Packhorse History of Miterdale
/The valley of the River Mite in the Lake District of England is said to have three sections, each with its own distinct character. The lower portion runs through fields on its way to Ravenglass harbor, with Muncaster Fell on its southern side. The middle section is a woodland river, with more grade and faster water. In its highest reach, the river is a mountain stream running through a narrow valley. All three sections of Miterdale were historically traversed by important packhorse tracks. The packhorse era is generally considered to have been from the 12th to the late 18th century, though in some places packponies were used into the very early 20th century, and there is evidence that the Romans used packhorses during their stay in northern England from 100AD.
The middle reach of the River Mite in Miterdale in the Lake District. Courtesy Dr. Phil Brown
I was recently corresponding with someone in the UK who didn’t know that the Fell Pony is the native pony of northwest England, including the Lake District. Even if people do know about Fell Ponies, they often don’t know how ancestors of today’s ponies contributed to the early industrial activities of the region as pack animals. While packhorse bridges are often recognized as historic and picturesque parts of the region, the many other features that harken back to the packhorse era, including the ponies themselves, are not given equal recognition.
Wordsworth's view of the features of the Lake District as spokes of a wheel radiating from the hub (red dot) at ScaFell. Our progress documenting the packhorse history of the region is hatched in green.
Previously, we have looked at the packhorse history of the valley of the River Esk, to the south east of Miterdale. The two valleys are connected by a low rise at Eskdale Green. Other areas that we have explored in this series on packhorse history are shown on the map at right that illustrates the poet William Wordsworth’s wheel of lakes in the Lake District, with the hub as a red dot not far from the top of Miterdale.
The map of Miterdale below shows many of the features there that are related to the era of packhorses. For more detail about the general association of these features with packhorse history, see the beginning of the previous article on Eskdale (click here.)
While ‘packhorses’ is the usual term, history says they were ponies by stature since they were usually less than 14hh. Stout but shorter equines made it easier to lift the loads onto the pack saddles. Some of the packhorses in use during the peak of the packhorse era were imported: jaegers or jaggers from Germany for instance. But some were also locally reared and therefore ancestral to today’s Fell Ponies, the breed that calls the region home today.
We will begin our exploration of Miterdale at the head of the valley. It appears on the map, and many people assume, that the River Mite has its source in Burnmoor Tarn. Having walked there in 2015 with pack ponies, it is easy for me to see both the confusion and the truth. It turns out that there is a slight rise on Burnmoor that separates the Mite drainage from that of the River Esk, whose tributary Whillan Beck drains the tarn.
Burnmoor Tarn looking toward the head of Miterdale in 2015 on our packhorse day trip. It’s easy to see where ‘the Highway’ came up onto the moor. We and our pack ponies went off to the left, down along Whillan Beck towards Eskdale.
One website acknowledges the confusion and describes the truth this way, “The top of the Mite is rather unusual. Looking down on the area from above, it looks as if Burnmoor Tarn must drain into the Mite, but a slight rise in ground level means that the tarn actually feeds Whillan Beck. Instead the Mite rises in a rocky glen, a wide point in the valley surrounded by low crags on all sides with waterfalls dropping down in several places.” (1)
A packhorse track labelled ‘The Highway’ is shown on the map as a green line paralleling the headwaters of the river. Mary Fair, the noted local historian and archaeologist of neighboring Eskdale wrote more than once about the Highway. In her circa 1921 article “Some Notes on the Eskdale Twenty-Four Book” in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society (Transactions), Fair wrote, “According to an old landowner still living in Eskdale [the Highway] means the ancient pack-horse track (now almost lost in places), up Miterdale over Tongue Moor and into Wasdale.” (2)
At the head of the Highway, at Burnmoor Tarn, a fishery is indicated on the map. In David Bradbury’s booklet The Mighty Mite: Water Power around Eskdale and Miterdale, Cumbria, the author says that the fishery at Burnmoor Tarn was valued back into the Middle Ages. (3) Numerous references say that pack ponies were used to carry fish prior to the availability of other forms of transport, so it is possible that the Highway might have been traversed by pack ponies to move fish from Burnmoor Tarn to market towns. (4)
Coming down the Mite on the Highway, at the confluence of two river branches, an inn and a bridge are shown on the map. Robert Gambles, in his book The Story of the Lakeland Dales, says there were six farmsteads in upper Miterdale, with the earliest records of them dating from 1294. Their names included Bakerstead, Browyeat, Sword House, Miterdale Head, and Low Place. (5) The historic Nanny Horns Inn was at Sword House.
