Mallerstang - Some Notable Historical People and Events

Some Notable Historical People and Events

The dale is closely associated with Lady Anne Clifford, and the ancient road to the east of the river is known as “Lady Anne's Highway” in memory of the indomitable Countess of Pembroke, who often travelled along this track while moving between her many castles.

It is, however, much older than this and was used by the Romans as a route between Wensleydale and their forts along what is now the A66. A local shepherd found a hoard of Roman coins on Mallerstang Edge near the Highway in 1927. (This "Mallerstang hoard", is now in the Tully House museum Carlisle).

But the Romans were using a track that had existed at least since the Bronze Age - and there is evidence for even earlier use in recent finds of flint tools nearby.

St Mary's Church in Outhgill was founded in the early 14th century by another powerful patroness, Lady Idonea de Veteripont – but, having fallen into disrepair, was restored by Lady Anne in 1663 (as a plaque over the door records).

Pendragon Castle, was also restored (in fact more or less rebuilt) by Lady Anne in 1660. According to legend it is supposed to have been built by Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur. Whether there is any substance to these old legends will probably never be settled, and there is no evidence from the limited archaeological investigations for any building here before the Norman castle built in the reign of King William Rufus. The castle was one of Lady Anne Clifford’s favourite places. But her heir, the Earl of Thanet, abandoned it; and over the next three centuries it gradually deteriorated to the sad but beautiful and atmospheric ruin that we see today.

One of the other notable Lords of the Manor was Sir Hugh de Morville, Lord of Westmorland. He was one of the four knights who murdered St Thomas Beckett in Canterbury cathedral, and legend says that he took refuge here afterwards before being banished to France. (Hugh Seat is named after him - and Wild Boar Fell, as seen from beyond the castle to the north, is said to have haunted him because in certain lights its profile strongly suggests a face and mitre - the recumbent St Thomas).

On 24 February 1537 ten men from Mallerstang were hanged in the dale for taking part in the Pilgrimage of Grace. The local protesters had gathered at Lammerside Castle, just north of Mallerstang, and joined the 6000 men who marched through Westmorland towards Carlisle. This uprising against King Henry VIII was put down by a military force commanded by Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, aided by Sir Thomas Wharton, 1st Baron Wharton (whose seat, Wharton Hall, lies just to the north of the parish). From the many prisoners taken, 74 were picked out to be executed in their own villages.

The tradition of dissent was still alive in the 17th Century when ten or more families in the dale became Quakers – at a time when all non-conformists suffered considerable persecution. The grandson of one of these Quaker families, George Birkbeck, set up the “Mechanics Institute” in London, which later became Birkbeck College of the University of London. The Quakers’ strong influence in the area continued until the Wesleyans largely replaced it in the 19th century.

Two brothers from Clapham, Yorkshire, moved to the area in the late 18th century. Richard Faraday became a notable businessman in Kirkby Stephen, where a road is named after him. His younger brother, James, set up as a blacksmith in Outhgill (in the house now called Faraday Cottage). As he moved to London a year before their third child was born the area narrowly missed being able to claim the great scientist Michael Faraday as a Mallerstang man.