Inglewood Forest is a large tract of mainly arable and dairy farm land with a few small woodland areas between Carlisle and Penrith in the English non-metropolitan county of Cumbria or ancient county of Cumberland.
Inglewood Forest is a large tract of mainly arable and dairy farm land with a few small woodland areas between Carlisle and Penrith in the English non-metropolitan county of Cumbria or ancient county of Cumberland.
Inglewood is first attested in the forms Englewod’ (c. 1150), Engelwode (c. 1158) and Englewud (1227). [1] The name means "Wood of the English or Angles". This seems to reflect a situation where, at the time of the name's formation, Cumbria was still predominantly a Celtic-speaking region, and sometimes part of the Kingdom of Strathclyde, and English settlement or land-ownership was still unusual enough to be a distinctive feature in a place-name. Noting that the other place-names of this kind are in places that were border areas between English-speaking and Britonnic-speaking cultures, Jayne Carroll and John Baker suggest that "this is perhaps not a case of a 'minority population' name, but one used with a particular political significance to mark a borderland area". [2]
Soon after the Norman Conquest of England this area became a royal forest. The word forest in this sense did not necessarily mean a wooded area but one that was set aside for hunting, though several areas of Inglewood were heavily wooded. The animals that were hunted in this area were mainly deer and wild boars.
The forest boundaries changed many times and included at one time most of the Cumberland wards of Leath and Cumberland but the core or heart of the forest was the parishes of Hesket-in-the-Forest, Skelton and Hutton-in-the-Forest. Higham [3] places the "core of the forest between the Chalk Beck and the River Petteril, in particular the townships and civil parishes of Dalston, Sebergham, Hesket, Mungrisdale, Catterlen, Hutton, Skelton, and Castle Sowerby".
The forest ultimately belonged to the English Crown and was governed by the strict forest law exercised by wardens. In the reign of Henry VIII the forest laws were repealed and Inglewood ceased to be a royal forest although it is still to this day marked on maps as such". [4]
The borough and city of Carlisle (the area within the city walls) was outside the forest though Penrith was within it and was the main administrative centre and market town for the southern part of the region.
Border reivers were active in the area and it contains a number of fortified buildings referred to as Peel towers.
| Grid reference | Name | Location | NHLE | Sources for "peel"/"pele" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NY505458 | Armathwaite Castle | Armathwaite | 1145496 | Pevsner; [5] Ordnance Survey [6] |
| NY476384 | Brackenburgh Tower | Calthwaite | 1145499 | Pevsner; see Perriam and Robinson [7] |
| NY478320 | Catterlen Hall | Catterlen | 1012829 | Pevsner |
| NY475524 | Cote House | Wetheral | 1111822 | Perriam and Robinson, [8] and also Pevsner, say Bastle house; Ordnance Survey [6] |
| NY376515 | Dalston Hall | Dalston | 1087441 | Ordnance Survey [6] |
| NY551367 | St Cuthbert's Church | Great Salkeld | 1100260 | RIBA [9] |
| NY403433 | High Head Castle | Ivegill | Perriam and Robinson | |
| NY518302 | Hutton Hall | Penrith | 1326922 | NHLE; [10] see Perriam and Robinson [7] |
| NY460357 | Hutton in the Forest | near Skelton | 1210817 | Pevsner |
| NY433509 | Newbiggin Hall | St Cuthbert Without | 1087720 | Pevsner |
| NY396436 | Thistlewood | Ivegill | 1326687 | Pevsner; see Perriam and Robinson [7] |
| NY433499 | Woodside | St Cuthbert Without | see Perriam and Robinson [7] | |
The Forest is the setting of many of the adventures in the late medieval Northern Gawain Group of Middle English chivalric romances. [11] Around the same time, Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Chronicle (written c. 1420) claims the forest as the original setting of the Robin Hood legend: [4]
According to legend, Inglewood Forest is also home to the outlaws Adam Bell, William of Cloudsley and Clym of the Clough. Their story is told in Child Ballad 116.
 | This section needs additional citations for verification .(September 2020) |
The manors of Penrith, Great Salkeld, Langwathby, Carlatton (not Carleton as it sometimes said to be), Castle Sowerby and Scotby were collectively known as the Honour of Penrith. [12] Glassonby and Gamblesby were sometimes included in the Honour. The manors were given to the Scottish crown in exchange for Scotland giving up its claim to all of Cumberland. In 1272 King Alexander III complained that a William de Leyburne, the local seneschal, has unlawfully appropriated the manors' rents. Later Edward I took them for himself. Later they passed to the Neville family but came back to being Crown property during the Wars of the Roses and remained so until the joint reign of William III and Mary II. The honour was also known as "The Queen's Hames" due to the fact the manors were often given to a Queen consort on her marriage or at the death of the previous consort. The last Queen consort to be Lady of the Manor or Honour was Queen Catherine of Braganza, consort of Charles II.
William III gave the lands belonging to the manor to his friend William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland whose descendants later sold them to their relatives the Cavendish family.
Peel towers are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, mainly between the mid-14th century and about 1600. They were free-standing with defence being a prime consideration of their design with "confirmation of status and prestige" also playing a role. They also functioned as watch towers where signal fires could be lit by the garrison to warn of approaching danger.