When Bob Orrell and his pair of Fell Ponies went on their Saddle Tramp in the Lake District in the 1980s, Bob chose to extend their trip slightly and go up Miterdale from Eskdale Green. At Bakerstead Farm, he met an elderly woman out walking who admired his ponies. She then told Bob a story about the Highway. “Eeh, Grandfather used to tell a tale or two about when they used to take stuff about on pack-ponies. In them days there were no roads like there is now and he, and his father, had to take their wool over the fells to Keswick. There’s a place up Miterdale called ‘the Highway’ but he used to frighten me sister and me to death with a tale about a murder at a farm up there. Every year I come back on holiday, but I’ve never plucked up courage to go and see the spot yet.” (6)
I understand the woman’s lack of nerve. I found the ghost story on the internet, and I wish I hadn’t read it, as I have far too vivid an imagination. Should you wish to read it, though, click here and scroll down to the recounting of the Beckside Boggle at Miterdale Head. Even Bob Orrell was unnerved by the story: “Having listened to the old lady’s gruesome story I was glad to leave the dark shade of the hedge and return to the heat of the sun. I half expected her to vanish into the air, pulling the hood of a cloak over her head, but instead she trotted merrily down the road…” (7)
Paul Hindle’s book Roads and Tracks of the Lake District is considered a reliable source when studying roads, tracks and bridges in the Lake District. In his discussion of packhorse bridges, a map illustration shows four bridges in upper Miterdale. (8) The Detailed Old Map 1888-1913 that I have referenced repeatedly in this series about packhorse history shows five bridges. (9) Through the wonders of the internet, I have been able to see photographs of them and place them on the map. Today some are foot bridges and one appears to carry a road, possibly accessing a quarry.
Packhorse bridge giving access to the ruins of Miterdale Head Farm. Courtesy Maggie B. Dickinson and copyright Maureen Fleming
The first bridge encountered on the map as we descend Miterdale accesses the ruins of Miterdale Head Farm and Sword House. It is often photographed and is called a packhorse bridge; it is shown here courtesy my colleague Maggie B. Dickinson and her friend Maureen Fleming. The second bridge near it on the map is currently a footbridge that accesses what was once Bakerstead Farm and has more recently been an Outward Bound School. This bridge is also labeled a footbridge on the Detailed Old Map. It is possible that at one time there may have been a packhorse bridge at this location, based on where modern tracks lie, suggesting where the Highway once ran.
The inn shown on the map at the confluence of the two river branches in upper Miterdale is referred to as Nanny Horns, as already mentioned. Some historians have not found evidence of it on the ground and consider it a storytelling device from the 19th century (10). On the other hand, Nanny Horns Inn is included on the 1923 list of Ancient Monuments in Irton township and is labeled there as being on a packhorse route. (11) The very comprehensive Lakes Guides website and Old Cumbria Gazetteer, compiled by Jean and the late Martin Norgate, include close-ups from numerous historic maps clearly showing an inn in upper Miterdale as early as 1579. (12) Maps more recent than 1695 do not consistently show this inn, explaining perhaps why there is confusion.
Gambles in The Story of the Lakeland Dales very definitively says that the Nanny Horns was at Sword House. “The ruins of Sword House have been identified as those of the former Nanny Horns Inn, once a hostelry on the major communications route between Keswick and Ravenglass, a route known to all as The Highway, a tough, hard road along which sturdy packponies carried wad [pencil lead], wool and slate to the quaysides at Ravenglass and brought sugar, rum, salt and tobacco on their return…. For all these travelers and packhorsemen the Nanny Horns meant warmth, rest and refreshment after the long and often arduous trail from Wasdale Head over the bleak moors below Scafell. We may safely assume that the inn and, no doubt, the other farmsteads hereabouts did a thriving business providing food and shelter for both man and beast. (13)
Coming further down the river, we see two pitsteads on the map across from Low Place. Mary Fair wrote in her Transactions article about early iron smelting sites called bloomeries: “There are numerous pitsteads for charcoal burning in the wood opposite Low Place, though careful search has revealed no bloomery site here.” (14) Pitsteads were used for creating charcoal, and if the pitsteads were in operation during the pack horse era, pack ponies would have been used to bring wood to the pitstead and charcoal away from the pitstead to the nearby bloomeries.
