Alston - part 1

Went out for a Last of the Summer Wine day with friends, ending up in Alston, the highest market town in England.

The parish church of St Augustine of Canterbury which dominates the town was built in 1869, the third church on the site.

Wonderful aerial photo by Simon Ledingham

It was finaced by public subscription but with substantial contributions from Greenwich Hospital estates. These estates were originally held by the Radcliffe Earls of Derwentwater, a bastard line of Charles II by one of his mistresses. They were forfeit to the crown after James, the third Earl, was captured at Preston in 1715 and beheaded on Tower Hill. In 1765 all their lands were granted to Greenwich Hospital who in turn rented them out to tenant farmers and leased the mineral rights to substantial deposits of lead ore to The London Lead Company who became a major employer and benefactor.

After 1919 there was considerable discussion as to the appropriate form a memorial should take. In May 1920 it was agreed that Carlisle architect JH Martindale, who in 1889 had designed the reredos behind the altar, be approached to provide a design for a chancel screen. It would be made by Thomas Lawson of Carlisle at a cost of £415.


The initial proposal was that the dead of all faiths be listed by rank and date of death. This was later amended to a simple listing by christian & surname. After the names had been advertised in the local papers and checked with the various nonconformist chapels in the district they were carved on two panels on either side of the screen.


In the porch of the church there is another memorial high up on the wall. There is no indication of where it might have originated.

In his book The Missing of The Somme, Geoff Dyer suggests a reason for the naming of names that is the focus of the War Memorial after 1918/19

In the naming processes, of putting one’s own loss against other’s in the community the pain of mothers, wives and fathers was subsumed in a list of names whose sheer scale was numbing...
Realising that grief could be rendered more manageable if simultaneously divided and shared by a million the scale of sacrifice was emphasised. Publicising the scale of the loss was the best way to make it bearable.

But there is another commonality to memorials that was central to their message; their place in the landscape.

After 1918 there were long discussions about the forms that memorials should take. At Milnethorpe.....

... the suggestion of tablets in the Church and the Methodist Chapel was ‘too insignificant’, a children’s playground and a mortuary chapel too expensive. Only the vicar wanted a lychgate. A village club was dismissed as there were already two underused venues. Private Knight, a demobilised soldier, suggested the memorial fund should be shared out amongst veterans. This was diplomatically rejected on the grounds that it would ‘ignore the fallen’. Like the vast majority of communities the final decision was a cross, of Portland stone, to be erected on the village green.

When a cross, obelisk or other similar funereal form was adopted they were often placed by the roadside so that the names of those lost would remain with the village people and more importantly be made public, engaged with by the itinerant traveller and ultimately, the nation. The fellside village in the hills of Cumbria very publicly claimed its place in the Empire's grief.

There are many examples in the county of roadside memorials.


Cowhills on the Northumberland/Durham border on the High Fells above Alston.


Cautley War Memorial.

The presentation of the dead was central to the memorial's purpose. By adopting the unspoken precedent of placing the names on the King's Highway for all to see the dead of all classes & castes became equals in the Army of the Dead. And as important the status of the pauper and his widow was seen to be equal to that of Prince's widows. The world was slower in 1920 and the vast majority of passers by would take time to gaze and reflect.


Here at Barbon the names on the memorial include those of plain dalesmen and two sons of Lord Shuttleworth

Cumbria & HMS Glorious

On the east side of Ullswater is the church of St Peter of 1882 designed by John A Cory of Carlisle, sometime County Architect of Cumberland.


His greatest claim to fame is his work on Garlands Hospital, Carlisle, a place of some local repute.

Some way to the south of this rather bland building is the older church of St Martin of 1634.



Although of no great architectural merit St Peter's is a most poignant church from the point of view of memorials. In recent years it has become the focus for remembrance of HMS Glorious, an aircraft carrier sunk on June 8, 1940 during the ill fated Norwegian campaign.


The reason is a window on the south side of the church commemorating the death of Lt Commander William Hugh Parkin, aged 33, and the men of the Glorious. It is one of a series in the church designed and made by Jane Grey and inserted in 1975.

The window shows the ship viewed from above, ploughing thro' the waves. The phoenix rises from the flames, a symbol of the resurrection, and below is the ship's crest and an anchor, symbol of the Royal Navy. Below that is the bible and the symbol of the Trinity.

William Hugh Parkin (1869-1911), probably the father of Lt Commander Parkin & sometime Lt Colonel of the Westmorland & Cumberland Yeomanry, is also commemorated by a plaque in the church. Indeed another WH Parkin of Ravencragg, together with Anthony Parkin of Sharrow Bay, established St Peter's in 1882.

Since the insertion of the window a couple of people have left smaller memorials to men who were lost, a photo of the ship pre-war and this card with a sprig of lavender attached that names Royal Marine Wilfred Munslow, twin brother of Geoffrey. His photo is on the reverse.


