Programme

MONTHLY MEET UP

Anyone interested in local history are invited to join our monthly meet up at Millom Library, first Saturday of the month: 10-12. See you on 1st February. It is an informal but facilitated meeting when updates about the projects of the Society are shared and we generally have a chat about what is happening.

DIGGING FOR BRITAIN

Some of the volunteers are meeting up at Millom Baptist Hall to watch Digging for Britain; members of the public are welcome to join us. 7.45 Tuesday, 14th January 2025.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The AGM will take place on Saturday, 23rd November, 1-3 p.m. at Holy Trinity Church, Millom: volunteers will celebrate our achievements over the past year. £3. Margaret's lovely cakes will be on sale.

There will also be a presentation about three lots of archival documents dating from 1503/4, 1646 and 1690. The first lot were found by Richard Greer whilst he was searching the National Archive and includes four enquiries held at Carlisle - three concern gangs attacking folk and the fourth is about a suicide. The second lot is a list of 'fines' local tenants had to pay each time an old lord of Millom died and was replaced by a new one. The third is a list of just over 900 names of men who signed an oath to King William and Queen Mary. All cover what was the old Seigniory (Millom Peninsula). Whilst there are a few odd names that do not appear,on the whole, the same family names appear on all three documents.

Conducting a search of the current voting lists in Millom, some of the names listed in the above documents appear time and again - some with over 100 families of the same name, some 50+ families and some 25+. Although to prove the link between those families now living in Millom and those on the documents would need a family tree, nevertheless, it is possible that around one-third of folk living in Millom now have families that go back to these three lots of documents! That is over 500 years! Most family historians would 'eat their hearts out' to access this!

CLHF CONVENTION

Cumbria Local History Federation are holding their Annual Convention and AGM at Holy Trinity church, Millom, on Saturday, 12th October, 10-4 p.m. £25 including lunch. See programme for more information.

FINDS DAY

We are holding a final event for our Community Dig. It is on Saturday, 24th August, 1-3 p.m. at Holy Trinity Church, Millom. It is free, with free tea, cake and a report of the project. Dan Elsworth, lead archaeologist, will give a summary, Edward France, Volunteer, will talk about his experience with the project and Jan Bridget will give an overview. Some of the finds will be on display.

DIGGING FOR MILLOM

Here is the schedule for our Community Dig taking place in May, June and the beginning of July.

There will be four open days when members of the public are invited to view the dig and watch a presentation. The presentations will all take place in Holy Trinity Church at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the four days with the exception of the 10 a.m. presentation on Sunday 23rd June (there will be a service at this time).

"TO THE LAKES!" EARLY LAKE DISTRICT TOURISM AND NORMAN NICHOLSON

Our next event will take place at Holy Trinity Church, Millom, on Saturday, 20th April 2024, 1-3 p.m.

We are delighted to announce that Jeff Cowton and Antoinette Fawcett will be speaking at our next event.

Jeff Cowton is the Principal Curator and Head of Learning at The Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere. The Trust cares for Wordsworth Grasmere which encompasses Dove Cottage, where William and Dorothy Wordsworth lived between 1799 and 1808, the Wordsworth Museum and the Jerwood Centre (the library and archives building).

Jeff will discuss our current Special Exhibition: "To the Lakes!" which explores early Lake District Tourism from 1750 - 1850, which includes Wordsworth's lifetime (1770 - 1850). Jeff will talk about how tourists travelled to and through the Lake District, where they stayed and what they did, through travel accounts of the time and beautiful watercolours and sketches done by tourists and artists alike. Jeff will also discuss Norman Nicholson's connection to this early tourism as Nicholson was the first person to write about people such as James Plumptre (a playwright who satirised the early tourists) and Captain Budworth (thought to be the first visitor to climb Helm Crag in 1792).

Antoinette Fawcett is a founder member of the Norman Nicholson Society, instituted in 2006 to celebrate the work of the Cumbrian poet and author Norman Nicholson (1914-1987). She is the editor of Comet: The Magazine of the Norman Nicholson Society and of all the regular bulletins sent to the Society's members of the Society. After many years teaching English, both in the UK and abroad, she now works as a freelance literary translator.

