Old Cumbria Gazetteer - Swarth Beck (2)

Swarth Beck (2)

runs into:-

Ullswater

Swarth Beck

civil parish:-

Barton (formerly Westmorland)

civil parish:-

Martindale (formerly Westmorland)

county:-

Cumbria

locality type:-

river

locality type:-

boundary

locality type:-

parish boundary

1Km square:-

NY4520 (etc)

10Km square:-

NY42

evidence:-

old map:- OS County Series (Wmd 13 1)
placename:- Swarth Beck

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.

evidence:-

perhaps descriptive text:- West 1778 (11th edn 1821)

source data:-

Guide book, A Guide to the Lakes, by Thomas West, published by William Pennington, Kendal, Cumbria once Westmorland, and in London, 1778 to 1821.

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Page 155:- "Opposite to Watermillock, a cataract descends down the front of Swarth-fell, in Martindale-forest. ..."

evidence:-

old text:- Clarke 1787
placename:- Swarthbeck
item:- waterfall; weather signs

source data:-

Guide book, A Survey of the Lakes of Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire, written and published by James Clarke, Penrith, Cumberland, and in London etc, 1787; published 1787-93.

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Page 37:- "..."
"Next sail towards the Westmorland side of the Lake, to the foot of Swarth-beck. If this brook chance to be full of water, the vast number of grand cascades will here regale the eye of the beholder: these fall in innumerable gradations, over hollow craggy rocks, till the brook precipitates itself into the Lake. The noise of these falls is very considerable, and may be heard at the distance of two miles, and is reverberated from rock to rock in a thousand different tones. These sounds are the barometer of the neighbourhood. Traditions handed won from father to son have formed a set of rules, by which the farmer is enabled to predict with tolerable certainty the weather of the day from the sound these cascades emit the preceding evening."
"It might perhaps puzzle even a philosopher to assign a reason why the different state of the atmosphere should thus affect the sound: the peasants think not of the cause, but are seldom mistaken in the event: this I know for certain, that in a squally south wind, which blows in gusts from the mountains, the noise and bellowing of these cataracts emit a variety of notes, which I cannot better explain than by comparing them to an AEolian Harp."

evidence:-

old map:- Clarke 1787 map (Ullswater)

source data:-

Map, A Map of the Lake Ullswater and its Environs, scale about 6.5 ins to 1 mile, by James Clarke, engraved by S J Neele, 352 Strand, published by James Clarke, Penrith, Cumberland and in London etc, 1787.

places:-

NY45962008 Swarthbeck Gill (Barton / Martindale)

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