Townships: Arkholme with Cawood

ARKHOLME WITH CAWOOD

Ergune, Dom. Bk.; Argun, 1229; Hergun, 1242; Ergum, 1285; Erghum, 1292; Erwhum, 1343; Erwom, 1441; Argholme, xvi cent.

Cawode, c. 1350.

Arkholme proper is placed on a little eminence or bluff, overlooking the Lune, which is there crossed by a ferry and a ford towards Hornby and Melling. The village consists mainly of one street leading down to the ford across the river, and retains many picturesque 17th and 18th-century houses with welldesigned doorways, many bearing dates and initials. (fn. 1) Cawood was the forest of the lords of Hornby and no doubt occupied most of the area of the township. Its surface may be described as a hill, attaining 466 ft. above sea level at Cragglot, and descending with many outlying spurs to the Keer on the north-west, the Lune on the south-east, and their tributaries on the north. Storrs is to the south-west of Arkholme, Locka and Kitlow to the west, and Gunnerthwaite to the north-west, near the Keer. The area is 3,016 acres, (fn. 2) and there was a population of 286 in 1901.

The principal road is that from Lancaster to Kirkby Lonsdale on the western side of the Lune; it has a branch east through the village to the river side, and north-west towards Docker and the Keer valley. The Furness and Midland Railway Companies' branch line from Wennington to Carnforth crosses the northern end of the township and has a station called Arkholme near the village. An omnibus runs to Kirkby Lonsdale.

The township is governed by a parish council.

The soil is a loam, overlying sand; the land is chiefly in pasture. There is some basket-making.

The base of the churchyard cross remains, and there was probably a market cross also. (fn. 3) There is an ancient artificial mound on the north-east side of the church.

Manors

In 1066 ARKHOLME, assessed as six plough-lands, was part of Earl Tostig's fee of Whittington. (fn. 4) It was afterwards a member of the lordship of Hornby, and in 1279 Geoffrey de Nevill obtained a charter for a market at Arkholme every Wednesday and a fair on the vigil, feast and morrow of St. John Baptist, 23–25 June. (fn. 5) At his death in 1285 Sir Geoffrey had free services of £9 5s. from the vill, (fn. 6) and his widow Margaret de Nevill in 1 319 received £15 1s. 8d. from free tenants and tenants for terms. (fn. 7) The manor has continued to be held with Hornby. (fn. 8) Arkholme, Cawood, Melling and other parts of the inheritance of Sir Thomas Harrington were in dispute in 1508 (fn. 9) and again in 1530. (fn. 10)

The land seems to have been much divided, and some of the tenants used the local surname. (fn. 11) The pleadings (fn. 12) and the later inquisitions (fn. 13) give various particulars, but in most cases no continuous story is possible.

CAWOOD, to judge from its name, was probably part of the wood of Melling for which William de Albini in 1196 and later paid £4. a year. (fn. 14) The wood called Cawood was granted to Thetford Priory by Roger de Montbegon. (fn. 15) In Cawood is Storthes or STORRS, (fn. 16) which was in 1420 divided between Alice and Margaret, sisters and heirs of John of the Storthes. (fn. 17) Part descended in a family named from it, who acquired further lands, (fn. 18) and in 1619 Adam Storrs was found to have held Storrs in Arkholme and Cawood of Lord Mounteagle as of his manor of Hornby by a rent of 2s. 4d. His son Henry, aged nine, was heir. (fn. 19) Henry's son Adam left the Storrs estate to his son-in-law Dr. Anthony Askew, (fn. 20) from whose descendants (fn. 21) it was in 1848 purchased by Francis Pearson, who built the hall in the Gothic style, and from him descended to his son the present owner, Mr. Francis Fenwick Pearson.

William Croft of Claughton, who died in 1606, was stated to hold messuages in Gressingham of the king by the serjeanty of being forester in Cawood and Quernmore. (fn. 22)

Church

The church stands at the end of the village close to the river and consists of chancel with vestry on the north side, nave with south aisle and south porch. There is a bell-cote over the west gable containing one bell. Down to the year 1897, when the chancel was added, the building, which appears to be of late 15 th or early 16th-century date, was in plan a plain rectangle about 50 ft. long by 25 ft. 6 in. wide internally, comprising nave and south aisle under one roof with the sanctuary at the east end. The building was repaired in 1788, assuming then more or less the aspect it retained till the last restoration, and a small vestry added on the north side. Most of the windows were altered and a doorway made at the west end. The present bell-cote belongs to the 1788 reconstruction. In 1897 the building was thoroughly overhauled, a new and larger vestry being built, the porch reconstructed, and all the windows except that at the east end of the aisle being replaced by modern Gothic ones. The roof was renewed and covered with stone slates, and the sanctuary lengthened 15 ft. 6 in. to the east as a chancel, projecting that distance in front of the aisle. All the fittings are modern. The organ was given in 1906.

The east window is of four lights with perpendicular tracery in the head, and part of the hood mould of the old window with carved head terminations has been retained. The whole of the walling is of rubble masonry without plinth or string, but there are buttresses on the south side, at the ends of the aisle and against the west respond of the arcade. The old window at the end of the aisle is of two lights with rounded head, and is perfectly plain in character. The arcade consists of four pointed arches of two chamfered orders without hood moulds springing from octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases and from similar responds at either end. The arcade occupies the whole length of the original building without any portion of blank wall at the ends, and the arches rise slightly from west to east, there being a difference of 3 in. in height between the capitals of the first and third piers from the west. The capital of the easternmost pier has some rough carvings on five of its sides, and the other capitals may have been also ornamented, but they have been roughly used and perhaps rechiselled. One of the carvings on the eastern pier represents a dog chasing a hare, another is a blank shield reversed, and a third a slung horn. The horn also occurs on a stone now built into the south wall of the chancel.

The aisle is 7 ft. 6 in. wide, the width of the nave being 16 ft. The west doorway was built up in 1897 and a three-light Gothic window inserted in its place. There is no structural division between the chancel and the nave, the chancel fittings occupying part of the first bay westward. The font is modern, but the 18th-century one is in the churchyard. There is a wooden collecting box with the initials and date W.S., 1751.

The registers begin in 1626.

Advowson

The origin and dedication of the chapel at Arkholme are unknown. In the list of 1610 it is joined with Hornby as served by a ' stipendiary reader, Mr. Mann. (fn. 23) In 1650 it was reported that the minister there had £4 13s. 4d., 'anciently paid by the inhabitants of the chapelry'; this had been augmented by £40 a year out of the sequestered estate of Lord Morley. The minister at that time was Mr. Foster. (fn. 24) Curates are mentioned in 1674 and 1677. (fn. 25) In 1717 it was recorded that the curate preached every Sunday and read prayers every holy day; the' priest's wages' amounted to £8 10s. paid in small sums by the people. (fn. 26) Afterwards some augmentation was obtained (fn. 27) and perpetual curates, now vicars, were appointed. The income is now given as £106.

A district chapelry was formed in 1863. (fn. 28) The vicar of Melling presents.

The following is a list oi incumbents (fn. 29) :—

There is a Wesleyan chapel built in 1890.