Packhorse History and the Lickle Valley
/The ancestors of today’s Fell Ponies are thought to have been used for centuries as pack ponies in the north of England. For instance, there is the oft-quoted story that more than 300 left Kendal weekly taking a wide range of loads to various destinations. The terrain was rugged, and prior to the construction of roads, in addition to leaving market towns like Kendal for other destinations, pack ponies were also the most practical means of getting goods from villages, farms, and quarries to the market towns and industrial centres.
View across the Lickle Valley. Photo copyright Maggie B. Dickinson
Nonetheless, pack ponies in history have often been invisible. Take for instance All Together Archaelogy’s North Pennines Archaelogical Research Framework (NPARF) document, produced in 2019. In the “General Overview” chapter describing the period from 1550 to 1900, pack ponies (also called horses) aren’t mentioned until the eighth paragraph and only then because they were displaced by the railways! Here is an excerpt from the NPARF that mentions the role of pack ponies/horses almost tangentially:
The development of the transport network throughout the North Pennines is closely linked to the lead industry. Prior to the nineteenth century, transporting lead ore from the mine to the smelt mill, and from there to the sea ports on the Tyne or the Tees (from which it was taken by sea to markets, most notably London) was largely done by teams of pack horses. Some of the routes taken over the hills are still followed by rights of way today, and some survive as extensive systems of holloways…. (1)
Titus Thornber, in his book Seen on the Packhorse Tracks, describes holloways as occurring where the surface of a track was not protected so it eroded. “Holloways are possibly the best indication of the use of a route as a packhorse track, and the depth of the holloway is a measure of the importance and age of that route… Holloways are most significantly found today where the laden teams had to surmount hillsides.” (2) Imagine a trail descending a hill with the surface of the trail being below, or hollowed out of, the surrounding ground. (Way back in the day, I had an elementary school teacher named Miss Holloway. At the time I didn’t know the provenance of her name!)
Fortunately for enthusiasts of the working history of our ponies, there are clues in the landscape, such as holloways, that make more visible the early industrial age’s horse power. I am fortunate to have made the acquaintance of Maggie B. Dickinson who has, since the 1970s, been exploring landscapes in northern England for evidence of the old trackways, using clues such as packhorse bridges, packhorse inns, remains of lime kilns, mills, and quarries, and place names calling attention to holloways, gates, and other terms associated with the pack horse trade. (Maggie says that ’gate’ is the Scandinavian term for ‘way’ as in Crossgates, Reddyshore Scout Gate, Limers’ Gate etc.)
Most recently Maggie has shared with me her many discoveries about the Lickle Valley in the southwest part of the Lake District. “This sylvan corner, in the southwestern corner of Lakeland, was formerly categorised as ‘Lancashire north of the Sands’ and has escaped attention by the masses through its hidden location. … The quiet uncluttered leafy roads and lonely footpaths take in historical reminders of another age. They reach back through the mists of time to Monastic Britain in the 12th century, connecting the local holdings of Furness Abbey, some 15 miles to the south.”
Lind End Bridge over the River Lickle. Copyright Maggie B Dickinson
One of Maggie’s favorite finds in the Lickle Valley is the Blacksmith’s Arms, a local pub in Broughton Mills whose history stretches back to 1577. “It would be difficult to find many hostelries in Cumbria, or indeed elsewhere, with such charm. The original features are wonderfully preserved and include flagged floors, fashioned from local quarries, old oak paneling and beams, and a major attraction is a seriously intriguing geological feature – a huge rock within the walls which is part of a limestone seam that stretches across the Lake District from Millom.” Across the lane from the Blacksmith’s Arms is a water trough, a feature supporting the connection of this place to packhorse history.
