Much of this material was first published in “Threlkeld: School & Community”
Early Threlkeld
There has been human activity in Threlkeld for at least 2700 years as evidenced by the Iron Age settlement below Threlkeld Knotts. This was a substantial establishment—there being some 40 hut circles as well as the enclosures above the Quarry.
At that time the valley will have been totally different. Certainly there would have been trees over the valley bottom. There may still have been the remains of a post glacial lake formerly dammed by the ridge between Wesco and Burns, but now drained by the gorge of the River Greta.
The valley remained heavily wooded until it was cleared for farming and the coming of charcoal burners and sheep. The charcoal burners used the wood (normally by coppicing methods) for use in smelt and other works and the sheep prevented re-growth unless they were fenced out of the wooded areas. It is noticeable that where the sheep have been excluded—for example in the parks and along the disused railway line—that there has been natural re-generation of the woods. top
Agriculture
In more recent centuries Threlkeld
has been a farming and mining community and a stop on the turnpike from Penrith
to Keswick. There were a surprising number of farms in the area and large holdings
were not normal. The 1851 census shows that many holdings were less than 30
acres. Through cereals have been grown, most are cattle and sheep farms and
nowadays the plough is seen rarely in the parish. Many farm houses are now ordinary
homes (or holiday homes) and several barns have been converted to homes.
Threlkeld is still a farming community, but now more of its residents earn their
living by travelling to Penrith, Keswick and other places or let their houses
for visitors. There is also a substantial retired population– many are
“offcomers”, though some of those have long associations with the
village.
Some families have been prominent in Threlkeld for centuries - Bennet, Cockbain, Gaskarth, Gillbanks, Graves, Greenhow, Harper, Nicholson, Robinson. Not all remain today, but others have come to the village in the past 150 years mainly for work in the mine or quarry but also on the farms - Airey, Angus, Hebson, Marr.
In 1904 Far End Row Farm (known earlier as Faulds) was chosen as the site for the new Sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. In 1976 it became a hostel and in 1993 The Field Studies Centre. The centre is at the end of the road north from Grange Farm, which has had a number of names including High Row, Rodger Lane, Duck Street and Blease Road. Blease Road leads also to farms at Townhead, Blease, High Row, and Middle Row (known earlier as Hallgill). Only High Row and Middle Row are working farms today. top
Worship
Christian preaching has been recorded in Threlkeld as early as 553 A D, when St Kentigern (St Mungo of Glasgow) preached in a field that might have been where Melbutts is now or possibly at Town Cross. The next record is of Randolph (or Ranulf) as priest in Threlkeld in 1220.
Threlkeld was a chapel of the large and ancient parish of Greystoke. The registers start in 1572. It was a custom in Threlkeld that five shillings (25p in decimal money, but worth many times more in real terms) was paid to the poor of the parish by the party failing to complete a marriage contract. It is still the custom for the children of the parish to tie the church gate during a wedding service and not to allow the happy couple through until the groom has scattered sufficient money!
It is not known when the first Church was built nor what it looked like nor how many other buildings there have been before the present, though it is likely that they were thatched.
In 1776 the old Church (it was in a dangerous condition) was pulled down and a new Church was built, retaining only the bells and bell tower. The bells were old at that time having been cast before 1500. The Church was refurbished in 1911.
There were other places of worship in Threlkeld. The Quarry owners built a chapel for their workers. In 1885 the Mission Room was built in Blease Road by the Keswick & District Christian Workers Band and a chapel was built in 1842 beside the road from Scales to Wolt Bridge. These were all either Methodist Chapels or looked after by Methodist ministers. top
Education
Certainly there has been schooling in Threlkeld certainly for well over 300 years. In 1659 Anthony Gilbanks of Guardhouse left £20 in his will towards the salary of the village schoolmaster. He appears to be supporting existing schooling and it is possible that the first known priest, Randolph, also taught the children, in the 13th century. Many schoolmasters were also Assistant Curates too.
Initially only boys were taught in the Church and then, after the Church was rebuilt in 1776, in what is now The Old School House. A room above, accessed by outside steps, was built for the girls in 1842. In 1849 the school moved across the road to the present buildings - built on land bought by the assistant curate Rev Arthur Emilius Hulton.
There have been other schools in the area - at the Quarry and at St John's Church. Both are now closed. The quarry school was built in 1897 by the quarry owners for children of the Quarry workers. It served families at the north end of Vale of St John until 1952. The Quarry Chapel had a Sunday School. The school at St John's was rebuilt in 1848 and closed in 1948. The building is now the Carlisle Diocesan Youth Centre of which the Rector of Threlkeld is Chaplain.
Threlkeld is now a thriving school with a growing roll and plays an important part in the community. Children come not only from the parish but also from St John's in the Vale, Mungrisdale, Troutbeck and Keswick.