A short clip of contemporary German newsreel film shows the course of the one sided battle that led to the loss of the Glorious and her escorting destroyers, Acasta and Ardent. Out of a crew of 1564 only 45 survived three days in lifeboats. There were two survivors from each of the destroyers.
For a memorial to a man from Acasta, go here.

The window at Martindale is not the only memorial in Cumbria to honour loss on HMS Glorious. At Gosforth a wooden plaque commemorates 39 year old Lt Commander Austin Noel Rees Keene, R.N. Although retired from the Navy he rejoined on the outbreak of hostilities. He was married to Euphemia Mary Keene and lived at Torphins, Aberdeenshire. However, his parents were the Reverend Rees and Louisa Mary Keene - were they perhaps natives of Gosforth?

Another publication

Another publication listing names on war memorials has been kindly sent to me by the Matterdale Historical and Archaeological Society.

A labour of love, it describes the men whose names appear on the memorials at Matterdale, Greystoke, Patterdale, Penruddock and Watermillock from both world wars.



One of the great things about these locally produced publications is the anecdotal stories that often appear. The men are often remembered in their communities and stories remain in the memory of friends and family describing their lives and their fates. Such is the case here.

I found myself by the banks of Ullswater yesterday. What a beautiful place. I looked around the Salvin church at Patterdale and found two further memorials commemorating conflicts.

At the west end of the nave there is a White Ensign hanging from the wall.

An accompanying plaque explains that it flew on a despatch boat of HMS Lion, flagship of Sir David Beatty, at the Battle of Jutland. It was presented to the church by Commander Berry RN. Best look at my earlier posting about Beatty's flag at Flookburgh!

Set against the end wall of the nave, below the flag, is a rough wooden table.

It is an altar that was originally in the crypt of St Martin in the Fields, London. It was given to the Lakeland sculptress, Josephina de Vasconcelles who installed it in the chapel of a house in the Duddon Valley that was a refuge for disadvantaged youths. In 1970 it was dedicated by the Bishop of Carlisle as a memorial to all those killed in air crashes in the Lakeland fells from the outbreak of the second world war until today; over 500 people. At the millenium Josephina gave the altar to Patterdale church as a focus of pilgrimage for friends and relatives of the dead.

More Trafalgar Veterans at Cartmel!

Following my posting about ancient Cumbrian Veterans I got an email from Howard of Cartmel.

In 2005 he wrote a short article for the parish magazine to commemorate the bi-centenary of Trafalgar. It was based around an earlier article published in the same mag in July 1917 reporting on a lantern slide talk given in the village by Admiral Powlett on the theme of The Navy.

Howard describes how after the talk Powlett proposed a vote of thanks to the Chairman of the meeting, Sir Evan MacGregor of Aynsome Manor, Cartmel....

who is the grandson of Nelson’s Captain at Trafalgar. The proposal was seconded by [the vicar of Cartmel Rev Godfrey Smith] the great-grandson of Nelson’s Chaplain... The printing for the lecture was carried out by the great-niece and great-great-niece of two of Nelson’s sailors, one of whom, Robert Thompson, is said to have died after having both his legs shot off, and the other, John Thompson, lost only part of a finger and lived in Cark for many years to tell the tale. One day, in the “Rose and Crown,” a young man made some slighting remark about the Navy, whereupon John Thompson said, “Say that again, young man.” The young man said it, and John promptly knocked his head through the wood panelling!

Nelson’s Captain on HMS “Victory” was Thomas Masterman Hardy (1769-1839). His grandson was Evan MacGregor, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, a civil servant in the Admiralty for 47 years. He rose to the highest level where he served as Permanent Secretary to the Admiralty from 1886 until his retirement in 1907 following which he lived at Aynsome Manor until his death in 1926. He and Lady MacGregor worshipped in the Priory from 1908 onwards. His banner hangs between the British Legion banners in the North Transept where a commemorative plaque can also be seen. The family grave is in Grange cemetery, right in the corner nearest to Cartmel.

Dr. Alexander John Scott D.D. (1768-1840) was Chaplain and friend to Nelson for many years.

His great-grandson was The Reverend Godfrey Smith, Vicar of Cartmel until 1919. “Recollections of the Life of the Rev. A.J. Scott. D.D. Lord Nelson's Chaplain.” by Alfred and Margaret Gatty was first published in 1842. This biography was written by his daughter two years after his death and has been recently reprinted by Meriden Publications ISBN: 0954349504.

Cobby - The War Horse - killed at Ypres 1915.

Had a lovely day out yesterday. Started out at Holehird, the gardens of the Lakeland Horticultural Society located just off the Patterdale (Windermere to Troutbeck) road as it ascends towards Kirkstone. These spectacular gardens, which includes the national collection of Hydrangeas, are maintained entirely by volunteers. The house is a Cheshire Home.


