Great Urswick

Urswick
Lancashire
The General Burgoyne public house, Great Urswick
Location
Grid reference:	SD267741
Location:	54°9’29"N, 3°7’19"W
Data
Population:	1,397  (2011)
Post town:	Ulverston
Postcode:	LA12
Dialling code:	01229
Local Government
Council:	Westmorland & Furness
Parliamentary constituency:	Barrow and Furness

Great Urswick is a small village on the Furness peninsula of Lancashire, a little to the south-west of the town of Ulverston. Beside it is Little Urswick; the two together may be called called 'Urswick'. The population of the parish at the 2011 census, including both villages, was 1,397.

Great Urswick is along the north and west sides of Urswick Tarn, a modest body of water (some 1,100 feet by 600 feet), although the largest such natural body in Low Furness. The tarn is fed from the surrounding hills and feeds Gleaston Beck to the south, the water is said to have a red hue due to the iron content of the surrounding land.

Little Urswick, the smaller of the two villages, stands further south on the lower slopes of a limestone outcrop known as Bolton Heads.

Names

The start of Little Urswick

A number of explanations have been suggested for Urswick's name. The '-wick' element is perhaps from the Old English wic meaning 'village'. It has been suggested that the first element may mean 'bison lake' from Old English ur + sǣ . However, an alternative explanation has been proposed which incorporates the first definite historical reference to the ancient estate that incorporated the present Urswick villages – Chiluestreuic – from the Domesday survey (see references).

The name 'Great Urswick' originated as 'Much Urswick', not because of its size but because of its association with Michael le Fleming. The village was an original part of Michael's lands, granted to him before 1111 by Henry I, whilst Little Urswick belonged to Stephen of Blois and later to Furness Abbey. The name 'Much Urswick', meaning 'Michael's Urswick', was used to differentiate between the lands of Michael and Furness Abbey.

Parish church

St Mary's and St Michael's Church

St Mary and St Michael's Church stands in Great Urswick; it is an active Church of England parish church within the Diocese of Carlisle, though it benefice is united with those of St Cuthbert, Aldingham; St Matthew, Dendron; and St Michael, Rampside, in a group known as the 'Low Furness Group of Parishes'. The church is designated a Grade I listed building.

There is evidence that a church existed on the site before the Norman conquest, but the earliest parts of the present church are found in the lower part of the tower and in the chancel and date from the 13th century. The chancel was lengthened in the 14th century, and the nave and north vestry date from this period. The tower was also heightened around this time, and the interior of the roof is dated 1598. A west gallery was installed in 1828. Plaster was stripped from the internal walls in 1911. In 2011 the church was restored, and a new heating system installed.

Carved stones

When the plaster was stripped from the internal walls in 1911, an ancient carved stone was found incorporated in the wall. It is known as the Tunwinni Cross, and is carved with a panel containing runes, below which are two figures. The stone was dated by the antiquarian W. G. Collingwood to the 9th century. A specific historical context for this Anglo-Saxon inscription and depiction has been proposed, and an archaeological and historical context for an early mediæval religious site, incorporating a post-Roman, pre-Norman church forming the focus for a significant large early Christian monastic estate.

In 1909 another stone had been found, this one being a fragment of the cross-shaft dating possibly from the 10th century.

The discovery of the carved stones highlighted the early mediæval origins of the church

History

Urswick has visible remains of several prehistoric settlements, including a univallate hill fort known as Skelmore Heads, on the hills overlooking the village. There can be little doubt that the history of the village dates back to the Bronze Age or further, given the wealth of ancient sites in the local area.

The Roman presence in the area has been the subject of local controversy, and has been the subject of recent investigation, along with a study of Roman activity in Furness as a whole. There have been finds of Roman coins, including pre-invasion issues, from Furness. An article published in 2007 made a claim for Roman military activity focused on what later became Dalton-in-Furness: the mediæval secular capital of Furness, but this was based on observations and speculations by an 18th-century AD antiquarian; unsupported by archaeology: suspected Roman sites were extensively examined during late 20th and early 21st century urban development, but provided no evidence.

Roman finds, including coins, have been found by metal-detector users to the west of Great Urswick. Field survey by the 'Urswick Origins Discovery Programme' (UODP) in 2003 and 2004 also located and recorded a significant quantity of worked red, (St Bees) sandstone masonry in the walls of the Church of St Mary and St Michael and in field walls to the north-west and west of the church. St Bees sandstone is not native to Urswick parish. The sandstone found by the UODP teams is considered unlikely to have belonged to a (long-demolished) mediæval building or buildings; partly because the majority of it occurs in field walls and in the church and churchyard walls between the mediæval villages of Great and Little Urswick. Some pieces also show distinctive tooling and other features (such as bar or cramp slots) that find comparison with tooling and features on masonry from Roman sites on Hadrian's Wall and its hinterland. Sandstones are known to have been imported and worked for specific architectural features in Roman forts in nearby Lakeland, for example, at Waterhead (Ambleside) and Hardknott in Eskdale. In 2004 the UODP ran an evaluation excavation project alongside a commissioned professional geophysical survey, (by UK-based GSB Prospection) of 2.67 acres of two fields to the west and south-west of Great Urswick's church to test the results from the field survey. The results of the geophysical survey were published – Life Before Barrow – Part 1: Urswick Origins Discovery Programme Interim Report 1 – 2004-5: First Light Heritage Agency, Ulverston 2005.

There has also been research to suggest that some of the fabric of the present St Mary & St Michael's Church may date back to the sub-Roman period.

There is a local tradition that Urswick may be the birthplace of St Patrick, but with no evidence to back it up.

Urswick was probably recorded in the Domesday Survey, as part of a larger estate – Hougun. The name 'Hougun' may derive from the Old Norse word haugr: meaning hill or mound. Houganai or island of Hougun was also the name given to the nearby island of Walney Island.

As noted above, it has been suggested that it may be Chiluestreuic, previously thought to refer to the now lost Killerwick near Dalton-in-Furness. The 'chil-' element, probably representing Old Irish cill, referring to a monastery or hermit's cell, certainly fits if Urswick was home to an early monastery.

In the 12th century, Great Urswick became part of the manor of Muchland, whilst Little Urswick remained within the Liberty of Furness belonging to Stephen of Blois who later granted it to Furness Abbey. The Abbey also claimed rights to the already ancient St Mary's Church, which led to a long running dispute with the lords of Muchland, finally settled in the Abbey's favour. In the 13th century Little Urswick was part of an exchange of land between the Abbey and Muchland and was ceded to the latter.

War memorial outside the church

Nowadays, Urswick has largely become a commuter village for the towns of Ulverston and Barrow-in-Furness. However, agriculture also remains important, with the villages surrounded by farms.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Urswick)

• Megalithic Portal: St Mary and St Michael, Great Urswick

References

• Dickinson, S (2002); The Beacon on the Bay : the discovery of an early Christian church and monastic site at Great Urswick, Low Furness, and the case for its connections with St Ninian, St Patrick, St Hild and St Columba.
• British Archaeology – the Council for British Archaeology publication: issues 87 (March/April 2006), 88, (May/June 2006) and 89 (July/August 2006) for an article about the church and the 2004/5 excavations and remote sensing programme (Issue 87), a letter of critique, (Issue 88) and a rebuttal (Issue 89)