Part 5
To resume Dr. Gibson's account:--"The new building is plain even to meanness; but being now well screened by trees and flourishing evergreens--and I may state that evergreens grow here with a luxuriance that I have not seen elsewhere--it is not so offensive to the eye as formerly. The interior has been greatly beautified by improvements made in 1857, the cost being defrayed by subscription. The addition of a reading desk, pulpit, reredos and altar rail in handsomely carved oak, the painting of what used to be an unsightly expanse of white ceiling, in imitation of oak panelling, and the spare but tasteful introduction of tinted glass into the windows, have made the inside as handsome as it is likely to be whilst the pews are allowed to remain. The parish register dates back to 1594. In the vestry is stored a library, chiefly of works in divinity, sermons, etc., which have been purchased from time to time with the interest of different sums left by the Fleming family, commencing with £5 under the will of Roger Fleming of Coniston, dated February, 1699. In the vestibule of the southern entrance to the church is kept one of those curious old chests, made from a solid block of oak, like that containing the muniments of the Grammar School at Hawkshead. The only contents of this are a number of slips of paper, each bearing the almost illegible affidavit of two women that the corpse of each person interred was shrouded in cloth only made of woollen material. These worn and fragile evidences of a curious old protective law--for I infer it could only be enacted to support the landed interest--serve, if they do nothing else, to explain the line in Pope which has puzzled many modern readers--
Odious!--in woollen!--'twould a saint provoke.
The following is a copy of one of the most legible of these fugitive records:--
Lancr. P.ociall Cappell de Coniston.
We Jennet Dickson wife of Thomas Dickson and Isabell Fleming widow--doe severally make oath that the Corps of Isabel Dickson widow was buryed March y^e 15^{th} An^o Dmj 1692. And was not putt in, wrapt or wound up in any Shirt, Shift, Sheet or Shroud, Made or mingled w^{th} fflax, Hemp, Hair, Gold or Silver, etc: nor in any coffin lined or faced w^{th} cloath etc: nor in any other material but sheeps wooll onely According to Act of Parlyment. In Testimony whereof we y^e s^d Jennet Dickson and Isabel Fleming have hereunto putt our Hands and Seales the 15^{th} day of March, An^o Dmj 1692.
Cap^t et Jur^t coram me Jennet Dickson Henri Mattinson Cur^t her x m^k de Torver decimo nono Isabel Fleming die Martij Anno dom 1693 her x m^k
So far Dr. Gibson on the "new" church, now the "old" church, and already of the past.
On November 17th, 1891, the church was reopened by Bishop Goodwin after a "restoration" which almost amounted to renovation. The Rev. C. Chapman, in his pamphlet on _The ancient Parochial Church of Coniston_, 1888, had already been able to announce that £600 had been gathered for the Building Fund, beside about the same amount spent in buying the old schoolhouse and playground in order to improve the site. But the money did not suffice for entire rebuilding; the ceiling and pews were removed, a chancel and vestry added, a clock placed in the tower, the roughcast of the exterior was cleared away, and stained glass windows have since been inserted, of which the best is the little west window by Kempe to the memory of the Beevers of the Thwaite. But few objects of antiquarian interest remain. The old oak chest with a curious padlock, the parish registers beginning 1594 and recommencing 1695, the old library, and the little brass on the south wall are all that is left to record the ancient family of the Hall. The brass is inscribed:--
To the Liveing Memory of ALICE FLEMING of Coningston-Hall in the County Palatine of Lancaster Widow (late Wife of William Fleming of Coningston-Hall aforesaid Esq^r; and eldest daughter of Roger Kirkby of Kirkby in the said County Esq^{re}) and of John Kirkby Gentleman her second brother was this Monument by her three sorrowful sons S^r Daniel Fleming Knight Roger Fleming and William Fleming gentlemen, for their dear Mother and Uncle here erected. The said John Kirkby (having lived above 30 yeares with his sister aforesaid, and having given to the Churches and Poor of Kirkby and Coningston aforesaid 150£) died a Bachelor at Coningston-Hall aforementioned September 28 A.D. 1680, and was buried near unto this place the next day: And the said Alice Fleming died also (having outlived her late Husband above 27 yeares and suruiued 5 of her 8 children) at Coningston-Hall aforesaid Febry 28 A.D. 1680, and was buried in this Church, close by her said Brother Febr 28, 1680, in the same Grave where ye Lady Bold (second wife of John Fleming Esq^{re} deceased, uncle to ye said William Fleming Esq^r) had about 55 yeares before been interred.