Antoinette will talk about Norman Nicholson's life and work, paying particular attention to his attitude to nature and the environment, to the Lake District and the history of tourism, as well as to his relationship to Wordsworth and other writers connected to this region.

Please book your ticket £5 from Geoff and Margaret on 772084 or let us know via our Facebook group or email General Enquiries. We need you to do this so we have a rough idea of how many to cater for. Margaret's wonderful cakes, tea and coffee will be available £3 with proceeds for the upkeep of the church.

STONE CIRCLE CALENDARS

Saturday, 10th February 2024, 1 -2, Holy Trinity Church, Millom

Based on research by Jack R. Morris-Eyton, with contributions from David Smyth and Sue O'Neil, edited by Sue O'Neil, Stone Circle Calendars: A New Understanding, has just been published.

Sue's father, Jack Morris-Eyton, spent over 18 years researching Swinside and other Neolithic monuments but he died before he was able to publish so Sue, together with David Smyth, has brought this epic research together to make it available to the public.

Sue will talk about her father's work and how she was able to bring it to publication. Here is Jack's own introduction:

My research into stone circles and the like began at Swinside stone circle in southwest Cumbria in June 1992 with an early morning visit with my wife, Jane, to watch the Sun rise. I had been in discussion with a local friend and keen amateur enthusiast who had noticed the position of the rising sun at midsummer over Coniston Old Man. I, somewhat disbelieving, decided to go and look for myself and was surprised to find that it did. This sparked my 18 plus years of exploration into the workings of megalithic sites in the local area and beyond.

Nostalgic Film Night with Cumbria Film Archive

Thursday, 14th December, 7-9 pm Holy Trinity Church

Please book your ticket £5 from Geoff and Margaret on 772084 or let us know via our Facebook group or email General Enquiries. - we need you to do this so we have an idea of how many to cater for. Tea and cake will be available £3 with proceeds for church.

Part One

1. West Cumbrian Industries. This is part of a production probably made for schools looking at factories and mining in West Cumbria and includes the Millom Iron Ore industry with archive of it operating.
2. West Cumbria iron and steel, Florence Mine, and the history of Millom with the story of its growth as a new town.
3. This looks at Barrow and the Devonshire Dock Hall along with the shipbuilding and airship industries.
4. West Cumbria's lost railway lines … a look at the yesteryear of some of the lost railways including Coniston.
5. A look at how people spent their leisure time especially in the Barrow area over a hundred years ago and also shopping before out of town shopping centres and the internet.

BREAK

Part Two

1. The Lake District Remembered. Classic archive film from all over the Lake District mainly from the 1930s to 1950s.
2. Lakeland Holidays 1937. A lovely gentle film from a man in one of our audiences who donated the colour film of a family holiday in the 1930s.
3. Cumbria in the 1950s. We have joined forces with some of the newsreel companies to compile a great and often comical mixture of this decade and it is combined with what was going on the the county at the time. This also includes the Windscale accident.

Millom and District Local History Society AGM

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

2 p.m. Sunday, 26th November 2023
Holy Trinity Church, Millom

AGENDA

1. Minutes from last AGM

2. Matters Arising

3. Annual Review

3.1 Thanks and acknowledgements
3.2 Publicity and communication with the public.
3.3 Events: Medieval Millom and Later; Charter Day; Geophysical Survey; Medieval Hunting; Millom Castle and the English Civil Wars.
3.4 New Groups: Prehistory Appreciation and Metal Detectorists.
3.5 Projects: Millom and District: Prehistoric Past; Millom Castle and Holy Trinity Church Archaeology Project; Heritage Triangle.