The bridge shown near these pitsteads on the map is currently a footbridge and is also labeled as such on the Detailed Old Map. Given the tracks on the Detailed Old Map, though, it seems likely that the Highway crossed the river here, suggesting that a packhorse bridge may once have existed at this location.
Two bloomery sites and two more pitsteads are shown slightly further down the river. About these features, Mary Fair wrote in her Transactions paper: “On the ancient road leading from the Whitehaven road to Low Place through Porterthwaite wood, there is the site of a small bloomery on the east bank of a little stream to the north of the road… and two charcoal pitsteads adjoining…. A quarter of a mile east …along the old road, beyond the gate, about 40 yards south of the road at the edge of a hollow at the bottom of which runs a little stream, is a bloomery site.” (15) Her ’ancient road’ is the lower end of the historic packhorse track, The Highway.
Another bridge further downstream appears in photographs to be a modern vehicle bridge, possibly to access a quarry on the north side of the river. It is labeled a footbridge on the Detailed Old Map, but like the one above it crossing the river on the map, its location suggests a packhorse bridge may have existed at this location previously.
Bridge over the River Mite at the north end of historic Smithybrow Lane.
Copyright Peter Trimming and used via Creative Commons license 2.0
Coming down the river on the map, when we reach Low Holme, the historic Smithybrow Lane comes in from Eskdale Green. Mary Fair referenced Smithy Brow in her Transactions article “Packhorse Days in Eskdale.” The lane connects Eskdale Green with the track to Strands and Whitehaven. A blacksmith shop was also in this area, hence the name of the Lane. Where the track crosses the River Mite, there are numerous features with packhorse connections. A bridge is shown on the map and in the photo above. With its low parapets and on a known packhorse route, it deserves to be investigated as a possible historic packhorse bridge since such a bridge certainly existed at the location during the packhorse era.
A mill is also shown. David Bradbury, in his booklet The Mighty Mite, says that a carding mill was established at this location in 1797 and that it was converted to a bobbin mill early in the 19th century, making spools for the Lancashire cotton industry and also making other turned articles such as furniture. (16) Cart drivers were still shown to be employed at the mill as late as 1861. (17) It is possible that pack ponies would have been used to bring raw materials to the mill during its history since passable roads were late in coming to remote parts of the Lake District. It is also possible that locally reared ponies could have been put to the mill’s carts. Today the mill is a holiday cottage.
On the north side of the river, another bloomery is shown on the map. Mary Fair wrote, “There are traces of somewhat extensive workings to the right of the Eskdale-to-Strands road, just over the bridge across the Mite… In the western face of this mound is a large heap of clinker and heavy slag of the usual type where the smelting process has been somewhat primitive, and between the mound and the road is the foundation of a circular building approximately 44 feet in diameter. Across the road at the foot of the first hill are further remains of bloomery workings in a hollow adjoining a little stream which comes down the wood, flowing into the Mite…. There are several charcoal pitsteads adjoining these workings, two being on the top of the mound previously alluded to.” (18) Fair’s description of the workings as primitive suggests that these features may have been operated during the packhorse era when packponies would have had many roles: carrying wood to pitsteads, charcoal from pitsteads to bloomeries, ore to bloomeries, and smelted iron away to markets.
Also on the north side of the river, a potash kiln is shown. Mary Fair wrote, “Porterthwaite Wood is full of pitsteads, and there are also the remains of kilns used for burning bracken roots for soap making…” (19) Some of the soap was used to clean fleece and cloth at fulling or walk mills, such as the one downstream. If the kiln was used during the packhorse era, as the mill downstream was, pack ponies would have been used to bring bracken to the kiln and then taken potash to the soap makers.
Bower House Inn in Miterdale, with its history beginning with coaches in the 18th century and likely on the site of one serving drovers and packhorsemen before that. Courtesy Dr. Phil Brown
Descending the river to the second track from Eskdale Green into Miterdale at Longrigg Green, we see a bridge and an inn. The Detailed Old Map names the bridge Bower House Bridge. The inn is also called Bower House, with a notation suggesting it was once called Hound Inn. The inn’s website and other histories say the building dates to 1751 and was a coaching inn. (20) The bridge is modern now but the Lakes Guides/Old Cumbria Gazetteer website includes a map from 1774 showing the bridge adjacent to Lowkay Hall, another name for the inn at this spot. (21) Given the number of historic packhorse tracks in the area, it is possible there was a bridge at that location previously that was used by pack ponies during their era.
