Old Cumbria Gazetteer |
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| Cunswick Scar, Underbarrow and Bradleyfield | ||
| Cunswick Scar | ||
| locality:- | Cunswick Fell | |
| civil parish:- | Underbarrow and Bradleyfield (formerly Westmorland) | |
| county:- | Cumbria | |
| locality type:- | rocks | |
| coordinates:- | SD49149371 (etc) | |
| coordinates:- | SD48939270 (etc) | |
| 1Km square:- | SD4993 | |
| 1Km square:- | SD4992 | |
| 10Km square:- | SD49 | |
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| evidence:- | old map:- OS County Series (Wmd 38 3) placename:- Cunswick Scar |
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| source data:- | Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25
inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton,
Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948. |
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| hearsay:- |
The scar is haunted by the ghost of Roger son of Sir Charles de Leyburne. |
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| Roger was engaged to Helen, daughter of Sir Allan Bellingham of Burneside Hall, but
had to wait till he owned Cunswick Hall before he could marry. Returning with his
father from Burneside one stormy night, he decided to advance matters, and stabbed
his father and threw his body in the stream [River Kent]. |
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| When questionned by Sir Allan, Roger claimed his father had slipped into the river
and been washed away. The answers did not satisfy Sir Allan, who remembered the prophecy
of an old priest who promised Sir Charles that every Leyburn should rest in the family
chapel except one whose self destroyed body would whiten the rocks of the scar. |
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| About this time Roger became jealous of another visitor to Burneside Hall, Reginald
Duckett from Grayrigg Hall. Roger and some friends attacked Reginald one night, on
his way home from Kendal. After a fight, Roger, injured, escaped leaving his companions
dead in the road; Reginald lived. Only days later Reginald and Sir Charles were crossing
Hawes Bridge [on the Kent near Natland] and Roger, curious to see the rocks, disovered
a body in a cave - Sir Charles, a knife wound showing clear. Faced with this evidence,
Roger confessed and was later found dead, a dagger in his side. ... and, the dark,
covered priest who was seen to enter the room was never seen to depart ... |
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| Palmer, J H & McIntire, W T (ed): 1945: Historic Farmhouses in and around Westmorland:
Westmorland Gazette (Kendal, Westmorland) |
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