The Castles of the Lune Valley

Last updated on July 9th, 2024 at 03:53 pm

North-West England’s River Lune meanders around 50 miles from the Cumbrian fells to Lancaster.  It seems attractive and tranquil, a mixture of woodland, meadows and beckoning hills, punctuated by attractive stone-built villages.  Yet, once upon a time, it must have been a very different, possibly even violent, place – because it possesses an apparently disproportionate number of old fortifications – the castles of the Lune Valley.  It is a higher concentration, some say (without a trace of hyperbole) than anywhere in Britain outside Wales.  Some of these defences are obvious – Lancaster Castle, for example, is hard to miss; others are more modest, and shy.  You can count at least 10 castles or forts from urban Lancaster along the valley to the neat Cumbrian market town of Kirkby Lonsdale, a distance of under 20 miles.  Heading roughly north-west from Lancaster, they are: Halton; Arkholme; Whittington; Hornby (two); Melling; Burton in Lonsdale; Thurland; Burrow (site of a Roman fort) and Kirkby Lonsdale.  Some Lune Valley castles are located adjacent to medieval churches with wonderful views nearby.  You could easily turn it into a tour; indeed, I recommend that you do exactly that – either from your armchair or, ideally, in person.

Of course, not every castle can be the classic stone affair with formidable towers, dungeons and crenellated battlements.  Lancaster Castle comes close.  Thurland Castle dates from the 14^th century, but these days is a country house divided into high-end apartments.  The present Hornby Castle might originate from the 13^th century, but is now mostly Victorian and a private residence that occasionally opens its gardens.  Excluding those and the site of the Roman fort (greatly covered by an 18^th century mansion, Burrow Hall), the remaining seven are all examples of the motte and bailey type of castle made of earth and wood – hallmarks of 11^th century Norman invaders.  However, the thing is, no one seems to know exactly why they are there or who built them.  The only certainty is that they exist.

Few people, even dastardly Normans, build forts or castles for the fun of it.  So, what was happening in this part of Britain getting on for a thousand years ago?  The short answer is we don’t really know.  However, let us try to provide a bit of context, as well as offering some images of the Lune Valley’s castles that you can see for yourself today.

All of the Lune Valley castles will be found on ABAB’s Places.

The Lune Valley

Our story must start with the Lune, whose waters are shared these days by three counties: Cumbria, Lancashire and North Yorkshire.  The River Lune begins modestly, with streams trickling off the hills coalescing near the small Cumbrian villages of Newbiggin and Ravenstonedale.  Growing with confidence, skirting the Howgill Fells, it defines the Lune Gorge, which, if you’re travelling along the M6, appears like a railway modellers’ landscape complete with its very own toy railway (the west coast main line).  In real life, it is the best north-south route sandwiched between the high fells of the Lake District to the west and the Yorkshire Dales to the east.  Meandering roughly south, then south-west, the countryside enveloping the river softens and widens into the lower reaches of the Lune Valley, often known as Lonsdale, swollen by waters running and tumbling off the western Yorkshire Dales.  Eventually, the river flows inexorably into the wetlands of the Lune Estuary near Lancaster and thence into Morecambe Bay and the Irish Sea. 

The Lune Valley’s early history

The Lune Valley has been an important highway for a considerable time.  The name ‘Lune’ is generally thought to be Celtic in origin; in other words, it pre-dates the Roman period.  It is said to mean ‘healthy or pure’.  From ‘Lune’, we get ‘Lancaster’ (and Lancashire) and ‘Lonsdale’.  The Romans used part of the Lune valley as a north-south route all the way through the Lune Gorge to Hadrian’s Wall and Carlisle (Luguvalium).  At least one road ran from their fort at Lancaster to the fort at Burrow in Lonsdale (Galacum or Calacum) south of Kirkby Lonsdale, joined by the road from Ribchester and thence on through the Lune Valley to Low Borrowbridge near Tebay (where there is yet another motte and bailey castle, by the way).  Another road branched off from the Lune route in a northeast direction toward Ingleton and thence the fort near Bainbridge (Virosidum).

Of course, the Romans weren’t the first people in these parts.  There are a number of prehistoric and Romano-British settlements located along or in close proximity to the Lune Valley – at Sellet Bank near Whittington, Claughton and Castle Hill at Leck, for example.

As we know, Britain’s history becomes a little blurred after Roman rule ended in the 5^th century. Following a period of localised home rule, what became England was settled first by Anglo-Saxon, then Viking, invaders.  Different kingdoms came and went.  By the 10^th century in North West England, the River Eamont in present-day Cumbria marked the boundary between the Kingdoms of England and Strathclyde.  Sometime after that, the boundary moved south – possibly as far as the Lune.  It is thought that the population would have been a mingling of pre-Roman Celts with Anglian and Irish-Norse settlers.  Place name evidence supports this.  By the early 11^th century, Strathclyde had been absorbed into the Kingdom of the Scots – although some parts around the Keswick area were conquered by Siward, Earl of Northumbria.  And, albeit precise borders were indistinct, that was the position at the time of the Norman invasion of England, in 1066.