Hindle, in his book Roads and Tracks of the Lake District calls the route out of Eskdale Green towards Santon Bridge a drove route, along which cattle were moved to market. “The main drove route northwards has been identified, and can be followed on foot from Eskdale right through to Cockermouth. From Eskdale Green it followed the present road to Santon Bridge and then along what is still an excellent example of a drove road to Strands where it crosses the River Irt. Beyond here the drove headed north-westwards and out onto open country, remaining on the lower fells in order to avoid the hedges of the enclosed farmland.” (22)
Gambles in The Story of the Lakeland Dales elaborates, “..the drovers’ road (now the motor road) along which for 500 years thousands of cattle were driven to markets and fairs at Bootle, Ravenglass, Cockermouth and much further afield to Kendal, Penrith and Appleby. The traffic here must have been intense as this road also served as a major packhorse route and wagon trail. The waters of the Mite no doubt quenched the thirst of many a tired beast.” (23)
Sometimes packhorsemen and drovers used the same routes and inns, as Gambles suggests. Or it may have been that the packhorsemen used the route from Eskdale Green via Smithy Brow Lane to Strands, leaving the Santon Bridge route to the drovers, in which case there may not have been a packhorse bridge at Bower House, since drovers could use fords instead.
Continuing downstream, we see on the map at Burn Booth a mill and bloomery. The Detailed Old Map shows a Walk Mill in this location, also called a fulling mill, as previously mentioned. David Bradbury in The Mighty Mite says this mill dates to 1494. (24) Mike Davies-Shiel’s map of fulling mills for Cumbria Industrial History Society suggests this mill dates to pre-1350. (25) With such a long history, it was certainly serviced by packponies during their era.
A Duddon Valley Local History Group document explains about fulling: “Once spun, wool needs to go through a ‘fulling’ process whereby it is cleaned and pounded to produce a cloth with a close-knit weave. Cleaning was traditionally undertaken using lye soap. This soap was made from a fine, potassium-rich ash or ‘potash’. The potash was produced by local farmers to supplement their income. Most was produced from burning harvested green bracken which is very rich in potassium sulphate, although sometimes wood was used.” (26)
Gambles in The Story of the Lakeland Dales explains an early sheep-keeping task called salving that explains why cleaning was such an important part of the production of wool cloth. “[Generations] of farmhands would have been familiar with all the arduous tasks involved in tending large flocks of sheep, not least the former custom of ‘salving’ to rid the animals of the various parasites which torment them. The ‘salve’ was an obnoxious mixture of rancid butter and tar and each sheep had to be vigorously massaged for 20 minutes or so. Three dozen sheep required 16 pounds of butter and one gallon of tar and kept one man exhaustingly occupied for three long days. This unpleasant chore began to disappear in the mid-19th century when Bigg’s sheep-dipping apparatus became more widely known. Resistance to change meant salving was still practiced on some Lake District farms until 1905 when dipping became compulsory. Most farmers by then had been persuaded to use the new method by the simple fact that the cost of dipping was considerably less than that of salving, and the cleaner, dipped fleeces were far more marketable than the tarry, pungent fleeces which had been so thoroughly anointed.” (27)
Pack ponies would have been well employed when fulling mills were in operation, bringing wool to the mill and then away from it but also possibly bringing the soap to the mill, the soap having been created from materials that they would have also likely hauled, as previously discussed regarding the potash kiln in Porterthwaite Wood.
Regarding the bloomery on the map at Burn Booth, Mary Fair wrote in her Transactions paper about bloomeries in the area, “On the north bank of the Mite, opposite the ruins known as Walk Milne (formerly a fulling mill), are traces of foundations of some building (the place is called ‘Burn Booth’), and patches of red oxide puddle. No slag heap located though it is said the site was a bloomery.” (28) Certainly the name ‘Burn Booth’ suggests there was a bloomery here! If the bloomery was in operation during the packhorse era, pack ponies could have brought charcoal and ore to the bloomery.
