1846 Tithe Map of Yealand Redmayne
Tithe maps were accompanied by a detailed index listing the apportionment of rent charges in lieu of tithes for every field and property in the township. This index includes the names of the landowners, occupiers and reference numbers for each plot. The name of each field is recorded along with its state or cultivation, area and rent charge.
The Coldwell area was owned by John Jenkinson who came from a prominent family of Yealand Quakers. The Landscape Trust’s land at Coldwell and many neighbouring plots were occupied by James Thompson.
Former Field Names of Landscape Trust land
Back field (plot 3) is now our ‘Coldwell Meadow’ and in 1846 its state of cultivation is listed as ‘arable and scraggs’. A consortium led by the Landscape Trust purchased this site in 2013.
High allotment (plot 5) is today known as ‘Coldwell Parrock’ a name introduced when the Landscape Trust purchased the site in 2000. Cultivation in 1846 was ‘scraggs and pasture’.
Top bank and Fore bank (plots 6 and 7) make up the Trust’s new land at Coldwell purchased in 2018. The cultivation in 1846 is listed as arable. Top and Fore Banks are the only field names ever recorded cartographically but they have long since fallen out of use.
Some Adjoining Fields
Three Stones (plot 4) is now a field for horses and owned by the Earl family from Arnside.
Back Wood (plot 2) is the only site to retain its historic name and now belongs to the RSPB.
Sheep Wash Meadow (plot 1) is adjacent to Back Wood and is also part of the RSPB land. At present it is mainly scrub and there is little evidence on the ground of its history. However in 1846 it clearly occupied a strategic position alongside Leighton Beck and Coldwell Lane, the bridge and the county and parish boundary. Today it still offers a fine view of the downstream side of Creep-i’-th’-call Bridge.
As with the 1845 OS map there is no record of the Coldwell Parrock lime kiln or the lime works and its quarry.
1778 Inclosure Award Map
Areas of common land around the Yealands were subject to parliamentary enclosure in 1778. At the time enclosure was spelt ‘inclosure’ so most historical reviews retain the older spelling. Copies of these maps are held in county archive offices and as the Yealands are just in Lancashire this item is housed in Preston where it was photographed by the Landscape Trust’s reserves manager Bob Pickup.
Many of these inclosure maps are not in the best of condition and they are rather confusing to interpret at first because they are commonly not orientated to north. In the extract below the road fork is the one that today embraces Coldwell Parrock. The road marked as Sand Lane is now Coldwell Lane and leads to Leighton Beck and eventually to the estuary sands. The other road is recorded as Furnace Lane, a name that would relate to Leighton Beck Furnace.
Learning more about Inclosure
Craig Potter wrote an article for the Landscape Trust journal, Keer to Kent, in 1999 explaining the purpose of the award system and how it relates to land in the Arnside and Silverdale AONB. The map below is from Craig’s piece and is based on the work of Michael Wright, a great local historian and one of the main driving forces behind the book Warton 1800-1850 How a North Lancashire Changed which is still in print. Information about this book and much else is available from our friends in the Mourholme Local History Society via their excellent reference site www.mourholme.co.uk
As the county boundary runs through the AONB, inclosure maps and other historical records are divided between the county record offices in Preston and Kendal.
