Jackie Wedd’s new booklet entitled Ravenstonedale and the Gilbertines is now available in St Oswald’s Church in return for a suggested donation to the Church of £5. The booklet will also be available at RPHG talks, in return for a suggested donation of £5 to RPHG. It contains an account of the research by RPHG and others into the Gilbertine ruins next to St Oswald’s Church, and is intended to expand on the information on the new Interpretation board there produced by the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership.
The new Ravenstonedale Village Information Board, also co-ordinated by Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership, has now been installed in the free Car Park next to the nursery school.
Details of our programme of talks for 2025-2026 are on the Talks Programme page.
RPHG Members and friends on our mailing list will receive the Autumn Newsletter by email as usual, with more details of our current activities.
Notes from previous seasons:
Our usual Christmas get-together for members and friends on a Bring and Share basis took place on Wednesday 11th December 2024. We welcomed around 20 members and friends, who enjoyed tackling Dave Wedd’s quiz about the Parish and places further afield, on subjects as diverse as local becks, gills and sikes, as well as the football team supported by Alfred Wainwright (Blackburn Rovers) or what Kendal Brown is (snuff). The committee would like to thank all those who helped with setting out the tables – and washing up afterwards!
The third talk on 20th November was by Jean Scott-Smith about Our Viking Inheritance. We were very pleased to welcome Jean back for another of her fascinating talks, and this was the first talk we have held in the afternoon instead of the evening. It was well-attended by members and friends, and we were pleased to see people who are unable to come to our evening talks. We have another afternoon talk planned for 19th February. Anthony Hughes, one of the County archivists based in Kendal, will explain the role of County Archives and show some of the material they hold relating to Ravenstonedale Parish.
The second talk on 16th October was by one of our members, Val Fermer. Val presented one of her Ravenstonedale Tales stories of local families which included some surprising discoveries. This one featured a lost Ravenstonedale inheritance, and her research identified local people who gained from a particular Will in 1832 and also those people who should have inherited but missed out – and why!
Our first evening talk of the season took place on 18th September, an audio-visual presentation by Ambleside Oral History Group about working life during the last century. The Group started recording local people’s memories in 1976, so they now have a large archive of sound recordings – including some from people who were born around 1900. Everyone in the audience agreed that it makes such a difference to hear people’s memories spoken in their own words, and there were some intriguing photos as well. We learnt about “struggling bars” and hiring fairs, as well as the common experience that when schoolchildren finished school at the age of fourteen, they were just placed into a job that had already been earmarked for them. It was a fascinating evening, and we look forward to welcoming the Group back in the future.
Our new online archives catalogue https://ravenstonedalearchives.org.uk/# will soon be available to RPHG members, who will be emailed instructions about how to sign up to view the contents. At the moment we are concentrating on populating this catalogue with the many digital images which we hold, so that all members may see these. After that we hope to add other catalogues of the archives items that are held on spreadsheets at the moment. (Some of these are printed out in our archive files in the archives room at Ravenstonedale Community and Heritage Centre, but not all).
These individual online archives catalogues have been provided to member groups and societies by Cumbria Local History Federation for a nominal fee. We are very pleased to be able to take advantage of this.
Some RPHG members are currently working with the Stainmore Railway at Kirkby Stephen East Station towards their lottery-funded project to highlight the previously unknown (or just forgotten) roles of women who worked on this railway. It ran through our Parish for 100 years to the former station of Tebay Junction, passing through stations at Ravenstonedale (nearer Newbiggin-on-Lune) and Gaisgill more locally to us. We are also researching the changes brought about by the coming – and disappearance – of the railway here and have already spoken to people who have memories and/or photographs they are willing to share, to help us put together a booklet about Ravenstonedale and the Railway in due course. Please leave a message on one of the Comments forms on this website if you would like to talk to us about this, and we will get back to you.
In connection with this RPHG members were invited to a fascinating joint private visit with Upper Eden History Society to Kirkby Stephen East Station on Saturday 28th September. After a short introductory talk in the newly-restored meeting room, we enjoyed train rides in the newly-restored coaches, visited the maintenance shed to see restoration work on the huge snowplough which featured in the famous 1955 film “Snowdrift at Bleath Gill”, and walked to view the 1861 signal box which is currently being rebuilt and restored to become the oldest working signal box in the world. We were of course very pleased to meet station cat Barras as well!
