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XVI.—The Ancient Settlements, Cemeteries, and Earthworks of Furness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

H. Swainson Cowper Esq.
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Extract

In the following pages will be found the result of a somewhat careful examination of all the existing ancient sites in the district of Furness, in North Lancashire. The remains themselves are very varied in character, ranging from the rude enclosure of dry-built masonry to the burh of the Anglo-Saxon lord. The accompanying illustrations represent all the most important examples of these; and, as far as I am aware, every site (excepting some groups of cairns, which on parts of the fells are innumerable) will be found described with some detail in the text.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , 1893 , pp. 389 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1893

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References

page 389 note a The following are the most important notices on the subject, with a brief statement of the character of each, and an abbreviation used in the text of this paper for reference:

1. The Antiquities of Furness: by West, Thomas, Close's edition (Ulverston, 1805)Google Scholar, contains plans of Aldingham Moat, and the Urswick stone walls (pp. 391 and 397).

2. Archaeologia, xxxi. 448–453Google Scholar, contains a paper by C. M. Jopling, “on the subject of Remains ascribed to the era of the Druids in Furness, north of Lancashire.” Plans are given of Urswick stone walls, enclosures at Appleby Slack, Birkrigg, a circle on Kirkby Moor, and also a map, all of which are more or less useless. Arch. 31.

3. The Prehistoric Remains of Furness and Cartmel; a paper read by Henry Barber, M.D., before the Royal Archaeological Institute in 1868, and printed in pamphlet form at Ulverston. It contains some useful information, but is unillustrated. Barb.

4. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, iii. 241–265Google Scholar, contains a valuable paper on the Archaeological Remains of the Lake district, by J. Clifton Ward, F.G.S. C. and W. iii.

5. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, ix. 200–205 and 497–504Google Scholar, in “Some Prehistoric Remains in North Lonsdale, by H. S. Cowper.” C. and W. ix.

page 390 note a Jopling gives a plan quite conventional and useless.

page 394 note a Contains plan and description.

page 394 note b As the depression by the side of the rampart above mentioned has been the subject of controversy in a local paper, I must state that it does not appear to me to be in any sense a ditch, i.e. one of defence. In my opinion it is due, 1st, to the casting out of earth for the formation of the rampart (to some small extent); 2nd, to sheep sheltering from the prevailing south-west wind under the embankment, and grubbing and burrowing under its lee side; 3rd, to denudation by natural drainage, the embankment being in part built down a natural hollow. The trench is not to be found where the embankment is exchanged for a wall.

page 399 note a These I have been assured are “guards” for woodcock sprints, and they are certainly very like in construction; but as they occur in a very similar position at the adjacent settlement, I think it better to notice them and to mark them on the plan; their position is peculiar, being thus placed in conjunction with the ancient walls, and they are not in the usual hollow in which woodcock sprints are generally found.

page 399 note b At a little distance to the north-west, on a road to Knott End farm, I observed a stone which seems to have been used for sharpening a narrow-pointed instrument or weapon. It has upon it a groove 8 inches by 2 inches containing many small parallel grooves apparently formed by a sharp point, and each of which may perhaps be from ¼ to ⅛ of an inch wide.

Another stone of similar character I have noticed on a fell to the east of Coniston Lake, near Park-a-moor. This stone is also small, about 2 feet long, and has upon it a similar irregular groove, in length 6 inches, and in greatest width 2½ inches, which is made up of smaller grooves in the same manner.

page 400 note a Not shown on the plan.

page 405 note a Huts of Apdudwy, by Hugh Pritchard; Archaeologia Cambrensis, 4th S. xii. 27Google Scholar.

page 405 note b Interments and a portion of a stone ring were found.

page 408 note a See Barnscar; An ancient settlement in Cumberland, by C. W. Dymond, F.S.A. C. and W. xii.

page 411 note a Scotland in Early Christian Times: Rhind Lectures, 1879 (Edinburgh, 1881), p. 87Google Scholar.

page 411 note b A British Rath at Kirkby Lonsdale, by the Rev. Canon Ware, M.A. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological and Antiquarian Society, vii. 111.

page 412 note a Wilson, , Archaeology mid Prehistoric Annals of Scotland (1851), 86Google Scholar.

page 412 note b Anderson, Scotland in Pagan Times, 291. Other passages are found 17 to 24 inches deep and 21 to 28 inches wide.

page 413 note a W. F. 9.

page 415 note a Marked in the 6-inch Ordnance map as “circle.”

page 416 note a Not marked in the 6-inch Ordnance map.

page 416 note b Marked in the 6-inch Ordnance Survey as “circle.”

page 417 note a Marked in the 6-inch Ordnance map as “Druidical circle.”

page 417 note b Not on 6-inch Ordnance map.

page 418 note a Marked in 6-inch Ordnance map as “Druidical temple.”

page 419 note a Marked in the 6-inch Ordnance map as “Druidical circle.”

page 424 note a P. 407.

page 424 note b History of Lancashire, iv. 669Google Scholar. History of Richmond shire, ii. 404Google Scholar.

page 425 note a W. F. 408.

page 426 note a Coning, Cunyg or Cyning enters largely into the nomenclature of these parts. There was a Conninggarth on the site of Caernarvon Castle, the ancient seat of the Le Flemings, near Beckerment, in Cumberland. Also Conninger Scar off Rampside. Coningsgarth, a farm near the Roman station of Old Carlisle. Conishead, Coniston, and perhaps Conybeds, the name of some ancient earthworks near Kendal.