Epitaph
Spectator stay, and view this sacred ground See it contains such Loue, on Earth scarce found, A BROTHER and a SISTER, and you see She seeks to find him in Mortality-- First he did leave us; then she stay'd & try'd To live without him, lik'd it not and dy'd Here they ly buried, whose Religious Zeal Appeard sincere to Prince, Church, Commonweal; Kind to their Kindred, Faithful to their Friends, Clear in their Lives and Chearful to their ends. They both were Dear to them whose good intent Makes them both liue in this one Monument. So Dear in Cordial Loue, tho' th' outward part. Turne Dust it holds impression to the Heart.
The churchyard is first mentioned as a burying ground in 1594, and until 1841 was very small: indeed, the population it had to serve was small up to the nineteenth century. But by 1841 the population of the parish had grown, and Lady le Fleming made an addition to the churchyard. Subsequent additions were made in 1845, 1865, and 1878, the last by the removal of the old Institute, formerly the Boys' School. This used to stand between the church and the road, as shown in the photograph exhibited, with other views and relics of the neighbourhood, in the museum at the Coniston Institute.
In Coniston Churchyard the centre of general interest is Ruskin's grave, marked by the tall sculptured cross of gray Tilberthwaite stone, which stands under the fir trees near the wall separating the churchyard from the schoolyard. Near it are the white crosses of the Beevers, and the railed-in space is reserved for the family of Brantwood. The sculptures on the east face are intended to suggest Ruskin's earlier writings--the lower panel his juvenile poems; above, the young artist with a hint of sunrise over Mont Blanc in the background, for "Modern Painters;" the Lion of St. Mark, for "Stones of Venice," and the candlestick of the Tabernacle for "Seven Lamps." On the west face below is the parable of the labourers in the vineyard--"Unto this Last," then "Sesame and Lilies," the Angel of Fate with club, key and nail for "Fors Clavigera," the "Crown of Wild Olive," and St. George, symbolizing his later work. On the south edge are the Squirrel, the Robin and the Kingfisher in a scroll of wild rose to suggest Ruskin's favourite studies in natural history. On the north edge is a simple interlaced plait. The cross was carved by the late H. T. Miles of Ulverston from designs by W. G. Collingwood.
Since the restoration the clergymen have been:--
Richard Rawling May, 1676 d. June, 1682 John Birkett June, 1683 d. Feb., 1716 John Stoup 1716 d. Oct., 1760 John Strickland 1761 d. Sep., 1796
There seems then to have been an interregnum until William Tyson is recorded as assistant curate in 1805. The incumbent in 1809 was Jonas Lindow, who died 1826, under whom officiated as assistant curates:--
John Hodgson, June, 1809.
John Kendal (occasional).
Matthew Inman Carter, of Torver (occasional).
John Douglas, May, 1816, to November, 1821.
W. T. Sandys, February, 1825 (afterwards incumbent, assisted by P. Fraser).
H. Siree, February, 1835, to April, 1837 (assistant or incumbent?).
J. W. Harden, incumbent, 1837 to November, 1839 (to whom S. Boutflower, afterwards archdeacon of Carlisle, was assistant).
Thomas Tolming, incumbent, December, 1839; resigned April, 1870.
Charles Chapman, incumbent, 1870; died 1905.
H. E. Wood, curate in charge, 1905 to April, 1906.
F. T. Wilcox, incumbent, April, 1906.
The school used to be held in the church, an arrangement common in this district when the clergyman was also schoolmaster. Later, a small building was put up, within the area of the present churchyard; this was turned into a Mechanics' Institute in 1854, as already noted, when new schools were built. The site of the Boys' School and master's house, with adjacent ground, was conveyed by a deed dated December 6th, 1853, from Lady Le Fleming to the incumbent and chapel-wardens of Coniston and their successors. The buildings were to be erected as approved by Lady Le Fleming, and the school was always to be conducted on the principles of the Established Church of England. There is no deed extant for the Girls' (now the Infants') School. It was probably built at the same time as the old Boys' School, being similar in construction, especially in the chimneys (as Mr. Herbert Bownass notes). Dr. Gibson says in _The Old Man_ (1849) that both schools had been conducted for the previous three or four years on the Home and Colonial School system.
