Back to the Grange: Part Two

We’ve already put forward our pre-excavation theory about the platform at Grange Farm, Stalmine, originally housing a thirteenth century watermill belonging to Furness Abbey. (It’s in the last article…strewth! Go and have a look if you’ve forgotten about it all already.) Anyhow, another possible theory, albeit a more tenuous one, is that the platform once housed a keeill.
Yes, a keeill.
Recorded in ‘The Royal Forest of Lancaster’ by R. Cunliffe Shaw is the following grant: “All Carr furlong between Keldbreckwell and the ditch of Stalmine grange with the meadow belonging was given by Henry of Stalmine son of William Beaufort.”
“So what?” you’re probably asking yourself. (What do you mean, “So what?” What sort of attitude is that to take? We’re trying to educate you lot here!)
Right, the name Keldbreckwell suggests a well belonging to a keeill (a fifth to eleventh century chapel of Norse/Celtic origin…in case you’re wondering) situated on a breck (the Norse word for the slope of a hill).
Now, if All Carr furlong referred to the field highlighted in blue on the first edition Ordnance Survey map below, then Keldbreckwell could easily have been the well recorded at the bottom of the platform.

That there was a keeill somewhere in Stalmine is, in our opinion, a given. In the same work, Cunliffe Shaw also refers to the coucher of Furness mentioning strip grants in a number of fields, one being Kelbrick. (Again, apply the same interpretation and that keeill’s got to be around somewhere.) Moreover, outside the porch at St. James’ (previously St. Oswald’s) church stands the preaching cross shown in the photograph below, the base of which (hewn from a single slab of stone) is typical of keeill cross bases.

Before anybody starts, yes, we know that there’s a date carved into the cross shaft. And, yes, we know that the date is sixteen hundred and odd. But clearly, when you actually check, the base and shaft didn’t originally belong together because they don’t actually fit. No…that’s a keeill cross base and there’s no mistaking it. The shaft appears to have been added when the church was ‘rebuilt’ in the seventeenth century.
Now whether the base was moved to its current location from close to Back Lane or not we couldn’t, at this time, honestly say, although the most likely location for our missing keeill, all matters considered, is the brow of the hill by the side of Grange Road (now occupied by a ‘Stud’ farm) rather than the platform itself.
At the time of writing, the most obvious theory as to why the platform was constructed, remains for the housing of the watermill, although it should be noted that several maps spanning the last few centuries detail buildings (the exact size and shape of which we wouldn’t like to commit ourselves to) perched on it.
One last item before we leave this matter alone for a while, during our initial investigation, we discovered a few pieces of pottery (including delft and treacle ware) along with a fragment of clay pipe stem in the partially collapsed northeast embankment, indicating that a certain amount of post mediaeval activity had taken place on the platform. The scan below shows a selection of these ‘small finds’ such as they are. (The treacle and delft ware are currently in the possession of Chris Clayton.)

And one last photograph for now, showing the platform as viewed from its about halfway along on its east side.

Mr Bleasdale did tell us that, when he was a kid, the platform housed a chicken shack with residents…although somehow it seems unlikely that the local farmer would construct something like this just so that his chickens didn’t need to walk uphill.

Back to the Grange: Part One

Let’s kick off this article with a bit of eye candy for the ladies:

What? Don’t anybody say a bloody word! We’ve all got to have our dreams, haven’t we? Anyhow, that’s me on the left (unfortunately) doing some sort of groundbreaking new dance or other, whilst Mr. Clayton (on the right) watches on in awe…possibly disbelief. (Incidentally, Steve the surveyor is responsible for this photograph, so if you want somebody to belt for ruining your breakfast, feel free to teach him a lesson.)
Now, put your fans away and stop drooling ladies, it’s actually the platform I’m stood on that’s important here. That’s because we’re back at Grange Farm in Stalmine and we’re still trying to figure out what archaeological wonders we’ve got buried beneath this thing.
We’ll start with the watermill theory then. Take a look at this:

