Muchland

On its eastern side, it is bounded for its entire length by the sands of Morecambe Bay, the shore of which has eroded considerably since the manor was created.

These lands lay eastwards of Abbey Beck and southwards of the moors of Birkrigg and Swarthmoor and stretched right down to the southernmost tip of the peninsula at Rampside.

[1] At that time the southern limit of the manor was Walney Channel, but it was later moved inland to follow the line of Sarah Beck or Roosebeck.

There were numerous debates over the hunting rights between the Lords of Aldingham and the Abbots of Furness in places like Leece and Stainton, which lay at the western boundary of the manor.

The small village of Dendron, also on the western boundary, is home to the seventeenth century Saint Matthew's Church where the artist George Romney went to school for a time.

This rocky hill has a number of archeological sites, including an ancient stone circle, and has views across Morecambe Bay, Furness and the mountains of the Lake District.

The northern boundary of the manor generally follows the line of the road leading from Lindal-in-Furness in the west to Conishead Priory on the coast.

Both Clivertun and Fordbootle were listed in the Domesday Book as vills or townships forming the Manor of Hougun held by Earl Tostig.

Around 1153 Roose, Crivelton and Fordbootle were part of an exchange of land between Muchland and Furness Abbey, suggesting that it was certainly situated in that area.

The area later named Muchland has been inhabited since at least the Mesolithic period and evidence of Upper Paleolithic habitation has been found in caves at Scales.

There is a small stone circle on Birkrigg Common known locally as the Druids' Temple which revealed a Bronze Age burial urn during excavations [OL6 292741].

In the Iron Age, when the Carvetii and, later, Brigantes tribes inhabited the region, there was a great deal of activity on the rocky ground surrounding present-day Urswick and Scales.

Recent archeological investigations in the area may have uncovered the presence of a Roman fort (a claim which has been criticised by leading local archeologists) and it is believed that the parish church of St Mary and St Michael may contain remnants of a sub-Roman church which could have been the centre of a monastery, although all of these claims are yet to be substantiated by solid evidence.

Little is known about the local history at this point, but it is known that the area would have remained Celtic until around the 8th century when Rheged was annexed to Northumbria and English Angles began to filter in.

The English slowly displaced or assimilated the native Cumbric Celts, although they may have remained in pockets around the region (as is evidenced by place names such as Walney, meaning 'Isle of the British' from Old Norse walna+ey).

In 925AD Norsemen began landing on the local shores from Norway via Ireland, Man and Scotland but they seem to have been peaceable farmers rather than vicious warriors and they settled amongst the English and British in the region, although part of a Norse sword was found in nearby Rampside.

After the Norman Conquest in 1066 the small manor of Aldingham was granted to Roger de Poitou as part of a much larger holding which included land across much of the north of England.

In 1153, the second Michael le Fleming agreed an exchange of land with Furness Abbey, giving up Roose, Fordbootle and Crivelton for Little Urswick and part of Foss, near Bootle in Cumberland, so that the Abbot could get greater access to his port at Piel.

It was probably Richard de Cansfield who initiated the move inland from Aldingham to Gleaston, where a wooden hall was probably built about 0.5 km north of the present village [OL6 262715].

In 1460 the only male heir to the manor, William Bonville was killed at the age of 17 along with his father and grandfather at the Battle of Wakefield leaving behind a new born baby girl, Cecilia.

And so the manor passed to the crown in whose hands it remained until it was given to the Cavendish family of Holker Hall in the 18th century who held it until 1926 when it was sold.

[Domesday Lies] Newbiggin means 'new building' with Old or Middle English biggin Rampside either 'Hrafn's shieling' from Old Norse Hrafns saetr or 'ram's head' from Old English ramms heofod, referring to the shape of the coast Roose 'moor' from the Brythonic Celtic ros Scales means 'huts' from Old Norse skalis Scarbarrow ?unsure.