The schoolmasters since the building of the new schools have been:--
Mr. Diddams, 1854-1858. Mr. Ryder, 1858-1859. S. K. Thompson, 1859-1864. W. Brocklebank, 1864-1887. C. J. Fox, 1887-1891. John Morris, 1891-1902. W. J. Rich, 1902.
The mistress of the Infants' School since 1876 has been Miss Agnes Walker.
The Mechanics' Institute in 1877 was found to be inadequate and inconvenient, and in 1878 a new building was made on the Yewdale road. This in its turn was outgrown, and in 1896 the committee, under the presidency of Dr. Kendall, resolved to enlarge it. A library and reading room, billiard and recreation rooms, room for meetings and classes, bath, museum, concert hall and caretaker's house were planned, and built in 1897 with the proceeds of various exhibitions and bazaars, added to private subscriptions. This enlarged Institute or village clubhouse was opened by Mrs. Arthur Severn on April 15th, 1896.
In 1900 an exhibition of drawings by the late Prof. Ruskin was held, and visited by over 10,000 people. From the proceeds of this a room for a museum was added, to supersede the little room formerly allotted for the purpose; and the Ruskin Museum was opened in August, 1901, Canon Rawnsley giving the inaugural address. The collection shown in the Museum is confined under two headings--"Ruskin" and "Coniston." It comprises (_a_) local history and antiquities, with a few illustrative specimens of general antiquities; (_b_) local minerals, to which it is hoped some day to add other branches of the natural history of Coniston: of this division Mr. Ruskin laid the foundation by his gift in 1884 of a collection of minerals and the model of the neighbourhood; (_c_) Ruskin drawings and relics, given or lent by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Severn; (_d_) books by and about Ruskin, with autographs, etc., in illustration; (_e_) engravings after Ruskin's drawings, and portraits of him; (_f_) copies and prints from pictures which have formed the subject of his writing. The collection is still growing, and an enlarged edition of the Catalogue (3d.) was brought out at Easter, 1906; copies can be had of the caretaker at the Institute. The Museum is open every week-day from 10 till dusk, admission one penny in the slot of the turnstile. Eight to ten thousand pennies have been taken yearly since the opening. The hon. curator is Mr. Herbert Bownass.
In the summer an exhibition, usually of pictures, is held during August and September in the large hall adjoining. Since the new Museum was built, the room formerly occupied by the collections has been used as a Ladies' Reading Room; and in 1905 a workshop for wood carving and other art crafts was added to the premises. The subscription to the Institute for residents over 16 years of age is 1s. 3d. a quarter; for boys, 9d.; for visitors 1s. a week, or 2s. 6d. a month. The management is in the hands of a committee elected by the members, non-sectarian and non-political; Dr. Kendall has been president since 1884, and Mr. Edmund Todd hon. secretary since 1902.
The Baptist Chapel was built in 1837, the youngest of many chapels described in a booklet entitled _Old Baptist Meeting-houses in Furness_, by F. N. Richardson (1904). Tottlebank, the oldest, was founded in 1669. Sunnybank, in Torver, 1678, and Hawkshead Hill, founded a few years later, no doubt took the early Baptists of Coniston; one of whom, William Atkinson of Monk Coniston, tanner, was fined in 1683 for attending a conventicle. These three chapels are now open, though Sunnybank and Hawkshead Hill were closed for some years before 1905. The seventeenth century chapel at Scroggs, between Broughton and Coniston, was dilapidated in 1842, and is now a cattle shed. The Coniston Chapel ministers were Mr. Kirkbride, Mr. Myers, and then for twenty-one years from about 1865 the Rev. George Howells; he was succeeded by Rev. Arthur Johnson. For nine years before 1904 there was no Baptist congregation, and the chapel was let to the "Brethren," who built a place of worship for themselves and opened it 1903. The Baptist Sunday School had been carried on all the while by Mr. William Shaw, and on regaining possession of the chapel a congregation was once more formed with Rev. R. Jardine as pastor.