The final talk in our 2023-2024 season was on Wednesday 20th March 2024 by Mike Thompson, the Project Manager at Kirkby Stephen East Station. His title West Side Story referred to the comparatively little-known Stainmore railway which ran west from Kirkby Stephen East to the former station of Tebay Junction for 100 years, and passed through former stations at Ravenstonedale and Gaisgill locally to us. 38 members and guests thoroughly enjoyed Mike’s presentation, illustrated with photographs from the KSE archives and Mike’s own collection.
February 2023 – an overview of the history of Ravenstonedale from 550AD to 1555 by one of our members Les Neal. Les and his son Simon have been researching the early history of the Parish for some time now, drawing on published sources and also historical documents in local and national archives that have been overlooked or misinterpreted in the past. After giving the general historical background from the arrival of the Celts in Britain migrating westwards from Europe during the early Iron Age, Les described the establishment of the kingdoms of the Brythonic Celts, particularly that of Rheged, which covered the modern area of Cumbria and Lancashire including Ravenstonedale. He then explained how Ravenstonedale later became part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria during the 8th century AD, and was subsequently inhabited by Vikings after they took control of Carlisle in 875AD.
Les continued with an account of his research into the history of Ravenstonedale from the 11th century onwards, dealing with the reasons for the arrival of the Gilbertine Canons and the complicated details of the eventual establishment of Lord Thomas Wharton as Lord of the Manor of Ravenstonedale in 1555. A highly detailed and absorbing talk!
January 2023 – Libby Robinson, the Founder of the Fell Pony Heritage Trust recounted the history of the true Cumbrian Fell Ponies (which have to be bred on the Cumbrian Fells as their name suggests). Currently there are fewer breeders than in former times, so Libby established the Trust in 2018 to support the remaining breeders and their hefted herds of ponies, and to educate people about this way of life.
The Christmas get-together on Wednesday 14th December 2022 was attended by many members and friends in spite of the freezing weather! The debate on the origin of the name Ravenstonedale led by four members of the Group featured some well-known theories about its derivation, and also some original research which led to a hitherto undocumented explanation! The audience found it difficult to decide that one single interpretation was the winner!
We made a successful grant application to the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership for funding from their Love Your Landscape funds backed by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. We are reorganising the archives room and purchasing more archive-standard storage for the long-term preservation of the Parish archives thanks to this grant aid. We have also invested in specialist kit to monitor the conditions in the archive room to ensure it is safe for long-term archives storage. Our project follows on from the training and feedback we received during the joint initiative between the Cumbria Local History Federation and the Cumbria Archives Service.
On 16th November 2022 one of our members, Diana Fothergill, gave a talk entitled The South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway – and some side tracks. This railway ran through our Parish for 100 years before being closed in the 1960s. The talk was not an in-depth history of the railway, but rather an entertaining browse through the British Newspaper Archive’s online pages.
The October 2022 talk was an audio-visual presentation by Maurice Steele entitled Walking Through History: Hadrian’s Wall, from Bowness-on-Solway to Wallsend.
Our 2022-2023 evening talks began on Wednesday 21st September 2022 with a return visit from Jean Scott-Smith from Shap, telling us about Westmorland dialect. This very entertaining talk by the Honorary Secretary of the Lakeland Dialect Society introduced us to the history of “oor mak o’ tooak” with the help of poems, readings and collected oral history narrative spoken by Jean in what she describes as her own first language. The Lakeland Dialect Society was formed in 1939 and is still going strong, especially as they now include regular meetings with local Young Farmers groups to encourage them to keep their own local dialect alive – “use it or lose it”!
Over the summer of 2022, the History Group staged an exhibition for the Platinum Jubilee weekend in the upstairs room at High Chapel featuring photographs and reminiscences about past celebrations in the Parish from Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1877 onwards. The Archives Room was also open. We were happy to welcome over 100 people over the three afternoons, and took over £100 in book sales and donations towards the upkeep of the Parish archives for which we are extremely grateful! We will now be ordering more archive-standard storage and other items which we need to preserve our collection.
