Cartmel Fell

Chapelry and township in Cartmel parish, Lonsdale hundred, Lancashire North of the Sands.

Acreage:

4,959 acres [2,007 ha]. Commons enclosed under Cartmel parish enclosure award 1809. Population: 322 in 1801, rising to 371 in 1821; gradual decline thereafter to 268 in 1901; stood at 309 in 2001.

Landownership:

largely held by customary tenants of Cartmel Priory. Manor of Burblethwaite held by Knipe family from 14th to 17th centuries; by Robinsons of Fell Foot in 18th century; acquired 1827 by Thomas Atkinson of Kendal. Other estates included Thorphinsty, held by Hutton family from 16th to 18th centuries. Economy: farming; woodland industries (charcoal-burning; potash burning) important from late-medieval to 19th centuries. Iron smelting: bloomery forge at Burblethwaite in early 18th century.

Places of worship:

chapel of ease of St Anthony built c.1504; extended c.1520; restored 1911. Quaker meeting house at Height built 1677; closed late 19th century.

Schools and other institutions:

school taught by reader of chapel; endowed 1695 with bequest of £200. Small schoolhouse built 1871; replaced 1877 by new schoolhouse at Shanty Beck; closed 1971; now village hall. Richard Frankland’s nonconformist academy housed briefly at Hartbarrow 1685.