A Primitive Methodist Chapel was built in 1859, but some years ago was converted into a Masonic Hall. A Wesleyan Chapel was built in 1875, but there is no settled minister.
The Roman Catholic Chapel was built in 1872 by Miss Aglionby of Wigton; Prof. Ruskin gave a window to this chapel. It was served for many years by Father Gibson; on his removal he was succeeded by Father Laverty, at whose death in 1905 Father Bradshaw was appointed to the cure.
VIII.--CONISTON INDUSTRIES.
COPPER.
That the copper mines were worked by the Romans and the Saxons is only a surmise. Dr. A. C. Gibson, F.S.A., writing in 1866, said:--"Recent operations have from time to time disclosed old workings which have obviously been made at a very early period, by the primitive method of lighting great fires upon the veins containing ore and, when sufficiently heated, pouring cold water upon the rock, and so, by the sudden abstraction of caloric, rending, cracking and making a circumscribed portion workable by the rude implements then in use, specimens of which are still found occasionally in the very ancient parts of the mines, especially small quadrangular wedges perforated for the reception of a handle."
The mines of Cumberland were worked throughout the Middle Ages, and it is not impossible that these rich veins in the Coniston Fells were tried for ore; but we have no proof of the local assertion that they have been worked continuously since the days of the Romans. On the contrary, there seem to have been only two periods, of about a century each, during which mining was actively pushed. In the time of Queen Elizabeth we reach firm ground of history.
In 1561 a company was formed by several lords and London merchants to work the minerals of the kingdom under a patent from the Crown. They invited two German mining experts, Thomas Thurland and Daniel Hechstetter, who coming to England opened mines, and built smelting works at Keswick in 1565; and in spite of strong local opposition soon made a great success. (Their proceedings are described in a paper by J. Fisher Crosthwaite, F.S.A., in _Transactions_ of the now defunct Cumberland Association, viii.)
They also took over the Coniston mines, and worked them with energy and profit. They opened out no less than nine new workings beside the old mine--the New or White Work, Tongue Brow (in Front of Kernel Crag), Thurlhead, Hencrag, Semy Work, Brimfell, Gray Crag, the Wide Work, and the Three Kings in Tilberthwaite; employing about 140 men. The ore was raised at a cost of 2s. 6d. to 8s. a kibble, each kibble being about a horse load, for it was carried on pack-horses to Keswick for smelting. To avoid this they proposed building a smelting house at Coniston, which was, they said, well supplied with wood and peat, and an iron forge was already there. It would be easy to boat the manufactured copper down the water, and ship it at Penny Bridge.
But in the civil wars the Corporation of "Governors, Assistants, and Commonalty of the Mines Royal" came to an end. The Parliament soldiers wrecked the works at Keswick, and operations at Coniston were stopped.
After the civil wars, Sir Daniel Fleming was several times approached on the subject of reopening the mines. He seems to have been willing. He notes on January 21st, 1658, "given unto the miller of Conistone for going along with me on to the fell, 1s.;" and on March 22nd, "given to Parce Corratts when hee came to looke at the blacke lead mine at Conistone, 2/6." This turned out a disappointment, for on May 2nd, 1665, he says, "given unto a Newlands man who came to look at the _supposed_ wadd-mine at Coniston, 5/-." And so nothing seems to have been done.
In 1684 Roger Fleming at the Hall sent his brother, Sir Daniel, a report of the mines "which were first wrought by the Dutchmen" (Keswick Germans) and others discovered more recently. Only three of the old workmen were living, but from their evidence we get the details given above. On May 25th, 1686, John Blackwall wrote from Patterdale to Sir Daniel that he had examined the ground at Coniston and studied the evidence of the three old miners, and was prepared with a company to open the mines, if they could agree upon terms.
