The Maryport Advertiser Friday, July 21, 1882 West Cumberland Villages - ULDALE

West Cumberland Villages - ULDALE

The Maryport Advertiser - Friday, July 21, 1882

Article Index West Cumberland Villages - ULDALE Page 2 Page 3 Page 2 of 3 West Cumberland Villages - ULDALE continued................................................................. ______________________________________ Uldale inherits a treasure in an old chalice of uncommon design, which possesses a good deal of interest for the collector of antiquities.  It is not known from what period it dates, but it is supposed to have come down from a time prior to the Reformation, when Uldale, Ireby, and Torpenhow Churches were all supplied with ministers from the Priory which stood in the last named parish. At Aughertree, in this parish, are three British Camps.  MR. JOSEPH ROBINSON, of Maryport, who has paid much attention to the study of local antiquities, dug several holes in these camps - which are composed entirely of earthwork - in search of British remains.  The few first attempts were unsuccessful, but at length, MR. ROBINSON/s industry and perseverance were rewarded.  In a mound he came upon one of the finest British finds that has been laid bare in any part of Cumberland.  The find consisted of twelve urns, all full of calcined bones.  In one of them were three beads and a flint knife, in all probability the ornaments of the person cremated - for that cremation was practised among the Britons this alone, even if other evidence were absent, is sufficient to prove.  The urns were taken out with great care, and every attendant circumstance marked.  They had all been put in upside down, and in order to keep the charred remains within the urn, a piece of hide had been tied over each.  In some cases, the band with which it had been fastened was still tied, and even the hair was found adhering to the hide. The urns, all of which are in MR. ROBINSON's possession, are not of equal size, some being larger, others less;  but the average urn is about eight inches high, and perhaps about the same distnace across the entrance.  They are not ungraceful in shape;  indeed, they bear evidence of some attempts at decorational designing having been made by the ancient Britons, who, judging from these productions of their skill alone, must have made considerable progress in the potter's art. It is commonly supposed that the ancient Britons knew nothing about the kiln, such as we have it, in any form, for the baking of bricks and pottery, but that all such work was baked by the sun.  This theory, however, will not bear examination, and is now gradually yielding to a more rational hypothesis.  We have no sun heat in Britain hot enough to burn work like that discovered in the parish of Uldale, none powerful enough to harden clay in any form that water cannot soften it, therefore, we may reasonably conclude that those rude Britons had more knowledge of the arts than they have often got credit for.  But it is also evident that these camps were used at a time subsequent to the Roman invasion.  The discovery of the remains referred to points emphatically to the fact that they were occupied by the ancient Britons;  but there is other collateral evidence, not less significant, which proves something more, viz., that as they are in a line with a system of camps, which extends far beyond, they must have been used by a more recent people also. In a field across a romantic ghyll, facing the camps, a sword about two feet long was found by the grandfather of MR. W. HEWETSON, Ireby, a gentleman who has studied closely the antiquities of the district.  Besides, opposite this field, on the same side of the ghyll, the camps are situate, and about three hundred yards from them, are two or three mounds rising abruptly out of the ground.  Examination has proved these to be sandbanks raised for defence. To these add the important fact that on Aughtertree Green a cannon ball was found, such a ball as those used when the cannon, as a piece of ordnance, was in its earliest stage of infancy. to be continued................... << Prev - Next >>

 

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