Originally they were part of the Holehird estate that was originally built up by the Lingard family in the early/mid 19th century. In 1865 it was bought by John MacMillan Dunlop, a Yorkshire industrialist. Following his death and a long family wrangle the house and grounds were sold on again to William Grimble Groves, a Manchester brewer. It has famous associations. For the two summers of 1889 & 1895 Beatrix Potter stayed here with her family when her father rented the house. In 1945 the entire estate was given to Westmorland County Council by Henry Leigh Groves JP for the benefit of the people of the county.

So what has Holehird got to do with Remembrance of war?

In an isolated poart of the estate, now in private ownership, there is a collection of small memorials to the family pets of the Groves family. Among these is a stone to 'Cobby', one of the estate's horses that was conscripted into the war effort in 1914/15.

The inscription reads;

'Cobby'
Killed at Ypres
Whilst Serving His
Country
April 1915

Thanks to Ian Jones for the pic of the memorial

What's in a name?

Taking a bit of a leap of faith with this posting, or a leap of imagination.

Surnames are odd things! I guess they identify us, give us our individuality, but they also link us with the past. Until recently they could be a label of locale, of belonging, not simply to family, but to place; people didn't stray far until the nineteenth century. My Grandmother was a Waterworth. In the early years of the nineteenth century Waterworth's would only be found on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border and in one or two communities down south. Incidentally, every Waterworth on the planet is reputedly descended from one guy, a mediaeval Water Bailiff from Rufford in West Lancashire.

So what is in a name?

On the Great War memorials of Furness there are a number of names that are distinctly local; Woodburn, Pennington, Kitchin, Postlethwaite. They are names that occur in North Lancashire for generations. There are others who are not represented among the dead, Mackereth is one such.

Thus it was quite remarkable to be surfing the National Archives site and, coming across the full listing of Trafalgar veterans to find the name of William Mackeras.

William was born in Ulverston in 1780 and in 1805 was serving as an Ordinary Seaman aboard HMS Naiad, a frigate in Nelson's fleet, present at Trafalgar. Some years later a local paper carried a report on an event probably about Ulverston William...

WESTMORELAND GAZETTE, April 29th 1854

Mr. William MACKERETH, one of the remaining few of the heroes of Trafalgar, who has been residing for some time in Troutbeck, was on Tuesday last entertained by his friends on leaving the vale. The "Old Commodore" and "Mackereth's Gone to the Wars" composed for the occasion, and several appropriate songs, were sung on his health being drunk. The old sailor responded in a characteristic speech, and only regretted he was not engaged with the Baltic fleet where "England expects every man to do his duty."

Looking further I discovered that there were a stack of Cumbrians at the battle. Able Seaman Joseph Ben of Keswick served on HMS Bellerophon. Sam Wise of Skinburness served on the Polyphemus as a Master's Mate. Over 100 Cumberland men were there, mostly from the coastal ports of Workington, Whitehaven & Maryport, although there are a significant number from Carlisle.

Seamen Carousing - Julius Caesar Ibbetson - 1802

There were Westmorland men too. James Clarke of Ambleside fought in HMS Ajax. Mathew Hartley was a press ganged 51 year old married man from Kendal. His first ship was HMS Victory in which he served at Trafalgar. He survived the French wars and was discharged, presumably to make his way back to Kendal, in September 1814. At least 11 Westmorland men fought.

John Woodburn was a Private of Marines in the Leviathon; was he a south Cumbrian?

Check here for the story of the British Tar in paintings.

Finding all these names took me to the University of Southampton website and the database of men who fought in the 100 Years War, veterans of Agincourt, Orleans; Harry the Fifth's Band of Brothers.....

One of the principal families of mediaeval Cumbria was the Harringtons; there is the Harrington chantry at Cartmel Priory. Searching this name on the database, under 'Captain', threw up loads of names of common soldiers. One is William de Dunourdale, or in modern parlance William of Dunnerdale, who was an archer in King Harry's Expeditionary Force of 1415. He is listed in Sir John Harrington's muster roll and probably fought at Agincourt.

Alain Penyngton, knight, Richard Hudelston, John Penyngton, Nicholas Lamplogh, men at arms, William Threlkylde, archer; all served in John, Lord Harrington's Companies in 1415; all have Cumbrian names.

Thomas Makereth was an archer in the same Company. Was he a forefather of William Mackeras who served at Trafalgar?

Who knows!

It is easy to connect to the English Longbowman. Find an old unrestored church and look around the porch and there you may find grooves in the stonework such as these at St Anthony's, Cartmel Fell.

They were created by bowmen sharpening their arrowheads as they waited their turn to practice in the churchyard butts, anytime between c1350 - c1650.

Prints of the sailors pic can be purchased at The National Maritime Museum