4. Accounts for last year

5. Looking Forward: Next year's objectives

7. Election of Committee:

Chair
Treasurer
Secretary
Other Members

8. AOB

Millom Castle and the English Civil Wars

Millom Detectorists Group

Prehistoric Appreciation Group

Lacra Walk; Saturday, 28th October

Stephe Cove has agreed to take a group up to Lacra on Saturday, 28th October. It will be less than a mile but a climb of around 400 feet which makes it quite an uphill sort of walk. So instead of our monthly meeting, the Prehistoric Appreciation Group - and anyone else who wants to join us - will meet at the Millom Library carpark at 9.30 a.m. the aim is to car share to Kirksanton as there is little parking there. This is what Stephe is proposing:

There are four main "circles" so I would propose:

going to the farm and giving a general explanation of the site;

splitting into 4 groups with a general map and a specific map of one of the areas;

time to try and make sense of what's on the ground in each spot for say 30-40mins;

gathering then for coffee break;

then each survey group to show the others what they have discovered in their area;

back down to Kirksanton.

Would be useful if people had gps to bring them along.

I'll bring some bags of marker flags and some ranging poles if people are wanting to take photos.

Obviously, bring your flask and butties if you want them as well as wearing approriate shoes and clothing.

Please let us know if you are coming by either email: chair@millomhistory.org.uk or telephone or text 07840 827602 and give contact details in case the weather means we have to cancel.

Medieval Hunting

Our next event is on Saturday, 9th September 2023, 1-3 pm at Holy Trinity Church.

We are hoping there might be a hawk to welcome you.

Ken Battersby will play medieval music as you arrive. Jan Bridget will then give a quick presentation of the Tudor (?) hawking whistle Josh Carr found near the Castle followed by a more in-depth presentation about Medieval Hunting in general but then concentrating on the evidence there is for hunting in Millom.

Richard Greer will share what he has researched about hunting in and around Woodland.

Iain Mcnicol,historical interpreter and entertainer, will conclude the event by sharing what it would have been like to be a peasant during Medieval Times.

Please book your ticket £5 from Geoff and Margaret on 772084 - we need you to do this so we have an idea of how many to cater for. Tea and cake will be available £2 with proceeds for church.

Holy Trinity and Millom Castle Geophys Survey

Our next event is on Saturday, 24th June 2023, 1-3 pm at Holy Trinity Church.

We will identify the reasoning behind deciding to conduct a magnetometer survey of the fields around the Church and Castle; how we got funding; conducting the surveys; and sharing the analysis of the findings. Finally we will look at what might come next.

There will also be a special Prehistoric performance by historical interpreter and entertainer, Iain Mcnicol.

We are hoping the project report will be ready and free copies will be available.

There will be a free buffet. All this is being paid for from a grant we received from Copeland Council as part of the government's Levelling Up programme.

Please book your ticket from Geoff and Margaret on 772084 - we need you to do this so we have an idea of how many to cater for.

This was a very successful event with 67 attendees. See Geophys Project for more information.

Charter Weekend

We are organising an event on Saturday, 3rd June 2023 as part of the celebrations for Charter (Holy Trinity) weekend.

There will be arts and crafts stalls, live music with Mel Holmr as well as an amazing dulcimer player, Ken Battersby. Josh Carr will be running another metal detecting practical and the Finds Liaison Officer will be here to help identify any finds. So put the date in your diary.

Medieval Millom and Later

Sixty-five people attended the event. The first speaker, Daniel Elsworth, gave an overview of the early medieval period in Cumbria. The second speaker, Fiona Pervez, told us about Ranulph le Mechine, the Strong Man of Cumbria. The final speaker, Professor Angus Winchester, told us about Millom Castle manorial records.

Medieval Millom and Later

Our next event will be held at Holy Trinity church, Millom, on Saturday, 4th March, 1-3 p.m.

Professor Angus Winchester will talk about Millom Castle manorial records and what they can tell us about 16th century Millom; Dan Elsworth will discuss Holy Trinity Church and what it can tell us about the Early Medieval history of the area whilst Fiona Pervez will share her recent research on Ranulf le Mechin and why he was called 'The Strong Man of Cumbria.' The event will run from 1 to 3 p.m. and tickets are available from Eventbrite £5.0 or by ringing 01229 772084.