What was once Walk Mill is near the Blacksmith’s Arms. Maggie writes, “The title of Walk Mill, which is not far below the inn, gives a clue to this having been a fulling operation originally, in the days before water was harnessed to drive equipment. The early method of fulling involved the raw wool being soaked in a mixture of water and urine and then trodden after the fashion of grapes being trod. ‘Walking’ was done to cleanse and rid the wool of impurities. Consequently, there is no water supply adjacent, but later fulling mills were operated by waterwheels…”
Underneath Shop Bridge showing seam with original structure to the right. Copyright Maggie B. Dickinson
Maggie has learned that there are four packhorse bridges within two miles of Broughton Mills. These bridges would have accommodated the pack trade to and from around seven mills in the area, including saw, corn, and bobbin mills in addition to fulling. Access to some of those mills would have been across Shop Bridge which is ‘extended,’ meaning it was increased in width from the packhorse days to allow crossing by wheeled transport.
Above Broughton Mills and beyond Hobkin Ground, a road doubles back to Broughton-in-Furness and passes the former Height House Farm, “a former drovers’ inn and cattle stance,” harkening back to the days when cattle were driven to market.
Crossing the river on a right-of-way is Lind End Bridge. Maggie says, “One commodity of importance in this area, and transported by packhorse, was charcoal needed for smelting iron and lead ores. There is evidence of pitsteads to the north west of Lind End Bridge, which leaps gracefully over the River Lickle in a woodland gorge.” There is also a holloway nearby.
Above Lind End Bridge, Appletree Worth Beck joins the River Lickle. On that beck is Hawk Bridge. In Ernest Hinchliffe’s book A Guide to the Packhorse Bridges of England, the author suggests that this bridge was primarily for local farm use, not commercial packhorse traffic. (3)
Maggie makes the observation that “Several farms in the area of Broughton Mills have a second name – Ground - such as Hobkin, Hartley, Stainton, Carter, Jackson and Stephenson. The latter four are north of the bridges, and Hinchliffe suggests that Hawk Bridge probably only served the ‘Ground’ farms. The term ‘Ground’ shows they belonged originally to the estate of Furness Abbey. For example, Stephenson Ground is in an area originally described as wasteland, being granted by Furness to the Stephenson family in 1509.”
The Lake District National Park World Heritage Site documentation also calls attention to these ‘Grounds.’ “In the south western part of the English Lake District, north of Broughton-in-Furness, is a very distinctive group of farmsteads in the Lickle Valley. 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….” (4)
Water Yeat Bridge is below Stephenson Ground and spans the River Lickle. It too has been extended, and Maggie says, “Far from serving only the immediate locality, as Hinchliffe reasoned, the pack teams were likely to have picked up and followed a route that was established in monastic times – from Ravenglass on the coast to Hawkshead village and its surviving courthouse, which were owned by Furness Abbey”.
Maggie continues, “Climbing a very short distance up from the bridge to Stephenson Ground, there is an odd structure that was once a potash kiln, and there is another nearer the farm. It was here that bracken and birch would be burnt to produce potash. This was eventually processed into a soft soap with which sheep wool was cleaned.”
Maggie closes with, “It is important that the historic role of the pack ponies, these intelligent and loyal beasts of burden, becomes more visible in this corner of the Lake District.” Whether carrying bracken and birch, potash, charcoal, wool, or some other commodity, there is plenty of evidence that pack horses/ponies were in use in the Lickle Valley during their era. I greatly appreciate Maggie’s documentation of her findings and her sharing it with me.
Maggie wishes to especially call out the Cumbria Industrial Historical Society for their helpful resources. Their website is: https://www.cumbria-industries.org.uk/cumbria-industrial-history-society/
Frodsham, Paul. North Pennines Archaeological Research Framework Part 1: Resource Assessment, All Together Archaelogy, January 2019, p. 128
Thornber, Titus. Seen on the Packhorse Tracks. South Pennine Packhorse Trails Trust, 2002, p. 33
Hinchliffe, Ernest. A Guide to the Packhorse Bridges of England. Milnthorpe, Cumbria: Cicerone Press, 1994, p. 44
Lake District National Park Partnership, “Description of the English Lake District, Section 2.a,” Nomination of the English Lake District for Inscription on the World Heritage List, p. 104
