5 grains. Dr. Granville, in his work entitled "The Spas of England," speaking of the Shap spa, says, that the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen gas in the water is made manifest by its taste and smell, its deposition, its action upon lead and iron, and lastly on the oil paint in the bath room. It approaches nearer to the quality of the celebrated Leamington water than any other yet analyzed in England. Here is a good hotel with every convenience for the accomadation of visitors ; and a range of extensive buildings, containing hot and cold baths, have recently been erected. The spa is easy of access, and within a few hours' ride of the lakes of Haweswater, Ulswater, and Windermere, and its immediate vicinity presents a varietyof the most delightful scenery ; so gratifying to the curiosity of the mind, and at the same time, conducing to the health of the body, for the great importance of recreation and mental excietment to invalids, who are not unfrequently predisposed to mope in gloomy apathy, from the absence of interesting objects to rouse them to exertion, is now universally admitted. On a hill north of the hotel is an octagonal column, surmounted by a richly ornamented capital "to commemorate," as the inscription records "the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne of these realms, June 20th, 1837." It was erected in 1842 and including the base and capital is twenty-three feet six inches high, and the statue is six feet two inches high, making a total of twenty-nine feet eight inches. On the north panel is a beautiful wreath of palm and olive, emblematic of peace and plenty, surmounted by the Lowther Arms ; on the west panel is represented, in bass relief, the British Lion, with its paw resting upon a figure of the globe ; and on the east panel, a graceful figure of goddess Hygeia, pouring medicinal waters from the goblet, into a shell, held by an aged invalid. This affecting piece of work must be the production of a reflective and comprehensive mind. The design is exceedingly chaste, and the contrast between the elegant figure of the goddess and that of the enfeebled supplicant is beautifully imagined. The statue of Brittania is also a work of great merit. In the anatomy of the figure, and the adjustment of the draperies into graceful broad folds, the sculptor has been admirably successful. The bass-relievos and statue are the work and gratnitous contribution of Mr. Thomas Bland, of Reagill, a self-taught artist. The pillar was designed by Mr. Mawson, of Lowther, architect.

The mineral waters spring from a bank near the junction of the old red sandstone and the alternate slate rocks, which here assume the form of a fell-spar porphyry, and conglomerate, - the souce being probably contained in some beds of shale, subordinate to the old red sandstone, or it may be secreted in pyrytous beds, subordinate to the old slate formation.

Mauld's Meaburn village is pleasantly situated on the banks of the Lyvennet, in a fine rich vale of pastures, four miles and a half E. by N. of Shap. A fair for horses, sheep, and cattle was established here in 1828, to be held yearly on the Monday before Easter. In the township is a stinted common of 250 acres, called cow-close, belonging to thirty-two land owners. Grayber, an open field containing 122 acres, was enclosed and divided in 1818. About three miles lower down the vale in the parish of Morland, is King's Meaburn, which, with the intermediate space and this village, anciently formed one manor, called Meaburn, or Medburn, but being forfeited by Sir Hugh Morville, for assisting in the assassination of the sainted Thomas à Becket, one half of it was escheated to the crown, and hence the name King's Meaburn. The other portion was settled upon Maud, sister of Sir Hugh's, and wife of William de Veteripont, one of the Norman adventurers who came into England with the conqueror. Mauld's Meaburn passed from the Veteriponts to the families of Frauncey and Vernon, but has been held by the Lowthers since the reign of James I., and is now possessed by the present Earl of Lonsdale. The other principal landowners are W. Dent, Esq., Messrs. Salkeld, J. Betham, and J. Richardson. Rateable value, £1970. 13s. 10½.

Witherslack is a hamlet in this township, three miles and a half east of Shap.

Joseph Addison, A.M. wo was born at Mauld's Meaburn, in 1632, and educated at Appleby school, was, after the restoration, made chaplain to the garrison at Trangler, in Barbary, where he wrote a description of the eastern parts of Africa, which he published on his return, in 1670. He was subsequently promoted to the rectory of Milston, a prebend of Salisbury, the archdeacoury of Coventry, and deanery of Lichfield, where he died in 1703, having written several learned works, amongst which are a "Treaties on the state of the Jews" and an "Essay on the Nature of Tendency of the Mohomeran Religion".

Joseph Addison, son of the above, was the celebrated author of Cute and other dramatic pieces, and the share which he had in the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian is known to nearly every reader. He received his early education at the charter House, from whence he removed to Queen's College, Oxford, where he first distinguished himself by his Latin compositions in the Musa Anglieana. His first English publication was a copy of verses to Mr. Dryden, which was followed by a translation of Virgil's Fourth Georgie. The government allowed him £300. a year during his travels through several parts of Europe, an account of which he published on his return. He succeeded the renowned Mr. Locks, as Commissioner of Appeals, and was ultimately made Secretary of State. He died in 1719 in the 49th year of his age.

Reagill, anciently called Reugeill, is a pleasant village and township, three miles N.E. of Shap. It was granted, in the 13th of King John, by Robert de Veteripont, to Shap Abbey, but after the dissolation was given to Thomas, Lord Wharton, from whose descendants, the manor and demeane passed by purchase to Sir John Lowther, and are consequently now the property of the Earl of Lonsdale. There was formerly a chapel here, at a place called Chapel Garth. In 1773, Rev. Randal Randerson left £120. for the endowment of a free school at Reagill, and at athe enclosure, in 1803, an allotment of twenty-eight acrews was awarded for the like purpose. Joseph Thwaites, Esq., of London, has also been a liberal benefactor to this school which is now taught by Mr. John Bell. Rateable value, £1285. 16s. Besides the residen landowners, distinguished in the directory, there are also a few non-residen propriators, the largest of whom are the Earl of Lonsdale, Thomas Salkeld, Esq., Richard Gibson, Esq., Mrs. Nicholson and Mr. H. Wilkinson.

Birkbeck Fells

Crosby Ravensworth Township

Mauld's Meaburn Township

Reagill

Birkbeck Fells Directory - marked 1 reside at Scout Green

Crosby Ravensworth Township Directory

Reagill Township Directory

History taken from History and Topography of Westmorland - Mannex and Whellan 1851