Walney Island a history and heritage

Walney has a rich and deep history that dates all the way back to prehistory!

Across the island there has been many discoveries that bring to light its prehistoric past from Neolithic stone axes to beaker pottery and even Bronze Age antlers.

At the very northern tip of Walney a variety of Neolithic items have been discovered, including a polished axe made of Langdale Tuff. Sites in the Lake District, like Langdale, were places of axe production in Neolithic times where axes would be roughed out of the stone. These rough outs would then be taken to polishing sites away from the fells, North Walney is one of such sites. Sandstone and other course stones would be used to grind the rough outs until they become polished and usable. Once finished the items would be used as tools for varying jobs; killing animals for food, processing food, cutting down trees for use in settlements and scraping skins for tanning, to name but a few. As implements like this were so treasured in this time they were often placed at ritual sites, which is where they are frequently found today. Although some, like the polished axe found on Walney, are discovered where they were worked and most likely lost or discarded.

The name of the Island also has a route in history, Viking history infact. Walney is believed to originate from Old Norse, the tongue of the Vikings, although the island wasn't always named as such. Originally it was called Hougenai and is how it is named in the Domesday book. As well as the islands name many of its site names can be traced back to Viking origins, for instance North Scale from ‘Skali’ Norse for Summer Dwelling.

Across Walney are many scars of a Medieval farming past. From the north to the south many fields are covered in archeological features known as ridge and furrow. You can discover more about these features in the article entitled ‘Marks of a Medieval Farming Landscape, Walney’. Ridge and furrow are the remains of Medieval ploughing in field systems, which the peasants of the age would work on a near daily basis. Near by Furness Abbey would have been the owners of many of these field systems and the peasants would pay a tithe (one tenth of their annual produce) to the Abbey for the support of the church. The Abbey owned much of the land around Furness as well large swathes of land in the Lake District.

Jump forward a few centuries to the late 19th to early 20th century and Walney becomes very different. A large part of the island, just over the bridge today, was turned into Vickerstown. A brand new housing estate for shipyard workers. The houses were built to last and were in the Tudor Revival style. Many new terraces were constructed for the lower end of the work force but larger houses were also built for the mangers, and these overlooked the channel. The first thousand houses were completed in 1901 on streets named after ships that had been built in the shipyard. Names such as Mikasa and Vengeance Street. This was a huge change for the island and created an influx of inhabitants, which really saw the birth of modern Walney.

Over the coming decades Walney was set to face the effects of war. During World War 1 there was two military encampments in use on the island, one known as Hilpsford Fort, to the south, and one as Fort Walney, to the north. Each providing defence on the home front and providing jobs in the area. You can find out more about these forts in our previous blog 'World War I, the effects in Furness'.

During World War 2 there were also many military defences built across the island, from pill boxes to Coastal Artillery Searchlight Emplacements. All built to protect mainland Britain in case of enemy invasion. If you want to know more about these defences then please read our previous blog 'Remnants of World War II, the Military Defences of Barrow and Walney'.

A year after World War 2 and Walney became the basis for the made up island of Sador in the Thomas the Tank Engine books.

Writer Rev. W. Awdry needed a location to base his stories around that was in Britain but also isolated enough from the main railway systems of the country. On a trip to the Isle of Man Rev. Awdry discovered the Bishop there was known as the Bishop of "Sodor and Man" and that the island was in the Diocese of Sodor and Man. He realised that there was no island of Sodor like there is of Man. This gave inspiration to create a new island, Sodor, for his books.

He decided to place this new island between mainland Britain and the Isle of Man, right where Walney Island is. He took the east side of the islands outline but expanded it out to the west creating a much larger island. He did however keep some of the local names. The bridge to Sodor comes over from Barrow, as a bridge does for Walney, and the bridge arrives at Vickerstown, as it does at Walney.

A map of the Isle of Sodor (courtesy of Wikipedia). Note Barrow and Vicarstown to the right of the map.

As you can see Walney has a very vivid history, one that I have barely scratched the surface of in this blog. Hopefully, though, what I have shown is some of the interesting features and moments in this small islands history. Moments that helped to shape the island we know today.

Birkrigg Stone Circle from the Air | VIDEO

Birkrigg stone circle is one of the best known and preserved prehistoric sites of the Furness Peninsula. We took a look at this and the whole of Birkrigg Common in our past blog post Birkrigg Common, Prehistoric Landscape to Quaker Burial Ground but in this post we did something a bit different. We took to the air to view the stone circle in all its glory!

This wonderful video gives you a birds eye view of the ancient site and certainly gives you a different and unique perspective:

Video footage Copyright © Furness Hidden Heritage 2017, all rights reserved.

Luckily the sun was shining on the day this was filmed which helps to bring out all the humps and bumps around the circle. You can clearly see the slight mound just outside the inner circle and you can get a better idea of where the outer circle is and how it is shaped.

You will also notice a large sunken path/ditch beside the circle. It is unclear exactly what this is but it could be as old, if not older, than the circle itself and may have formed a processional way to the site.

Birkrigg Stone Circle is a true gem of the Furness Peninsula and is one of our favourite sites to visit. We hope you enjoyed his special aerial video and it has encouraged you to visit this wonderful site.


Keep an eye out in the future for more videos like this along with more written blog posts.

A Hill Fort and Farmsteads, Neolithic to Iron Age Urswick and Furness

Urswick today is a quaint little village near to Ulverston but it has had a particularly vivid history of its own. On the outskirts of Urswick village can be found some of the earliest history of the area, a hill fort and Iron Age farmstead!