The Norman Conquest of the North

Duke William of Normandy’s victory over King Harold at Hastings in October 1066 did not mean everyone in England immediately succumbed to regime change.  With King Harold dead, William accepted the surrender of the remaining official English leaders in December 1066 at Berkhamsted, north of London.  Only then did he proceed to the capital to be crowned King William I at Westminster on Christmas Day.  However, as with most military invasions, there was resistance.  This varied across the land, but, famously, was particularly marked in East Anglia and the North of England. William’s eventual reaction to this was what history has come to term ‘the harrying of the North’ over the winter of 1069-70.  This phrase is a euphemism for a brutal scorched earth policy in which whole communities simply ceased to exist.  It’s a familiar story down the years, isn’t it?  Rebel against us, and this is what will happen – not only to you, but to everyone around you – men, women and children.  One contemporary account reports there being not one single inhabited village on the road between York and Durham.  The only visible living creatures were wolves and wild dogs feeding on the corpses of the slaughtered and starved.

Domesday

In 1086, William sent his men into every shire of England to record, for both 1066 and 1086, who owned what land, what properties were worth, who lived there, what livestock they had – and so on.  This was the Domesday Survey – a remarkable idea, and a remarkable achievement.  It has survived and is an invaluable primary historical resource.  However, many of the settlements listed in the north of England are bleakly noted as ‘wasta est’ – it is waste.  There was nothing there – or at least, nothing of any value.  The normal conclusion drawn from this is that these settlements had yet to recover from the devastation unleashed upon them sixteen years previously.

The Domesday Survey did not include most of what is now called Cumbria north of the Lune Valley, because at that time it was part of the Kingdom of Scotland.  The farthest north in these parts seems to have been the manor of Strickland, about 3 miles from Kendal.  However, all of the settlements of the Lune Valley with the aforementioned motte and bailey castles were recorded in Domesday.  They were located in the hundred (or wapentake) – administrative area – called Amounderness, part of the vast county of Yorkshire, which stretched south to Preston.  Lancashire did not exist as a county until 1182.  And none of those manors or settlements record anyone living there; not a soul.  It was the same for most of Amounderness – only the area around Preston appears to have had any population at all.

What we don’t know is whether this apparent desolation was caused by the Normans as part of the harrying.  Accounts of that event suggest it mostly took place further east and historians who seem to know their stuff suggest that the Normans did not have the resources to cause as much destruction as indicated by the Domesday records.  Assuming the records are accurate, (it is possible the Domesday commissioners did not visit, or do their work properly), the damage in Amounderness could have been caused by Viking, Scot, or Irish raiders.  Or any combination thereof.  However, another interesting fact is that none of these properties is shown as having any value in 1066, either, which seems odd.  At that time, most of them were owned by Earl Tostig Godwinson, or Tosti, Earl of Northumbria and brother of King Harold – a powerful and presumably wealthy man.  Exiled by his brother, he was killed alongside the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, just before the Battle of Hastings.  So, was Amounderness devastated before the Normans arrived in these parts – or was it just extremely poor?

The border between England and Scotland

Another piece in the jigsaw is the shifting border between England and Scotland.  William I died in 1087 and the throne of England passed to his third son, William II, known as ‘Rufus’.  In response to incursions into England by the King of Scotland, Malcolm III, Rufus took an army north in 1092 and established a castle at Carlisle.  It is generally assumed that this marked the reconquest of what became the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland – present-day Cumbria.  Actually, taking advantage of the anarchy that reigned in England between 1138 and 1153, the area north of the Ribble temporarily reverted to control by the King of Scotland in 1141, until being taken back in 1157.  Despite the border being settled on the Solway in 1237, this part of England and southern Scotland remained bandit country for many years.

Motte and bailey castles

The characteristics of motte and bailey castles are the motte – a small hill or mound, normally (but not always) man-made, surrounded by a ditch, on top of which would be a wooden defensive tower, or keep, surrounded by a wooden fence, or palisade.  If the tower or keep was large enough, it might contain living quarters for the lord and his family.  Surrounding or next to the motte is the bailey – an area defined by a ditch and earthwork on top of which would have been a wooden palisade.  The bailey contained buildings necessary to the functioning of the castle – such as living quarters, stores, stables, a hall – and so on.  The motte was accessed from the bailey by means of a bridge, or steps.  Sometimes, motte and bailey castles developed into grander, stone-built, affairs.  Windsor Castle is a good example.

Some motte and bailey castles may have predated the Norman Conquest, but most are a feature of it.  One of William’s first acts on landing at Pevensey was to build a castle and the Normans went on to build castles at strategic points all over the country, both to provide security and project power.  It has been estimated that 80% of the castles built were of the motte and bailey type and that, ultimately, perhaps as many as 1,000 were constructed throughout Britain, up to the end of the 12^th century.