Another mill is shown on the map in this area in the upper reaches of a tributary to the Mite. The Detailed Old Map calls the buildings in this vicinity Mill House. Bradbury in The Mighty Mite suggests that there is evidence that a mill did indeed exist at this location at some time but isn’t shown on a map from 1774. (29) If a mill existed here prior to 1774, it was likely served by pack ponies.
The next feature downstream from Burn Booth is Murthwaite Bridge. Murthwaite at the foot of Muncaster Fell was a farm, but it is no longer in existence. (Note this is not the same Murthwaite of the recently dispersed Fell Pony herd, which was near Ravenstonedale.) Murthwaite in Miterdale today is a stop on the railway that takes tourists from Ravenglass to Dalegarth. The Norgates on their Lakes Guide/Old Cumbria Gazetteer website date Murthwaite Bridge to the 1860s. (30) However, Gambles in The Story of the Lakeland Dales shows on a map an historic packhorse track crossing the river at this point, suggesting that there may have been a packhorse bridge here during the packhorse era. (31)
Wellbrow Drifter and Vyv Wood-Gee’s partner Chris in 2021 on the historic packhorse track along the railway on the north side of Muncaster Fell near Murthwaite. Courtesy Vyv Wood-Gee
On our map, the historic packhorse track is shown as a green line along the north edge of Muncaster Fell from Ravenglass to Murthwaite. At Murthwaite, the track turns north to go over the Mite, as suggested by Gambles. Mary Fair wrote in her article “Pack-Horse Days in Eskdale” in Transactions: “There was also a road under the north side of Muncaster Fell, following the course of the narrow-gauge railway track in places; in others it may be seen (notably near Murthwaite) adjoining the line.” (32) The photograph above shows Vyv Wood-Gee’s partner Chris and his Fell Pony Wellbrow Drifter on this historic track near Murthwaite in September 2021. In another article in Transactions in 1928, Fair wrote, “During the digging of a very deep drain for an engine pit at Murthwaite stone-crushing station of the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, a well-made road was cut through, with a good stone foundation and surface of rammed gravel.” (33) The well-made road may have been the historic packhorse track or even older, such as a Roman Road.
Near to Murthwaite Bridge on the map are two green circles indicating the presence of two Grounds. The Lake District National Park World Heritage Site documentation says about ‘Grounds:’ “Following a formal agreement between the Abbot of Furness and squatters in 1509, a series of permanent steadings was established by carving out small, irregular fields from the monastic commons, and building a basic, humble farmstead or ‘Ground’. Each ground is named after the original family….” (34) These Grounds are called Kitchen and Eelbeck, and families with these names could be found nearby into the 19th century. (35)
My colleague Maggie B. Dickinson considers the monastic era, roughly 1100 to 1500AD, to be the beginning of significant use of packhorses for moving goods. Places like Grounds, as part of Furness Abbey’s network, would have been serviced by packhorses. An historic packhorse track crossing the Mite at Murthwaite Bridge would have linked Furness to the south with these two Grounds. An older bridge here also would have given access to the port at Ravenglass.
Muncaster Mill Bridge is a modern bridge carrying the Cumbrian Coast Road today, but there has been a bridge at this location for centuries. Photograph © N Chadwick and licensed for use under Creative Commons 2.0 and viewable on geograph.org.uk/photo/1332148
On the map, continuing down the river nearly to Ravenglass, we see a bridge and mill. According to Gambles in The Story of the Lakeland Dales, there is evidence that a mill has existed at the site of today’s Muncaster Mill as early as the 13th century. (36) David Bradbury in his booklet The Mighty Mite calls the mill a corn mill, also indicating that in 1735 there was a kiln there for drying the grain. A stable was still on site in 1808. (37) Bob Orrell in his book Cumberland’s Rum Butter Coast says “Muncaster Mill [was], for many years, right up to the 1990s, a water-powered working corn mill and a tremendous tourist attraction.” (38) It is now a private residence. With such a long history, it is very likely that the mill was serviced by pack ponies during their era.
The bridge shown on the map near the mill is called Muncaster Mill Bridge. It now carries the Cumbrian Coast Road, but a bridge is shown at this location on a 1679 map, so during the packhorse era. (39) Mary Fair, on the other hand, says the route over this bridge is called the ‘New Road’ and dates from around the turn of the 19th century, so after the end of the packhorse era. (40) However, with the mill being located on the south side of the river and having a history back to the 1200s and the closest arable ground across the Mite on the north side, it certainly seems likely that a bridge gave access to the mill from the nearby farms prior to the 19th century and would have been used by packhorses or ponies put to carts or wagons.
