Aerial view of remains of iron age village on Aughertree Fell above Uldale. The photo shows an aerial view of the remains of an Iron Age village along with animal stockade, situated on Aughertree Fell above Uldale. The circle, top left, shows the site of the village, with roadway and entrance leading off from the top right. This type of settlement is today described as a 'banjo'. The village contained at least 3 huts. To the bottom right the remains of an animal stockade can be clearly seen by the deep indentations of the surrounding dykes.

HISTORY
The region is awash with both landscape and documentary history. From the beauty of the Eden Valley and the wild solitude of the Solway Plain to the grandeur of the central and northern Lake District and the natural beauty of the Southern Lakes and Morcambe Bay; from prehistoric stone circles to the remains of Iron Age forts and villages; from the arrival of Roman legions to the building of Hadrian's Wall; from the Anglian and Norse/Irish influx to the coming of the Normans; from the Reformation and the fall of some of the country's most wild and remote religious houses and monasteries to the Roman Catholic Pilgrimage of Grace; from the tenacity of the "Old Faith" amongst some of the region's oldest established families to the arrival of George Fox and the thrust of Quakerism in the region; from the barefaced raids of the Border Reivers to the pacification of the Border after the Union of the Scottish and English crowns; from the Jacobite occupation of the City of Carlisle to the devastating results for the local population after the withdrawal of Bonny Prince Charlie's troops; from the rise of coal and iron ore mining in the west and the rise of the west coast ports to the connection with the black African slave trade and the American east coast and Carribean plantations; from the effects of the Industrial Revolution to the coming of the railways and the beginnings of tourism - all these events and many more helped to make Cumbria what it is today.

An old postcard showing the house that was used as the Fortress (see above).

The Howk at Caldbeck
Howk Mill : the site of a 19th century bobbin mill situated at the Howk in Caldbeck. This mill claimed to have the largest water wheel in the country.

LITERARY CONNECTIONS
The region has strong literary connections, stretching form such notables as William Wordsworth (a native of Cumbria), Robert Southey, Samual Taylor Coleridge, John Ruskin and Beatrix Potter, to slightly lesser known authors such as Norman Nicholson and Hugh Walpole.

Walpole wrote four books on the Herries Chronicles, a ficticious Cumberland family. The books featured locations such as Rosthwaite in Borrowdale and the delightful fellside hamlet of Watendlath, situated high above Derwentwater. But the pivotal location of the chronicles was the Northern Fells village of Uldale and its surrounds with the ficticiously named Fell House. The third volume in the series was titled, The Fortress and featured the large ruinous mansion known as High Ireby Grange, situated in High Ireby hamlet above the village of Uldale, but given the ficticious name of The Fortress. Today this mansion is no more, apart from a few ruins on the ground.

Chris finds all aspects of Cumbrian history fascinating and is always keen to start on a fresh local history trail.

Christine Craghill dip.loc.hist, 7 Muscade Close, Tiptree, COLCHESTER, Essex, CO5 0DL
Phone: 01621 810351 (outside the UK: +44 1621 810351)