So, where does that leave us with the enigmatic motte and bailey castles of the Lune Valley?  Who built them, when – and why? They are by no means the only motte and bailey castles in the area, but the cluster along this part of the Lune does suggest a coordinated strategy.

Who built the Lune Valley Castles, and when?

If the castles were all built at the same time, you cannot help but wonder what the project plan looked like.  Were they all constructed simultaneously, or consecutively?  Did the project come in on time and on budget?  It would have been a large undertaking and, perhaps, local labour was used – or maybe help was shipped in from elsewhere.  It is interesting to note that, although all are of a similar pattern, motte and bailey forts were not a standard design – unlike Roman forts.

The general view seems to be that the Lune Valley castles date from the late 11^th century.  Although it is possible the fortifications predate the Norman Conquest, it is unlikely motte and bailey castles were built this far north at that time by anyone other than Normans.  That is not to say that earlier strongpoints – perhaps at Halton – were not modified post-conquest.  So, given all of the above, were the motte and bailey castles built:

1. Shortly after 1066?
2. At the time of or shortly after the harrying of the North (1070)?
3. After William II’s push into the Kingdom of Scotland in the 1090s?

A builder often mentioned in connection with the castle at Lancaster, and the parish of Melling, was Roger the Poitevin, or Roger de Poitou.  He was a Norman baron with lands in France and England, who was also awarded lands in Lonsdale by the king in the 1090s.  A history of Melling Church states categorically that it and the parish was owned by Roger de Poitou by 1094, when he granted it to the monastery of Sees in Normandy.  Another, though I think less likely, candidate was an Ivo de Taillbois, First Baron Kendal, who died in 1094.  Roger hung around until he was banished in 1102 for rebelling against the King, Henry I.

Why were the Castles of the Lune Valley built?

Many accounts of the fortifications along the Lune blandly state that they helped control movement along the valley and had a role in imposing and demonstrating the new post-conquest feudal order on the area.  Well – yeah; that is insightful.

The fact is we don’t know what was going on here in the 11th century.  The forts were evidently constructed as a measure to protect something and control someone: was this the local population of native Brits (who were all apparently absent at the time of the Domesday survey), exiled Anglo-Danes attempting to reassert authority, raiding Norse, Scots, Irish?  Perhaps robbers attacking merchants moving goods along the valley?  Or maybe any/all of the above?

The fortifications are all sited at good vantage points along the river.  But what was so important about the Lune Valley – and that particular stretch of it?  There is no similar chain of fortifications (if that’s what they are) elsewhere in North West England.  If you look at a map, the Lune Valley offers an obvious passage into the interior of England for anyone arriving by sea, as well as providing access to the main north-south route mentioned earlier.  However, beyond Kirkby Lonsdale, the next contemporary fortification in the valley seems to be Castle How, another motte and bailey some 20 miles away, at Tebay.  This can be seen from the northbound carriageway of the M6, by the way.  (There was also a motte and bailey at Castlehaugh, Sedbergh, but that seems a bit off piste.) With the possible exception of Castle Stede and Burton in Lonsdale, the Castles of the Lune Valley all seem too small for large garrisons.  Were they checkpoints, observation posts, part of an early warning system, there to gather intelligence on and react swiftly to a local threat?  By the way, the suggestion that Burton in Lonsdale’s castle was built during the 12^th century may – or may not – mark it out as discrete from the others.

Was the Lune a frontier?  If it had been, wouldn’t we expect to find additional defences to the east?

Whatever their purpose, if it was deterrence it worked because there’s no evidence of any major conflict at the time.

None of the sites has been properly excavated in modern times – some apparently haven’t even been touched.  The entries in Historic England’s listings are much the same for each, which merely underlines the lack of specific knowledge.  HE often suggests that “lack of subsequent occupation on the site means buried structural remains and environmental evidence are likely to survive well.”  That may be, but in the case of Melling, Arkholme, Whittington and Kirkby Lonsdale, where the baileys have been covered by churches and centuries of inhumations, buried remains will have been considerably damaged.  In any event, excavation would not be possible.  Excavation at Halton, Castle Stede and Burton in Lonsdale would be possible, however, if permission were granted – although damage to remains is likely to have been caused by ploughing. 

Lune Valley churches

Finally, let us not forget that four of the sites are occupied by medieval churches and their surroundings.  This suggests that the churches may have developed from chapels that were built within the baileys – presumably for the use of anyone living there, or perhaps in a surrounding settlement.  Alternatively, perhaps the motte and bailey became natural focal points.  At Halton, the church is believed to have always been in its current location.  There is no evidence of a chapel in the baileys at Castle Stede or Burton in Lonsdale.  The current church adjacent to Burton’s Castle Hill is Victorian and replaced a chapel of ease nearby, of unknown age.  The village of Hornby may have shared worship with Melling.  There was also a small Premonstratensian abbey in Hornby, just to the south of Castle Stede.

Therefore, until someone unearths some revealing historical records, or undertakes a bit of coordinated archaeology, it seems to me that the only thing to be done is to explore these old sites and wonder, not for the first time, what on earth our ancestors were up to.