This is a quoin (if you don’t know what a quoin is, find an architectural dictionary and look it up) inside the old barn (recently sold for conversion) on the summit of the hill. (Previously we’ve postulated that the foundations of this barn were the remains of the original grange building…but that’s already been covered so we’re not going to retrace our steps again here.) There are several sandstone blocks like this around the building, all with grooves that could serve no possible purpose in their present location, suggesting that they originated in another, now demolished, building.
We reckon these blocks might have once housed sluice gates for the watermill belonging to Furness Abbey. Sluice gates were generally wooden things and needed to be lifted up and down to control the flow of the water down the millrace.
I can’t remember if we’ve mentioned the watermill before, so before we go any further, let’s just throw a few ancient documents in your direction to verify its existence. Page 253 of the Victoria County History then, footnote 16: “Nicolas was plaintiff in 1318 (ibid. 221, m. 9d.), in which year he came to an agreement with the monks of Furness as to certain approvements; Dep. Keeper’s Rep. ut sup. From this it appears that Nicolas had a salt-pan on the waste and the monks had a watermill by their grange.” And just for good measure, here’s an extract from Stan Jones’ ‘White Horses, Red Cats and Buried Treasure’ which informs us that, in 1205: “Geoffrey Arbalester granted Furness Abbey land described as ‘...16 acres in the town field of Preesall on each side of the road to the Orestpul, with water for their mill.’
So did our platform back in 1205 and 1318 house a monastic watermill belonging to Furness Abbey then? Well, here’s a photograph showing a section of ground beside the ‘bridle path’ at the base of the ‘Grange’ hill running down to and past the platform, demonstrating how the hillside at this point (stretching all the way to the ‘snig pond’ at the bend of the bridle path) had obviously been cut level at some point or other:

On the off chance that you still haven’t got all of that clearly sussed out (and let’s be honest here, there’s a good possibility you haven’t) here’s an aerial photograph that, hopefully, should fit the various pieces together better:

Right…that should all make perfect sense now, so here’s the theory…in visual format because, well, frankly, trying to explain this sort of stuff in writing tends to be extremely verbose, confusing and, ultimately, a waste of time:

Does everybody understand that? What we’re trying to explain here is how there’s a strong possibility that three ponds along the bridal path (along with a further pond that does exist on the top of the hill) fed into a reservoir behind the sluice gates and the mill wheel jutting out from the mill itself on the platform before being fed off towards the other end of Grange Pool.
Obvious really.
There is another theory about this platform, however, that ought to be thrown into the works before we dig it up and find out…but we’ll leave that for now because my stomach’s rumbling and there’s a bacon butty downstairs that’s singing a siren song.

Even More of Stalmine Grange

Right...take a look at this:

This is the base of the barn on Grange Road in Stalmine that we showed you in the final photograph of the last instalment. Note the incongruous sandstone blocks (typical mediaeval monastic building material) and the foundation of cobbles pointed with lime mortar (also correct for the period). As we mentioned last time, the barn itself is about the right size for the original twelfth century grange building (although, obviously, the bricks themselves are later), but the question is, why would only the first foot or so of the cobbled walls survive?
Well, often granges were constructed by building a low wall (or sill) of solid material to raise the crook joists off the damp ground. Here’s an illustration to give you some idea of what we’re talking about.

Can’t remember what book this was taken from now, so many humble apologies if you happen to be the author of said book and you’re reading this, for poaching your material and not even giving you a mention.
Anyhow, unfortunately Mr. Bleasdale (who’d given us permission to explore his land around the grange) has just sold the barn to developers (presumably for conversion into living accommodation), which means that any incursions inside the building would no doubt be classed as trespass.
So, bearing that in mind, allow me to introduce you to the Fylde & Wyre Antiquarian Urban Exploration Committee (names withheld for obvious reasons), all of whom valiantly risked prosecution and a slap on the wrists for a quick glimpse inside this impressive construction before it’s altered forever. Want to see the interior? We thought you might…

Impressive eh? (All right…probably not. But it has a certain rustic charm all of its own.)
But of course we…er…I mean ‘they’ were on a mission to spot any mediaeval masonry that might help us determine whether this was the original grange or not.
Item of evidence number one then: One large sandstone block that doesn’t quite belong where it is, carved, enigmatically and with typical mediaeval lettering (i.e. complete with capitals and bases but all over the place because the lay brothers couldn’t be bothered using straight lines) bearing the inscription: “R.H. W-R. RT. RE”. No…we haven’t got a clue what it stands for either. In fact, if anyone’s got any suggestions now might be a good time to give them to us.

Then there’s this carved block in the doorframe that quite clearly doesn’t belong there. (Actually there’s a similar block on the other side and two further ones haphazardly stuck in the rear wall.) The grooves in the block were presumably used for something, but the shaped, backwardly curving apex wouldn’t accommodate any sort of door, so who knows? (Again, suggestions welcome, always remembering that this is family site.)

Right, we’ve actually got tons of these photographs so, rather than use up several weeks worth of blogs on this board, I might as well post a few of them over at the Fylde and Wyre Antiquarian Forum (link in the right hand column somewhere) before it heals up.
For now though, our conclusion. Was this the site of the original grange? Er…probably yes.
’Nuff said.