Sir Daniel died in 1701; and the Rev. Thomas Robinson's _Natural History of Cumberland_, &c., published in 1709, mentions that copper had been formerly got at Cunningston, by the Germans, and taken to Keswick, but says nothing about a revival of the industry. It was, however, prosecuted in a small way throughout the eighteenth century. A Company of Miners at Ulpha is mentioned in George Bownass' account for tools in 1772. West says, in 1774, merely, "the fells of Coniston have produced great quantities of copper ore," nothing of mining in his time; and the smith's accounts from 1770 to 1774 do not mention it. There must have been a revival shortly afterwards. Captain Budworth, about 1790, tells the story of the devil and the miner, retold by Dr. Gibson from local tradition, to the effect that Simon the miner found a paying vein in the crag--it is called Simon Nick to this day, and the cleft he made is seen yet on the left hand as you go up to Leverswater; but one night at the Black Bull he boasted of his luck, and said the fairies, or the devil, were his partners, upon which he found no more copper, and lost his life soon after in blasting.
In 1802 the mines were going. In 1820 the _Lonsdale Magazine_ says that they had been worked at intervals for many centuries, and had lately been in the hands of "spirited adventurers," but were then discontinued.
About 1835 a new era of prosperity began, in which Mr. John Barratt became the leader. His skill and energy brought about such success that in 1849 they employed 400 men, and yielded 250 tons of ore monthly. In 1855 the monthly wage list amounted to £2,000. In 1866 Dr. Gibson said:--"For many years their shipments averaged 300 tons per month, and employed from five to six hundred people," but "the number of hands employed do not now exceed two hundred."
Up to this time the ore had been boated down the lake, and carted to Greenodd. Now the Coppermining Company promoted a railway connecting Coniston with Broughton and the Furness line. It was a separate concern when it was opened in 1859, but absorbed into the Furness system in 1862.
The mines, as they were in his days, are described at length by Dr. Gibson in _The Old Man, or Ravings and Ramblings around Conistone_. Alexander Craig Gibson, M.R.C.S., F.S.A., was born at Harrington, 1813, the son of a ship's captain, who died early. He was taken by his mother to her home at Lockerbie, and brought up there; afterwards apprenticed to a surgeon at Whitehaven. In 1844 he came to Coniston as medical officer to the mining company, and lived for seven years at Yewdale Bridge, where he wrote his "Ravings and Ramblings" as articles for the _Kendal Mercury_, afterwards collected into a volume, and subsequently republished with considerable revision. He left Coniston in January, 1851, and remained at Hawkshead for some years; then removed southward, and finally settled at Bebington in Cheshire, where he died in 1874. A collection of sketches in prose and verse, _The Folk-speech of Cumberland_, &c. (Coward, Carlisle, 1869; ed. ii., 1872), shows him to be master of the dialect of the north-west in various forms--Furness, Cumbrian, and Dumfriesshire; and his book on Coniston remains a valuable contribution to local anecdote. (I owe the data of his life to the Rev. T. Ellwood.)
After the middle of the nineteenth century the copper mines became less and less profitable, owing to the competition of foreign imports. During the "eighties," they were only just kept open, until the Coniston Mining Syndicate, under the energetic management of Mr. Thomas Warsop, tried to put new life into the old business. Mr. Warsop attempted to introduce a new system of smelting, but this smelting house was blown away by the storm of December 22nd, 1894. He took the watercourse from Leverswater to work a turbine, which superseded the old waterwheels for pumping, and also supplied power for boring in the mines, and for crushing and mixing the material from the old rubbish heaps, with which he made excellent concrete slabs, much in demand for pavements. But the development came to an end with Mr. Warsop's removal in 1905, and when the mines were offered for sale there was no purchaser.
IRON.
In our tour of the lake we have noticed that there are remains of old iron works along its margin, now difficult to trace.
In High Furness, the district of which Coniston Lake is the centre, and the most northern part of Lancashire, there are about thirty known sites where iron was smelted in the ancient way with charcoal, producing a _bloom_--the lump of metal made by _blowing_ in the furnace--whence the name _bloomeries_. Of these sites about half are in the valley of Coniston, and eight are actually on the shore of the lake:--
Beck-leven (below Brantwood) East side. Parkamoor Beck (below Fir Island) " Selside Beck (below Peel Island) " Moor-gill (above Sunny-bank) West side. Harrison Coppice (opposite Fir Island) " Knapping-tree (opposite Fir Island) " Springs (opposite Beck-leven) " Waterpark (below Coniston Hall) "