Jan Bridget — Unpublished tour

Ancient Millom

Black Combe, just short of a mountain, dominates southwest Cumbria. From its flanks, on a clear day, you can see for miles: Isle of Man, Wales, Scotland, Ireland. She stands there, majestic, as if putting her arms around the villages and towns below. And from time immemorial, people have inhabited her lower reaches. All around her base can be found vestiges of ancient times: Neolithic crop marks impale the landscape from Millom Castle to Bootle. Unlike their later stone counterparts - Giant’s Grave, Lacra Bank and Swinside - these crop enclosures can no longer be seen on the ground. Some say the tall stones of Giant’s Grave mark a safe passage through the hills whilst amongst the mass of stones on Lacra Bank there could be as many as five stone circles.

Swinside is “Considered to be one of Europe’s best-preserved stone circles…a site deserving intense study…” yet few people visit. Folklore tells us Swinside, or Sunken Kirk as it was once called, came about because a church was being built during the daytime but at night the devil came along and pulled it down, resulting in the stone circle. Swinside and the crop marks are Neolithic, whereas Lacra Bank and Giant’s Grave are Bronze Age.

The Millom Lines, as some call the crop marks, may be the remains of large Neolithic religious enclosures where, like Stonehenge and Swinside, people would gather to celebrate winter solstice. One thing is clear, the area was once bustling with Neolithic activity. Millom did not begin with the Victorian new town built around the iron works and railway but existed millennia earlier.

Next door to the Castle crop mark is the strange and eerily shaped Archer’s Field; was this used to practise archery in Medieval times? In a more recent era it was used to hold cattle whilst awaiting low tide before crossing Duddon Sands to reach Furness Peninsula. The field adjacent, Gallow’s Field, is marked by the Gallow’s Stone which reads: “On this spot stood a Gallows, the Ancient Lords of Millom having exercised Jura Regalia within their Seigniory.” The Romans are said to have landed at Gallow’s Field during Agricola’s invasion.

Gallow’s Stone was moved by the farmer to the side of the field adjoining Archer’s Field, but only the back of the stone can be seen from the path. The writing faces the other way and is hidden from sight to passers-by, not unlike the forgotten but in plain view ancient history of this amazing area.

Looking up Archer’s Field from Gallow’s Stone can be seen Millom Castle, the ruins of which are visible from the graveyard of Holy Trinity Church – both built in the mid-12th Century and both of which witnessed cannon balls fired from the opposing hill by the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War.

Not far away can be seen Millom Park where the Lords of the Manor hunted deer. A path now runs through the Park which echoes the old and new, moving from ancient trees to the recently planted firs. Next door to the Park we find a quarry (still in use) where much of the stone for the ancient buildings, the ‘new’ town and the abundant dry stone walls, would have been hewn, like the one I’ve photographed, which separates the Park from the farmland below.