Fair suggests, however, that the majority of pack horse traffic coming down the river probably crossed the Mite using the ford shown slightly down river. A packhorse track extends either direction from it, to Ravenglass on the south and towards Whitehaven on the north. In her 1928 article in Transactions called “An Ancient Ford of the River Mite,” Fair describes a causeway in the river bed with kerb stones that were visible at low tide. “As the causeway leaves the river-bed the recent floods have chewed out a bite from the North bank, where along the edge of the muddy bank, the road is seen, its east kerb having fallen into the river recently. This section shows as a line of heavy, flat stones forming apparently the road bed, with another layer of some 18 inches or 2 feet of similar stones above…” (41) She also indicates that the ancient track way heading to the north leads to a ford of the River Irt.
Fair said that at one time tolls were charged to use the ford of the Mite. Gambles in The Story of the Lakeland Dales confirms this, saying “All who crossed here had to pay a toll, and in 1703 the tolls paid here equaled all the tolls taken within the town and port of Ravenglass.” (42) Both Fair and Gambles suggest that a Roman Road crossed the Mite in the vicinity of this ford, and certainly Fair’s description of the causeway’s construction brings Roman road-building to mind.
There is a second ford shown on the map further down the Mite. This one is called Saltcoats, which Fair says was built towards the end of the 1700s. Horsedrawn traffic was still using it in 1928. (43) Gambles in The Story of the Lakeland Dales says, “The name ‘Saltcoats’, meaning salt-cots or salt-huts, suggests that this was a place where salt-pans were situated and the salt was stored in nearby huts. No record of salt-making specifically on this part of the coast has yet been found but it is known that there were extensive salt-pans further north near Maryport.” (44) As Gambles indicated above, salt was one of many items carried by packponies during their era.
Two inns are shown to the north of the fords on the road to Whitehaven. About these, Fair wrote, “Bell Hill and many of the Carleton Green tenements were taverns in pack-horse days, where trains of pack-horses could wait for the tide at Saltcotes or Mitebank to be low enough for the crossing.” (45) Farther north still on this ancient track from Ravenglass to Whitehaven but not shown on the map is a packhorse bridge across the River Irt. It is believed to date from the Middle Ages (1066 to 1485), so clearly packhorses transited this area for centuries. (46)
The last feature on the map with packhorse connections is the fishery in the estuary of the River Mite near Ravenglass. David Bradbury in The Mighty Mite says that a fish trap or fish garth was located there as early as the fourteenth century. It was sometimes referred to as Monkgarth or Mytgarth. Bob Orrell, in his book Best Guide to Ravenglass, says, “…records mention very little of Ravenglass village until the 16th century, when there is a hint of an industry associated with fish curing and exporting.” (47) Like at Burnmoor, pack ponies during their era may have been used to export fish caught at Monkgarth, just as they have been documented to have carried fish out of other parts of the region.
Finally, the Detailed Old Map shows multiple smithies [blacksmiths] in Ravenglass. It’s no wonder, given that the town was an important destination or stopping point for packhorsemen as well as drovers. Both ponies and cattle needed their feet shod to journey far and wide across England.
Miterdale today is considered one of the quietest places in the Lake District, especially above the reach of the railway. Without a through road or lake, it doesn’t draw as many visitors as other valleys. However back in the packhorse era, with the Highway traversing it top to bottom, and three routes crossing the valley, it was undoubtedly more lively than it is now. Fortunately, many of the features that are associated with the packhorse era are still visible today so that the ancestors of today’s Fell Ponies can be remembered for the key role they played in the commerce of the region.
The author is grateful to Christine Robinson for facilitating our packhorse day hike over Burnmoor in 2015, and I am grateful to my late husband who humored my desire for that journey; he is pictured in the second photo. The author is also grateful to Maggie B. Dickinson for sharing of her treasure trove of materials about packhorses and to her friend Maureen Fleming also for sharing photos. And the author is grateful to Vyv Wood-Gee for sharing her photographs of her 2021 ride in the valley of the River Esk and Miterdale.
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Same as #13.
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