Angerton - South Lakeland - Cumbria

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Angerton, South Lakeland District, Cumbria

Introduction

This article is a desk study based on information from books, maps and the internet. The photographs are all by Alexander P Kapp. Further information and photographs would be very welcome.

For a map showing the civil parish boundary, see: Link

History

The name Angerton was first recorded as Angertona in the Coucher Book of Furness Abbey in 1293 (Ekwall 1960), and from the name it could have been a Saxon settlement. The present farm called Angerton is outside of the former civil parish. This is because the latter was formed in 1866 to give administrative status to the extra-parochial area of Angerton Moss. Being extra-parochial meant that it was not in a parish, and therefore there were no tithes to pay, a privilege often granted to monastic houses. It would therefore seem likely that the land belonged to Furness Abbey before the Dissolution. It was not unusual for marshland to be given to religious houses, and the monks were skilled at draining the land and using it for pasture. The population throughout the late 19C was around 30, and there have been no new houses built since, so it is surprising that the civil parish has survived. From 1976 it became part of Duddon Parish Council, along with Broughton West and Dunnerdale with Seathwaite civil parishes, however it still retains its identity and boundaries. Before 1974 it was in Lancashire.

The following were farmers in Angerton in 1882 (Mannex): Isaac Keen of Marsh Houses, Thomas Pritt of Angerton Hall, Samuel Whineray of Waitham Hill, Sarah Whineray of Marshfield. Also, in Broughton West CP, Isabella Singleton of Angerton Farm.

Geography

Angerton is in the coastal plain adjacent to Duddon Estuary. It is in Countryside Character Area 7 - West Cumbrian Coastal Plain. Glacial deposits overlie Silurian shales and slate, producing marshland next to the sea. The 1850 map gives the area of the township as 2195 acres and 24 perches, of which 1120 acres, 2 roods and 18 perches was tidal water. Since then the position of the channels and the boundary in the estuary have changed. The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1894-5 states that: The greater part of the land is moor and waste, the remainder arable and pasture. The population in 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 was 31, 36, 32 and 28 respectively.

Sources

• J B Harley, William Yates's Map of Lancashire 1786, 1968
• OS 6/mile map of 1850 (Link
• OS 1:2500 map of 1891 (surveyed in 1888-9) (CdRom, Digital Archives Association)
• OS 1:25000 map of 2001 (Explorer Sheet OL6)
• Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place names, Oxford 1960
• Mannex's directory of Furness and Cartmel, 1882 (Genuki, Broughton in Furness)
• Duddon Parish council website Link

Routes for Exploration

1 The lane from Foxfield to Angerton Hall
2 The 'roads' over the Sands
3 Footpaths
4 Herd House

1 The lane from Foxfield to Angerton Hall

This lane leaves the A595 at SD210852 in Foxfield. At SD213847 there is a sharp bend to the left, a lane goes off to the right to Angerton farm (see #2(a)).



At SD214847 the road goes, by a level crossing, across the Furness Railway (Barrow to Whitehaven), which was constructed in 1848.



Then at SD217848 there is a bend to the right, and here is the entrance to Angerton Moss, which is part of the Duddon Mosses Nature Reserve, managed by English Nature. There is a board-walk through the mossland. A leaflet is available.



Then the civil parish is entered at the crossing of the Raby Cut, a drainage ditch, at SD218848. The lane is then unfenced across Waitham Common. Just before the climb over a rocky knoll there was a path to the south to Little Waitham (SD221845). This name is still on the map, although there is no longer a house there. On the rocky knoll there were gravel pits (1850) or quarries (1891) on each side of the lane, and then on the sheltered east side of the hill is a house called Waitham Hill (SD223846). The water supply was from a well (1850) and later a pump (1891) at SD222845, where there is now a small building. A footpath leads from Waitham Hill to the A595 via Cow Bridge (see #3(a)).

SD226844 Waitham Coppice was called The Plantation in 1850 and Fir Coppice in 1891.



SD228842 An abrupt bend in the road, round the corner of a block of curiously diamond-shaped fields. The fields along the western side of Kirkby Pool (tidal stream) are irregularly shaped, suggesting that they are much older than the regularly shaped fields to the west, which were probably not enclosed until the 18C.

SD228840 At the road junction the left turn is to Moss Houses farm and Moss Houses Bridge over the Kirkby Pool into Kirkby in Furness. Taking the right turn towards Angerton Hall, at SD227837 there is the driveway to Marsh Field farm.



East of the farm the shape of the parish boundary shows that there was a river meander, within which the 1850 map shows a marsh. At SD226832 there is a level crossing to Angerton Hall.



The name Angerton Hall occurs in Mannex's directory of 1882, yet on the 1891 map and the 1927 1 map it is Moss Farm. On the 1850 map it is called Moss Barns.

2 The 'roads' over the Sands

(a) At SD213847 a lane leads through Angerton, nestling between outcrops of Silurian shale, to the shore. In 1850 there was a slate depôt on Angerton Point at SD212841. The route then continues as a bridleway curving around the coastline over the sands to Sand Side, Kirkby in Furness. In 1850 the marsh extended further out, and Whelpshead Crag (SD213836) was inland. However on the 1786 map it is shown as an island, and the road over the sands is shown passing between the island and the mainland. The crag is an outcrop of Silurian shale, and would be an ideal subject for a first geograph in SD2183.

The invisible bridleway continues over the sands through SD2182, also with no geograph, before crossing marshland and fording Kirkby Pool. It would probably be wise to turn back at this point! The other squares in the estuary have no geographs at present, and could be accessed by the other rights-of-way across the sands:

(b) Two invisible bridleways cross the estuary from Arnaby Moss to Kirkby;

(c) A fourth bridleway was a very long route from Skellow Crag, Foxfield, to Dunnerholme;

but the current OS map carries a warning: Public Rights of Way across Duddon Sands can be dangerous. Seek local guidance

3 Footpaths

(a) From Waitham Hill at SD223846 to Cow Bridge at SD230852, where the 1850 map notes that 'Ordinary Tides flow to this point'. This footpath skirts the eastern side of Bank End Moss. Moss Bridge at SD230849 is named on the 1850 map, but does not have a path to it on the Angerton (western) side of Kirkby Pool.

(b) From Angerton Hall at SD226832 to cross Kirkby Pool at SD228830 (on the railway bridge? - there was a ford in 1891). The railway bridge is captioned 'Wooden Br.' on the 1850 map.

4 Herd House

Herd House Moss is a registered common, but there does not seem to be any public route to reach it. Herd House was at SD218836 and it apparently had two fields to the NW, on the western side of the moss, which are shown as rough grassland on OS2001. Mannex's Directory of 1882 did not include an occupant for the house, so considering its name it would seem to have been seasonally occupied by a herdsman.

Last edited 10Feb07

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