Our final evening talk in the 2021-2022 season in April 2022 was by Les Neal – his second look at the history of Quakers in the Parish. We welcomed members, friends and also guests from the Quaker community across Cumbria. Les drew upon the unique resources available at RPHG for his research, plus the Manorial records, and limited edition texts such as The First Publishers of Truth (1907), The Ejected of 1662 in Cumberland and Westmorland (1911), and two volumes of Quaker history written by Richard Pinder of Wath, Ravenstonedale, in 1660.
Jackie Wedd’s talk on 16th March 2022 was about the second Parish Millennium project – the design and creation of the four Parish Embroideries which were reunited for the evening. (They are usually housed separately in four current or former places of worship in the Parish – High Chapel, Low Chapel, St Oswald’s Church and Newbiggin-on-Lune Methodist Church.)
The talk by Maurice Hall on The History of Common Land was on 16th February 2022. Maurice is a member of the History Group and also the Clerk to Winston and Kaber Commons. He explained that Magna Carta in 1215 is understood to be the first legal recognition of the commoners. Maurice speculated that before that date prehistoric people had taken to hillsides to establish communities, employing agricultural techniques that could have originated in the Mediterranean. He also considered the influence of the Romans and their arrangements with the existing farmers to provide for their food needs in return for being able to continue with their farm work unhindered by their conquerors.
Our January 2022 talk by Pete Brummitt on Curiosities of Castle Design entertained the audience of members and friends with examples of the history of castle design not only from Cumbria but also from north Wales and Northumberland. Pete and his wife Bev also provided the audience with refreshments for the evening – tasty biscuits made to a medieval recipe which includes saffron, honey, cinnamon and ginger – just one example of the food which could have been prepared in castle kitchens. This would have been the responsibility of the “pantler” – not a word familiar to us today, although the term “pantry” where the pantler worked is still used. More familiar perhaps is the word “butts” meaning barrels for liquor which were looked after by the “butler”.
Our 2021 Christmas get-together for members and friends was held on Wednesday 15th December 2021 in Ravenstonedale Community and Heritage Centre (High Chapel).
In November 2021 Diana Fothergill continued her occasional series of talks on Famous Fothergills. John Fothergill (one of many with that forename!) was born in 1876 into the Lowbridge branch of the Fothergills, and attended the Slade School of Fine Art, which led to connections with many notable figures in the arts world, including Augustus John, Jacob Epstein, R. G. Collingwood and Oscar Wilde – both before and after Wilde’s imprisonment. Fothergill founded and ran the Carfax Gallery in London, but he was also a prolific author and is perhaps best known for his somewhat idiosyncratic take on his life in the 1920s when owner/proprietor of the Spread Eagle at Thame, documented in his book An Innkeeper’s Diary.
Our talk on Wednesday 20th October 2021 by Bev Brummitt was entitled Musings of a Taphophile – a Tombstone Tourist.
The Parish History Group were very pleased to be able to hold our first “live” meeting for many months on Wednesday 15th September 2021 – a talk by one of our members Les Neal about the Coldbeck area of the Parish, which is actually part of the Newbiggin Angle, not Ravenstonedale Town Angle as we might expect.
Hi, my gt grandmother, Alice Capstick was born in Ravenstondale in 1822.
However, I can’t find out exactly where, is there any way you can help me find out the exact address?
We have visited Ravenstonedale, a lovely little village, but it would be extra special if I could find out exactly where she’d lived.
Thank you,
Pamela x
Hi Pam. we’ll check this for you to see if we can help and will be in touch
Please may I have a Zoom invite to attend the April 21st drystone wall event – thank you
Thanks you for your request to join the Zoom talk. Val Fermer will add you to the list of attendees.
My GT.Gt Grandfather, Wm.Hunter (1809-1873) was Innkeeper at Kings Head. According to my late father, James Knewstubb Hunter, his son John (1843-74) a Farmer and Innkeeper at Kings Head died by drowning. Have you come across
any details of this tradgedy? His wife, Margaret (Peggy), with their 3 sons, Wm.(1870-1937), James (1872-1954) and John (1874-1954) went to live with her brother, James Winder at Greenside. John (b.1874) (my grandfather) married Elizabeth Knewstubb (daughter of James Knewstubb of Stouphillgate). I am a regular visitor to Ravenstonedale, along with Foreign relatives. I live near to Appleby.
Thanks for your comment. We have not found any details of this but are still looking as and when we can. It is difficult for us to access all the archives we have at the moment under current restrictions but will be in touch again when we can.