Refreshments, £3 with proceeds for the church, will be available.

Holy Trinity Church, Saturday, 5th November 1-3 p.m.

We were unable to show the six minute video of Holy Trinity so here is a link.

The chair, Jan Bridget, began with a brief up-date on the findings of the Geophys Survey.

The Rev. Robert Bracegirdle (click to hear) spoke about the history of the church with an emphasis on the renovations in the 1930's. Archaeologist Daniel Elsworth (you will probably need speakers to hear this) shared the findings of the Stones Project and some tantalising thoughts as to what might have been on the site before the current church was built, Dan's Presentation.

Some participants took a short tour of the outside building to see some of the more exciting reworked stones. We hope to have a report available soon.

Just over 40 people attended the event and feedback was very good.

Millom in Prehistoric Times, 3rd September 2022

Just under 60 people attended our event and feedback was excellent.

The afternoon kicked off with Peter Barton, Military Historian, author and film maker explaining that he was making a series of films about this part of Cumbria, including Millom and its incredible history - he was filming the speakers.

We then watched a thirteen minute video, Cumbria's Prehistoric Monuments by Carvetii Films, Adam Morgan Ibbotson, to set the afternoon into context.

Jan Bridget gave an overview of a booklet she is about to publish, Millom and District: Prehistoric Past.

Duane Farren followed Jan talking about the footprints and other artefacts Prehistoric Findings in Millom.

Dr Alison Burns from the University of Manchester followed Duane; Alison shared her research Prehistoric Coastal Footprints - Formby and other Sites.

Our final main speaker was Claire Bradshaw of Morecambe Bay Partnership. Claire looked at Neolithic and Bronze Age Millom.

To finish off the presentations, Peter Barton shared the interim findings from a survey he commissioned: Geophysical Survey: Millom Castle crop mark field.Further analysis is needed as well as a further survey; it is possible the straight line at the bottom of the field is a metalled road and possibly Roman! We wish.

We concluded with a brief question and answer session.

Millom Peninsula in Prehistoric Times

The first event of our 2022-23 season will take place at Holy Trinity, Millom, on Saturday, 3rd September, 1-3 p.m.

The plan is to kick off with a thirteen minute video Cumbria's Prehistoric Monuments by Carvetii Films, Adam Morgan Ibbotson, which was made to accompany Adam's book of the same name - well worth buying a copy. Adam narrates the story of Cumbria's Prehistoric Monuments which is an excellent introduction to this afternoon's event.

Jan Bridget will then give a short overview of the booklet she has just completed, Millom and District: Prehistoric Past, which should be available soon. Using maps she has drawn up she will show where the key artefacts of Prehistory have been found in our area, the Millom Peninsula, including flints, polished stone axes, cropmarks, standing stones and circles, cairn sites and axe hammers.

Local Historian, Duane Farren, will then talk about his findings from Prehistory which will be on show and we are hoping, so too, will be exhibits from the Millom Art and Heritage Centre. Of course, Duane will be looking at the footprints he found on the Duddon Estuary.

Dr Alison Burns, from the University of Manchester who has conducted research into footprints on Walney and Formby will give us a deeper insight about how the footprints are formed, what footprints have been found and more.

Our final speaker is Claire Bradshaw, Archaeology and Heritage Officer, of the Morecambe Bay Partnership, who is a flint specialist. Claire has been helping our Society and has looked over Jan's booklet to ensure there are no glaring errors (Mark Brennand, Cumbria County Archaeologist, has also commented on the draft). We are hoping to be able to do a joint project with Claire and the Morecambe Bay Partnership in the near future.

Finally there will be a Q&A session followed by tea/coffee and cakes which will be on sale (£3.00 with the proceeds going to the church).

We are expecting this to be a fascinating event. Tickets, £4.90 per person (this includes a booking charge) Eventbrite. and for those who do not have the internet, you can book through Margaret on 01229 772084 for £5.00. Hope to see you there.