REPORT ON SUMMER VISIT HELD ON SUNDAY 25th JUNE 2006 TO COCKERSAND ABBEY.

The first of this summer’s outings for Shap Local History Society took them over the county boundary into Lancashire, when they visited a number of ecclesiastical sites.

The first location was Cockersand Abbey, a foundation of the Premonstratensian order, and from where Shap Abbey was founded. The abbey is on the very bleak and windswept site at the mouth of the River Lune. The owner and custodian of the site, Dennis Kellet welcomed members, and he introduced Brian Marshall a local historian, who spoke about the history of the site.

As the site is on private land, it was a great privilege for members to be allowed into the octagonal chapter house, which is roofed, has a fan-vaulted ceiling and an elegant carved central pillar. The chapter house has survived because in the early nineteenth century it was adopted by the Dalton family of Thurnham Hall as a mausoleum. The subsequent burials have resulted in the present floor level being about three or four feet higher than the original. The building would have been very light, since it once had five windows. Inside there were various displays detailing the history of the abbey including models of the abbey and the salmon baulk, which the canons built in the Lune channel.

Mr Marshall told the group that in around 1180, a hermit had founded a hospital on the site, believed to have had ancient holy significance, the site of Askell’s Cross. Premonstratensian canons came from Hornby Priory in about 1190 and adopted the site to build their abbey. The dedication of the abbey is described as the ‘Blessed Mary of the Marsh upon Cockersand’. The first buildings were of red sandstone, quarried in the site and therefore free, later phases used millstone-grit, extracted from near Condor Green. He regaled the group with stories of the ‘lapses of the flesh’ committed by some canons, and how these were dealt with by Bishop Richard Redman, Abbot of Shap. They were banished to distant abbeys, but did return to Cockersand where they held positions of authority. The site was marked out to indicate where buildings were positioned, as there is little masonry showing above ground. Mr Marshall then described the valuations and dispersal of good at the dissolution, and the pensions granted to the canons. It was interesting to hear that one of Henry VIII’s commissioners who listed the monastic houses, recorded Cockersand as ‘standing veri blekely and object to all wynddes’. In contrast, the weather at the time of the Shap group’s visit was overcast but mild and only slightly breezy.

Copies of Mr Marshall’s books about Cockersand Abbey and the Abbeys of Lancashire were available for members to purchase.

The group then travelled to a unique early church site at Pilling, this was connected with Cockersand, and during a dispute between Leicester Abbey and the Premonstratensians over the Cockersand site, the canons temporarily moved there at the invitation of the Lord of the Manor. Here the group were met by Headlie Lawrenson, a native of Pilling, who led them to the site, which is on a small island surrounded by a moat, the ditches today filled with willows. The date may be Anglo Saxon, it has been found to have a semi-circular apse, and a burial bead of that period has been found. There is a possibility that it had links with St. Patrick’s Chapel at Heysham which is of similar date. Several excavations have been carried out during the first half of the twentieth century, but there is little to see except an altar stone and some markers indicting the size of the church. Mr Lawrenson recalled much more being visible when he was a boy. The church was abandoned in the early eighteenth century is favour of what is now called the Old Church, and this was the final destination for the group.

Pilling Old Church dates from 1717, and is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. Dedicated to St. John the Baptist, it is a superb example of the Georgian church, simple in its style, and the interior furnished with rustic chunky pews, and some box pews. There is a west gallery and a two-decker pulpit. Over the main door is a sundial of 1766 bearing the name of George Holden, the perpetual curate of Pilling and a great mathematician, and he calculated tide tables for Morecambe Bay. This church was when a new church designed by Austin and Paley was dedicated on 1887. The old church is still used for occasional services.

As members prepared to depart, Vice Chairman, Jean Scott-Smith thanked Mr Kellet, Mr Marshall and Mr Lawrenson, for a memorable afternoon, and gave them each a small gift as a token of the society’s appreciation.

The next outing for the society will be to Alston on Monday 24th July, when a walk starting at 7p.m.will be led by Alistair Robertson.