Egton with Newland

Chapelry in Ulverston parish, Lonsdale hundred, Lancashire North of the Sands. Included hamlets of Arrad Foot, Penny Bridge, Spark Bridge and Greenodd. Combined with Mansriggs and Osmotherley CPs 2003.

Acreage:

3,660 acres [1,481 ha], divided between hamlets thus: Egton: 1,524 acres [617 ha]; Newland: 2,136 acres [864 ha]. Common waste and mosses (c.2,000 acres [c.800 ha]) enclosed and drained 1823.

Population:

rising from 675 in 1801 to 934 in 1901; then dropping to 867 in 1951 and to 810 by 1971. Increase to 898 by 2001.

Landownership:

manor of Egton with Newland acquired by Furness Abbey by gifts from William de Lancaster 1276 and John Harrington 1320. After Dissolution descended to dukes of Buccleuch.

Economy:

Greenodd, highest point to which River Leven was navigable, formerly a port, shipping slate, iron bars, copper ore, gunpowder and other local products to Liverpool and Glasgow, and having small-scale boat building. Lakeside branch railway, built 1869, cut off access to river and sounded death-knell for port’s trade. Blast furnaces at Newland forge (built 1747; closed 1891) and Penny Bridge (built 1748; demolished 1791; replaced by flax mill 1805). Iron foundry, Spark Bridge, converted to bobbin mill later 19th century; in use until 1950s. Cotton mill at Crake Mill, Spark Bridge, until 1860.

Places of worship:

said to have been chapel at Newland 1577. Chapel of ease of St Mary, Penny Bridge, built and endowed by William Penny (d. 1788); rebuilt 1831; chancel added 1855-6 and nave rebuilt 1864-5; tower taken down 1893; new tower built 1969. Wesleyan Methodist chapel, Spark Bridge, built 1864; closed 1999; converted to holiday accommodation 2013.

Schools and other institutions:

endowed school recorded 1818; replaced 1868 by public elementary school on different site at Penny Bridge, built with an endowment from Lindow’s charity; now Penny Bridge CE Academy. Reading room and institute at Greenodd, built 1907; rebuilt 2003; now Greenodd and Penny Bridge Village Hall. Reading room at Spark Bridge recorded 1911. Village hall at Spark Bridge built 1928.