Early Settlers In The Lake District

THE first settlers in the Lake District of whom we know later developed considerable trade. They were Neolithic folk, men of the New Stone Age who did not know the use of metal and made their tools of polished flint or stone. In the tuffs of the central hills they found a hard fine grained stone from which powerful axes could be fashioned (some are nearly two feet long). We know of Stake Pass and others above the screes of Pike of Stickle, and on Sea Fell, all marked by quantities of broken 'rough outs'; but there are no fragments of finished axes, which shows that the roughly shaped tools were taken to lower ground to be polished. One such workshop is known at Ehenside just outside the Park, and a workshop found at Portinscale near Keswick may be another. These large axes were traded as far south as Gloucestershire, and into Scotland.

At the head of Worm Gill on Stockdale Moor between Ennerdale and Was dale (100084) there is a huge cairn measuring 96 feet by 44 feet known as Sampson's Bratful (brat means apron). This is a typical 'long cairn' in which Neolithic people buried their dead, though there is nothing which definitely connects it with our axe makers.

The great stone circles at Castlerigg near Keswick (292236) and at Swinside north of Millom (172882), belong to the time of transition from Stone to Bronze Ages, c. 1800 B.C. in southern England. There is another circle of smaller stones at Elva ( = Elf How) west of Cockermouth (178318). Both Castlerigg and Swinside stand in grand scenery. The Castlerigg circle has a strange unexplained feature: a rectangular enclosure projecting inwards from the ring.

It is not certain whether the great circles surrounded burials: the smaller ones undoubtedly did so. There are many of these, for example, on Burnmoor between Eskdale and Wasdale (173024), on Moor Divock near Pooley Bridge (483223), at Lacra near Millom (157813) and Banniside near Coniston (274967). They belong to the Bronze Age as do the round cairns which are also burial places. Of the latter, the best known is on Dunmail Raise (329088), east of the pass of that name, but they occur in many places especially in Wasdale, Eskdale and Coniston.

From those which have been excavated came cinerary urns, the earliest c. 1500 B.C., and beads chiefly of jet. A number of bronze tools and weapons has been found, mostly by chance. The commonest are pal staves which fitted into a cleft stick, spearheads and the later small axes with sockets to take handles. There are only two large hill forts of the native Iron Ageone covers the summit of Carrock Fell south of Caldbeck (344-336). It is a large oval measuring 800 feet by 370 feet enclosed by a rampart of heaped stones. This wall seems to have been deliberately thrown down 'slighted', where the slope is easiest. By the Romans? The other hill fort is Castlesteads on the Helm south of Kendal (530-887) and out side the Park, which is long and narrow. This has a double rampart at the north end and two ditches across on the south.

A pretty pair of bronze bracelets found under Rough Crag on the west side of Thirlmere belong to this period. The small hillforts such as Shoulthwaite Crag near Thirlmere (329-188), Whelter Crag in Mardale (46789), Allen Knot on Windermere (41511) and Castle Crag in Borrowdale (468-128) were probably refuges to which valley dwellers could retreat in time of danger. Two others, Piel Wyke on Bassenth waite (322-309), nearly opposite the Pheasant Hotel, and Dunmallet at the foot ofUllswater (468-246) differ from the rest in situation and type and may perhaps belong to the time after the Romans left. Piel Wyke is on a little long hill, with steep sides not needing defense. The gentler slopes at each end have been cut through by several wide and deep ditches making a strong fortification.