Cumberland is a historic county in North West England, covering part of the Lake District as well as the northern Pennines and the coast of Solway Firth. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974, when it was subsumed into Cumbria, a larger administrative area which also covered Westmorland and parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. In April 2023, Cumberland was revived as an administrative entity when Cumbria County Council was abolished and replaced by two unitary authorities, one of which is named Cumberland and includes most of the historic county, with the exception of Penrith and the surrounding area.
The Carvetii were a Brittonic Celtic tribe living in what is now Cumbria, in North-West England during the Iron Age, and were subsequently identified as a civitas (canton) of Roman Britain.
Penrith is a market town and civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. It is less than 3 miles (5 km) outside the Lake District National Park and about 17 miles (27 km) south of Carlisle. It is between the Rivers Petteril and Eamont and just north of the River Lowther. The town had a population of 15,181 at the 2011 census. It is part of historic Cumberland.
Penrith Castle is a now-ruined medieval castle located in Penrith, in the north-west of England, a few miles to the east of the Lake District National Park.
Clifton is a small linear village and civil parish in Cumbria, England. Historically part of Westmorland, it lies 3 miles (4.8 km) south east of Penrith.
Leath was one of the wards of the historic county of Cumberland in north west England. Unlike most other English counties, Cumberland was divided into wards rather than hundreds.
Penrith was a rural district within the administrative county of Cumberland, England that existed from 1894 to 1974 with slight boundary changes in 1934.
Hesket is a large civil parish in the Eden District of Cumbria, England, on the main A6 between Carlisle and Penrith. At the 2001 census it had a population of 2,363, increasing to 2,588 at the 2011 census, and estimated at 2,774 in 2019. The parish was formed in 1894 with the passing of the Local Government Act 1894 and was enlarged to incorporate the parish of Plumpton Wall following a County Review Order in 1934. Hesket is part of the historic royal hunting ground of Inglewood Forest. Settlement in the parish dates back to the Roman occupation.
Plumpton or Plumpton Wall is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Hesket, in the Westmorland and Furness district, in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, England. It is about 4 miles (6 km) north of Penrith. In 1931 the parish had a population of 320.
The history of Cumbria as a county of England begins with the Local Government Act 1972. Its territory and constituent parts however have a long history under various other administrative and historic units of governance. Cumbria is an upland, coastal and rural area, with a history of invasions, migration and settlement, as well as battles and skirmishes between the English and the Scots.
Lacy's Caves are a series of five chambers in the red sandstone cliff of the River Eden, just north of Little Salkeld, Cumbria, England, near Nunnery, Cumbria, at grid reference NY564383.
Botcherby is a former village in Cumbria, England, now considered a suburb of the city of Carlisle. It is located east of the River Petteril south of its confluence with the River Eden, Cumbria.
Culgaith is a village and civil parish in the Eden district of Cumbria, England. It is located on the River Eden, between Temple Sowerby and Langwathby. At the 2001 census the parish had a population of 721, increasing to 826 at the 2011 Census.
The Rev. William Slater Calverley (1847–1898) was an unassuming rural English vicar who through diligent study and painstaking scrutiny became an extraordinary amateur antiquarian. Although born in Leicestershire, Calverley claimed his fame through interpreting the carved sculptured relics that he and others found in Cumberland churchyards. He made intricate drawings, corresponded with academic authorities, and gave his own interpretations, which he then relayed to a wider audience. Calverley later produced in intricate detail a life-sized reproduction of the famous Gosforth Cross, which now stands in Aspatria churchyard.
The history of medieval Cumbria has several points of interest. The region's status as a borderland coping with 400 years of warfare is one. The attitude of the English central government, at once uninterested and deeply interested, is another. As a border region, of geopolitical importance, Cumbria changed hands between the Angles, Norse, Strathclyde Brythons, Picts, Normans, Scots and English; and the emergence of the modern county is also worthy of study.
The Cumbria County History Trust (CCHT) is a charity launched in May 2010 to coordinate and gather resources for the Victoria County History of Cumbria project, a collaborative community project created to research and write the histories of all parts of Cumbria, and to make historical information generally available, within the framework and standards of the Victoria County History of England.
Carlisle city walls were a defensive structure surrounding the centre of Carlisle, Cumbria. The city walls ran from Carlisle Castle in the north-west of the city to The Citadel in the south-east. Between these points, the city was protected by the former North and East Walls and the West Walls which remain largely intact. The line of the walls can still be followed with the exception of the southernmost end of the West Wall which has been built over. The perimeter, including the castle, is approximately 2.2 kilometres (1.4 mi) which is comparable to Southampton town walls but less than Chester city walls.
The Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, founded in 1866, is a local historical, antiquarian, archaeological and text publication society and registered charity covering the modern county of Cumbria.
Tarn Wadling was a lake between Carlisle and Penrith, near the village of High Hesket in Cumbria, England. In the Middle Ages, it was famous for its carp, but it was drained in the 19th century, and is now no more than a depression. The name remains today in a small woodland governed by the Woodland Trust.