button to main menu  Camden's Britannia, edn 1789

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Page 158:-

ROBERTO LANG
TON ET MILLONI
SPEIVCER QVI
APLEBEIAE F. f.
HANC SCOLAM
H.M.OB.M.P.R.B.P.

DE REPUBLICA BENE MERERE
PVLCHRYM EST.
C.C. in the 4th line in circumfluit, F.F. in the 4th funditus, and the last F. fuit. So that here we have its Roman antiquity, its devastation by war and pestilence, and the removal of the market to Gilshaughlin four or five miles north-west of the town in Cliburn parish.
"The other stones which are placed on the front of this building, all except two, I take to be copies made by the said Reginald Bainbrig, from severall originals which he found in sundry places of this country and the parts adjacent; most of which are published by Mr. Camden, if not all [b]."
Appleby has several evidences of its antient splendour. Henry I. gave it privileges equal to York, that city's charter being granted as is pretended in the forenoon and this in the afternoon of the same day. Henry II. granted them another charter of like immunities, as did Henry III. in whose time here was an Exchequer. These privileges were in all points like those of York, and confirmed by succeeding kings. When it was first governed by a mayor does not appear; but here was one in the reign of Edward I. with two provosts, who seem to have been formerly equal to sheriffs or bailiffs, and signed the public acts of the town with the mayor [c], though now they only attend him with halberds. Bromton mentions Aplebyschire, which seems to imply that it had then sheriffs of its own as most cities had, though now we call them bailiffs. For 2 Edward I. in a confirmation charter to Shap abbey we find this subscription: Teste Thoma filio Johannis tunc vicecomite de Apelby. The Scotch wars by degrees reduced this town. It was burnt 22 Henry II. and again 11 Richard II. when of 2200 burgages by due computation of the fee-farm rents, these remained not above 1/10th as appears by inquisitions in the town chest. Since that time it never recovered itself, but lay dismembered like so many separate villages which could not be known except by records to have belonged to the same body. For though Burgh gate is spoken of as the principal street, yet Bon gate, Battle burgh, Dongate, Scattergate, are all members of it, and that it was antiently of greater extent appears from the Burrals near a mile from it, which word being a corruption of Burrow walls may prove its having been walled about, because the town walls of Bath are called Burrals, and ruins of buildings have been dug up two or three miles from the present town [d]. The condition and misfortunes of this place are recited in the inscription before-mentioned in the school-house garden.
The Viponts and Cliffords (ancestors on the mother's side to the earls of Thanet) have been lords of the country, and flourished at this place for above 400 years [e]. Here was a house of White Friars founded 1281, and near it an hospital of St. Nicholas [f].
  Buley castle.
  Bewley Castle
Buley castle is said to have been erected at different times by several bishops, and there is remaining an account of several ordinations held there [18]. It is now a mean and ruinous building [g].
  Crackenthorp.
  Crackenthorpe
From thence the Eden runs to Crackenthorp hall, a seat pleasantly situated on its east bank belonging to the Machels, a family of good note in this county from the Conquest to the present time. About it lie several considerable camps, and many antiquities found thereabouts and in other parts of the county were collected and preserved by Mr. Thomas Machel, brother to Hugh Machel, lord of the manor, and late minister of Kirkby Thor, who intended a history of this county [19].
  roman fort, Burwens
  Bravoniacum

Nigh the way side between Crackenthorp and Kirkby Thore, on the side of the Roman road, is a large Roman camp, 300 yards by 150, having three entrances on each side and at each end, with bulwarks before them, and at about a bowshot distance further by the way side is a small fort called Maidenhold, which seems to have been a guard house or watch tower to the camp, and, by its name, may possibly have some relation to the Maidenway at Kirkby Thore and Maiden castle upon Stainmore [h]. At Machel's bank, about 10 yards from the Roman way, were discovered in ditching three urns with burnt bones and ashes contiguous to each other, in a triangular form, in the middle of a round pit of clay made for the purpose about a yard deep, compassed with burnt bones and black ashes to within a foot of the surface, the remainder being closed up with earth. About 40 or 50 yards distant from these was another similar pit full of ashes and burnt bones without any urns [i].
  BROVNAC[AE]. Kirby [Thor.]
Mr. Ward [k] places BROVONACAE at Kirby Thor, Brugh being ten miles from thence as Verterae is from Brovonacae. The altar mentioned by Mr. Camden is now worked up in the end of the old school house at Appleby, and under a modern inscription H. M. EST GALLAGI, Hoc monumentum est Gallagi, probably by Mr. Bainbridge before-mentioned. Mr. Machel in Phil. Trans. No.158, describes a patera found here inscribed ... TIAN IMP .... Coins, urns, and other antiquities have also been found here [l]. In 1753 was found in a stone wall of a field near the parsonage house the upper half of an altar, inscribed:

IOVI SERAPI
L[ ]ALE[ ]NVS [ ] FALF
Another beginning ANTONIA. There are like wise other Roman letters and sculptures, upon several of the door lintels, in the same town, which Mr. Horsley has omitted [m].
  Whelp castle.
The manor house, as well as most of the town of Kirkby Thor, have been built out of the remains of Whelp castle, of which there are now scarce any remains. The main body of it stood in a place called the Burwens, on a rising ground at the bank of the rivulet called Troutbeck, not far from the river Eden.
[b] From a MS. paper in my possession signed H.T. probably Hugh Todd.
[c] E cartis Machellorum de Crackenthorp.
[d] Burn, I. 309.
[e] Tan. 588.
[f] Burn, ubi sup.
[18] G.
[g] Burn, 456.
[19] G.
[h] On the etymology of these names see Mr. Pegge in Gent. Mag. XXV. 273. 1755.
[i] Burn, I. 351, 352.
[k] Horsl. 510.
[l] Ib. 298.
[m] Gent. Mag. VIII. 417. 1738. XXIII. 270. 1753.
The
gazetteer links
button -- "Appleby" -- Appleby-in-Westmorland
button -- Bainbridge Inscriptions
button -- "Buley Castle" -- Bewley Castle
button -- "Crackenthorp Hall" -- Crackenthorpe Hall
button -- Friary, The
button -- "Kirkby Thor" -- Kirkby Thore
button -- "Maidenhold" -- (Maidenhold, Crackenthorpe)
button -- "Brovonacae" -- (roman fort, Burwens)
button -- (roman fort, Redlands Bank)
button -- St Nicholas's Hospital
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