Today when they reach 11 years old, children go to secondary school in Keswick. However there are people living in the village whose entire formal schooling, then up to age of 14, was at Threlkeld School.
I am writing a history of the Schoolmaster's House and am keen to contact descendants of the schoolmaster early in the 1900s James Whiteley and Albert Joyce. Details top
Industry and Commerce
Prior to the rise of tourism, mining was probably the most important economic activity in the Lakes - Threlkeld was no exception.
The Elizabethan miners came to Threlkeld and started the mines at Gateghyll and at Wanthwaite and Fornside in the Vale. Gateghyll mine and the later Woodend mine intersect and go nearly one mile northwards into Blencathra. They were very productive of lead and zinc. There were other mines in the valleys of the Glenderaterra and the Glenderamackin north of Blencathra. On the quarry side of the valley in Threlkeld Knotts and under Clough Head there were mines for lead and iron pyrites - used for making sulphuric acid. The last mine – the very successful Woodend and Gateghyll mines –closed only in 1928 when prices fell, but mining continued to be important to the people of Threlkeld as miners bussed daily to the Greenside Lead Mine at Glenridding until 1962.
Threlkeld Quarry is relatively modern, opening commercially only with the coming of the railway and finally closing, for extraction, in 1982. Though there was quarrying there for local use - possibly for many years before - formal records exist only from 1878. It may have been commercialised as early as the 1860s and provided ballast for railways and granite setts for roadways. Threlkeld micro-granite is a very high quality granite. Despite extensions of the quarry to Klondike, Spion Cop and Bram Crag - connected by a light railway - further extraction became impractical and the quarry closed in 1982. Since 1996 the quarry has become a visitor attraction with the opening of the Threlkeld Mining and Quarrying Museum and provides a home for the excavators of the Vintage Excavator Trust.
Well into the 20th century the quarry had no road access. The quarry company built Railway Terrace and Back Row for their workers. They are now Glenderamackin Terrace and Blencathra View. The company also built a Church and a School.
The Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway line runs past Threlkeld Quarry. It was built primarily for transport of coal and iron ore between the West Cumberland mines and Durham. However with the growth of tourism it became a very popular tourist route. It also provided daily transport for workers and school children living along the line. Though freight was removed from the line and the rails west of Keswick lifted in 1963 as part of Dr Beeching's railway closures, the line continued in passenger service from Penrith to Keswick until 1972 when it closed finally. The rails were lifted and the bed of the line sold to various parties. The National Park Authority bought the stretch from Keswick to Threlkeld and it now forms the very popular and busy Railway Footpath.
By 1972, parts of the Penrith to Keswick and Cockermouth road (the A66) had been improved and realigned – for example: in 1965 the Threlkeld by pass, which took the heavy traffic from the twisting village road onto a modern highway. The final closure of the railway simplified further road work – allowing two viaducts over the River Greta, with the new road between them and the Penruddock by-pass to be built.
As well as the mines and quarry, there were many other commercial and industrial activities in Threlkeld and so it continues. There are the usual trades of building to be expected in any community - joinery, stonemason and so on. But Threlkeld had two shoemakers, a petrol station & garage, several shops, two pubs in the village also one at Scales and one at Setmabanning Farm, a fish shop, two butchers - all within living memory. Earlier there was a corn mill. Now there are food suppliers, professional artists, photographers, wholesalers, marketing, management and training course preparers, motor engineers, paraglider canopy makers as well as foresters, builders and contractors. The only shops remaining are the Paper Shop and the Post Office, both near the Horse and Farrier.
Fortunately for Threlkeld and the Lakes generally, as mining died tourism rose. top
Recreation
Threlkeld folk have made their own entertainment for most of the village's history and still do. There have been many groups formal and informal - including: Dominos, darts, motor cycling, badminton, scouts, guides, theatre, literary & mutual improvement, bee keeping, art, bridge, youth, bowls, cricket and football.
Each year the School and Village Sports are held on the "Jobby" - The Jubilee Recreation Field (Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, known at the Tithe Apportionament Map in 1838n as "Job Croft")
Threlkeld Sheepdog Trials are held each year on the Recreation Field near the pavilion. As well as the Trials there is a hound show, hound trailing and informal races for the children.
The Blencathra Pack of foxhounds started as Threlkeld Hounds, the private pack of Joseph Crozier at Gate Ghyll. In the early 1800s Joseph move to The Riddings and in 1840 gave full responsibility for the pack to his son "Squire" John Crozier.
Squire Crozier improved the pack with two couples of John Peel's famous hounds, including his best - Briton, when Peel's pack was dispersed in 1856. After some 30 years maintained at his personal expense, the pack became a subscription pack as The Blencathra Foxhounds. John Crozier was Master for 64 years and is commemorated with many Blencathra huntsmen on the Huntsmen's Memorial just inside the churchyard.
Threlkeld is also the home of the
Cumbria Beagles.
Two books are available about the history of Threlkeld