To the north of Great Urswick, sitting on a hill overlooking the land below, stands Skelmore Heads Hill Fort. In the picture above you can see the hill fort sat upon the limestone outcrops that adorn the top of the hill. You can see where earth has been lain to create a flattened platform, this platform is roughly 1.4 hectares in size. An earth bank and timber fence would have surrounded the platform creating a form similar to that typically associated with a fortification.

Skelmore Heads is thought to date back to the Neolithic period, around 4000 BC - 2500 BC, but would have been used and updated through to the Bronze and possibly Iron Age. Large sites like this were often used for centuries, which may give an indication to their importance.

Although called a hill fort this site in reality was no such thing. It is believed that it was in fact a site of ritual importance for the early inhabitants of Furness. The enclosed platform has no evidence of buildings or habitation. It appears that the site was used for ritual purposes, a place where offerings could be placed or buried in the ground or even inserted into the limestone outcrops. It is also speculated that gatherings and celebrations could have been held here. It seems that high lands, like the hills surrounding Urswick, were important to prehistoric man, as this is where they had their ritual and burial sites. Birkrigg common, which we spoke about previously, was a large burial and ritual site that sits on the next hilltop along from Skelmore Heads.

Roughly 1 mile south west of Skelmore Heads is a large area of mounds and ditches forming the site known as Urswick Stone Walls, an ancient Bronze to Iron Age farmstead or township.

This site is hidden in plain sight really, it is situated next to a public footpath, not far from a road entering Urswick, but many may walk right by the heritage at their feet. It is, admittedly, tricky to spot some of the features that make up the township but with a bit of moving around you will start to find the curving walls that create the enclosures.

The township was built atop a natural limestone outcrop, much like the hill fort. In the picture above you can see the limestone outcrop visible to the left, just next to this you can make out the raised embankment sweeping around into the distance behind, as well as running across to the right in the foreground. In the far distance you can just about make out the hill fort also, on top of the hill above the trees.

The section pictured would have been the living area of the township with several round houses inside with a series of walls partitioning the different clusters of houses. There are six known dwellings in the farmstead but there may well have been more that have yet to be unearthed. The whole living section of the site would have had a wall surrounding it, made from the local limestone with a large wooden palisade adorning the top of it. An image showing the remains of these walls can be seen bellow.

The houses of the town would have been the typical Bronze and Iron Age roundhouse design, with curved stone built walls and thatched roofs. One of the houses here was a lot bigger than the rest with a total diameter of about 12 metres. The rest had diameters somewhere in the region of 8-9 metres each. This large house was no doubt that of the chieftain or main family.

To the south west of the dwellings is a square enclosure where livestock would have been kept. This is thought to be a later addition to the site but is hard to determine exactly when it was added.

In the Bronze and early Iron Age livestock were often kept inside the houses with the people. It might seem odd now but the animals would have provided well-needed warmth, they would also have been kept safe inside the house rather than outside. It is not until later that enclosures, pens and even buildings were introduced to hold the animals.

Running alongside Stone Walls is a vein of iron ore with a length of around 400 metres. The vein has been quarried from the surface; this is clearly evident from the large ditches left today, which suggests that iron smelting was taking place at or near to the site sometime in its lifetime.

Impressive as Stone Walls is it was not the only settlement of its type in the area, although it is the biggest of those known. Roughly 1 kilometre south east of Great Urswick is another Iron Age settlement. It is situated in a field just off the road leading from Birkrigg Common to the village of Scales. The field is accessible by footpath from the roadside if you want to go in search of the site. This settlement is not as large or as grand as Stone Walls but the earthwork remains are clear as day (see below). There is a large ditch with a mound protruding from the ground creating the living enclosure. Within the enclosure are the visible outlines of two round houses, although there most certainly would have been more.

Another known settlement of this type was near Stainton with Adgarley. The site here has been recorded as being of a substantial size and it yielded many finds dating to the Bronze Age, such as bronze axe heads. Unfortunately much of this large site has been lost leaving little evidence. Having said that though there is one part of it, or what may have been a later edition next to the original site, still intact today. The site that is left appears to have a curving outer mound or wall, much like the other two sites, and has the remains of three round houses within (see below). There could also be a square animal enclosure to the southwest but it is hard to tell without archeological excavation. The original, larger, site showed evidence of iron smelting much like at Stone Walls.

All three sites are similar in the respect that they are built next to or into limestone outcrops. This is no doubt to aid in the construction of the settlements. Some utilise the limestone in forming part of the enclosure, others may sit on top of it to provide sturdy foundations. Or it could simply be that they are built next to or on top of limestone because, well, that was the stone that was around them.

It’s hard to say for certain exactly what is going on at these wonderful sites, as they haven’t been fully examined by modern archeology. Some of them, such as Stone Walls, have been excavated in part during the 19^th-early 20^th century when little was really known about prehistory. This means many of their secrets have yet to be brought to light!

I, for one, would love for more work to be undertaken at all these settlements.  To gain a better understanding of the people who lived here during prehistory and to see artifacts used in their every day lives uncovered for all to see would be a wonder to behold.

The prehistoric periods of Furness history are little explored and thus little known about and that is a true shame.

These plans are estimates of how the settlements may have been laid out. Mapped using aerial images with visible marks as well as trips to the sites, plotting out the walls and buildings then drawing over the aerial images. The Urswick Stone Walls plan is more accurate as the marks are very visible and there has been archeological surveys done to produce similar plans.