Ings History
Ings Early History
Iron Age
10,000 years or so ago, Ings would have been under a sheet of ice. The landscape here testifies to the shaping it carried out; to ice scoured rock and moraine debris; to the valley through which the River Gowan runs. It is not known when man began to inhabit and cultivate the land here. William Rollinson, in his 'History of Cumberland and Westmorland' supposes that iron-using Celtic folk arrived from Yorkshire around 200-300 BC, and might well have introduced an early form of farming economy. Such Iron Age folk lived in circular wooden or stone huts, and it is possible that the ancient settlement of Hugill dates from this period.
"At High Hugill, near Windermere, in Westmoreland, the site of the settlement consists of an enclosure, two sides of which are angular and two rounded. It was encompassed by the foundations of a wall or rampart, which has been, in places, 14ft in width. The foundations were apparently formed by stones set on edge, the spaces in between which was probably filled in with smaller stones. Within this enclosure are sundry ill-defined lines of division walls, courts, and hut-dwellings, one or two of which are circular, and measure about 7ft and 13ft in diameter."
Remains of the Prehistoric Age in England, Bertram Windle 1909.
The Romans
After the Romans invaded Britain in AD43, it took them another 30 years or so to enter our area. A study published in 1980 'Rome and the Brigantes' edited by Keith Branigan puts ten Roman 'settlements', not villages as such but a 'scatter of farm sites on well-drained locations', in the area of Hugill, Staveley and Kentmere. A fort at Watercrook, Kendal was built in AD90 from which a road was built though Ings to the head of Windermere Lake and then through the hills to Ravenglass, with forts at Ambleside and Hardknott.
The exact line of the road through Ings is clearer since the availability of LIDAR mapping and the work of David Ratledge, detailed on his website ‘Travelling with the Romans’. The road enters Ings from the East following the Gowan valley bottom as the main road does now. Heading out of Ings towards Windermere, the Roman Road leaves the route of the A591 at White House, at the end of the long straight where it begins to bear left toward Banner Rigg. At White House, there is a clear view NW to Mislet Farm near the head of a shallow valley. Just beyond, in trees, is the top of Mislet Brow. Unlike the gentle increase in elevation between the two points afforded by the Roman Road, the Moor Howe road reaches the summit in a series of short but steep hills, descents and plateaus.
An agger (Latin) was the ridge or embankment on which Roman roads were built to give the proper draining base. The course of a Roman road can often be traced today by the distinctive line of the agger across the landscape. The agger can clearly be seen in the field by the summit of Mislet Brow.
‘Roman Road through Ings.’ By PETER BURGESS and JOHN HILEY. Staveley & District History Society Journal 51 Spring 2021