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Cockley Beck Farm, Dunnerdale-with-Seathwaite
Cockley Beck Farm
Cockley Beck
locality:-   Cockley Beck
civil parish:-   Dunnerdale-with-Seathwaite (formerly Lancashire)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   buildings
coordinates:-   NY24690163
1Km square:-   NY2401
10Km square:-   NY20


photograph
BLK37.jpg (taken 17.11.2005)  

evidence:-   old map:- Donald 1774 (Cmd) 
placename:-  Cockley Beck
source data:-   Map, hand coloured engraving, 3x2 sheets, The County of Cumberland, scale about 1 inch to 1 mile, by Thomas Donald, engraved and published by Joseph Hodskinson, 29 Arundel Street, Strand, London, 1774.
image
D4NY20SW.jpg
"Cockley Beck"
block or blocks, labelled in lowercase; a hamlet or just a house 
item:-  Carlisle Library : Map 2
Image © Carlisle Library

evidence:-   old map:- Otley 1818
placename:-  Cockley Beck
source data:-   Map, uncoloured engraving, The District of the Lakes, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire, scale about 4 miles to 1 inch, by Jonathan Otley, 1818, engraved by J and G Menzies, Edinburgh, Scotland, published by Jonathan Otley, Keswick, Cumberland, et al, 1833.
image
OT02NY20.jpg
item:-  JandMN : 48.1
Image © see bottom of page

evidence:-   old drawing:- Aspland 1840s-60s
source data:-   Drawing, pencil, Cockley Beck Farm, Dunnerdale-with-Seathwaite, Lancashire, by Theophilus Lindsey Aspland, 1852.
image  click to enlarge
AS0335.jpg
item:-  Armitt Library : 1958.390.35
Image © see bottom of page

evidence:-   old map:- Garnett 1850s-60s H
placename:-  Cockley Beck
source data:-   Map of the English Lakes, in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire, scale about 3.5 miles to 1 inch, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland, 1850s-60s.
image
GAR2NY20.jpg
"Cockley Beck"
block, building 
item:-  JandMN : 82.1
Image © see bottom of page

evidence:-   old text:- Martineau 1855
source data:-   Guide book, A Complete Guide to the English Lakes, by Harriet Martineau, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland, and by Whittaker and Co, London, 1855; published 1855-76.
image MNU1P116, button  goto source
Page 116:-  "We know nothing wilder in the district than the next two miles. These are the desolate hills in which the Duddon and the Esk take their rise; and Cockley Beck is the spot where the Duddon must be left, to cross over to the Esk. There is a farmhouse near the bridge, where horses can be refreshed, when a car comes this way, while travellers sit down by the stream to dinner. A melancholy and harassed traveller once came this way, whose adventure is still talked over in Eskdale and Borrowdale. A party of tourists, among whom were two sisters, were on the heights, intending to cross Esk Hause into Borrowdale, and to spend the night at Seathwaite,- the first settlement there. Now there is, as we have seen, another Seathwaite on the Duddon; and mistakes frequently arise between them. On Esk Hause, one of the ladies lost sight of her party behind some of the rocks scattered among the tarns there, and took a turn to the right instead of the left. A shepherd of whom she inquired her way to Seathwaite, pointed down to the Duddon valley; and that way she went till she found herself at Cockley Beck, when the old shepherd farmer who lived there was getting his supper in the dusk of the autumn evening. He used his best courtesy to induce her to stay till daylight: but she was bent on going at once,- so great would be her sister's terror. As she would not be persuaded, the old man went with her, putting his crust into his pocket. It was dark, and the lady was weary; and she was not aware what she was undertaking. After a long struggle, she fainted. The old"
image MNU1P117, button  goto source
Page 117:-  "man was afraid to leave her, lest he should not find her again: but he succeeded in reaching the water without losing sight of her white dress, He dipped his crust, and brought water in his hat to bathe her face. She revived, ate the crust, and strove onwards,- persevering on her weary way till between one and two in the morning, when she met her sister and a party coming from Seathwaite in Borrowdale, with a dozen lanterns, to search for her. She gave her guide "a one-pound note;" (it was so long ago as that) and afterwards, sent him two more. The whole family connexion of that lady will remember for ever that there is a Seathwaite on each side Esk Hause."

evidence:-   old photograph:- Bell 1880s-1940s
item:-  stepping stones (?)
source data:-   Photograph, black and white, Cockley Beck, Dunnerdale-with-Seathwaite, Lancashire, by Herbert Bell, Ambleside, Westmorland, 1890s.
image  click to enlarge
HB0501.jpg
stamped at reverse:-  "HERBERT BELL / Photographer / AMBLESIDE"
item:-  Armitt Library : ALPS164
Image © see bottom of page

hearsay:-  
Seen hanging in the sitting room, July 1924:-
"'And in the darkest hours of urban depression I will sometimes take out the dog's-eared map and dream awhile of more spacious days, and perhaps a dried blade of grass will fall out of it to remind me that I was once a free man on the hills.' - A. H. SIDGWICK."

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