Ings History

• Early history
• Earliest buildings
• St Anne's Church
• Ings benefactors
• Road, rail & water
• Ings garage in WW2
• Acknowledgements

Road, Rail and Water

The Turnpike comes to Ings

Before the Turnpike, local roads existed mainly for foot and horseback traffic, and would resemble our current bridleways. Each Parish had to repair its own ‘roads’, every able-bodied man having to to help with the maintenance. The better off would pay someone else to do their work for them. In 1675, Ogilvy produced his strip maps showing the main routes across the Lake District, leading to more people attempting to journey along the roads. The roads could only take narrow horse carts like wheelbarrows.

The first Turnpike roads, where the user had to pay a toll to pass, were authorised in the south in 1695, but the Turnpike from Kendal to Ambleside had to await the mid-C18th boom and was authorised in 1761. The first tolls were collected at a new Staveley Toll House in June 1763. Accounts for the next 10 years are available to view in the Kendal Record Office. The tolls received were around £50 per annum, mainly for horses.

From 1765 onwards various contracts were let for repairs or reconstruction of the road itself. A new section from Mislet gate to ‘a mile beyond Ings Chapelry’ was one of the first, being part of an alternative route to the Ogilvy one via Broad Gate; this new route passed over Bannerigg and went via Orrest Head, as shown in 1770 map of Jeffrey. 1770 also saw the completion from the north end of Staveley to Reston. The works were obviously of a good standard, as traveller Arthur Young noted in 1771: ‘Turnpike, now making, what is finished is as good, firm, level a road as any in the world.’

 

Railway

Even Ings was not immune from the railway fever of the C19th. Plans were made for taking the main line to Glasgow up either the Kentmere or Longsleddale valleys but in the end it was built over Shap. A branch line from Oxenholme to Windermere was given Royal Assent in 1845, but an extension beyond that, through the Lake District to Keswick, met with fierce opposition and came to naught. The line was quickly built and the first train ran on to Windermere on 20th April 1847. The Westmorland Gazette reported on the journey: “The view of Staveley with its white buildings is well contrasted with the dark and barren Raven Scar which forms the background to the landscape. A short distance further on the little chapel of Ings is a very pretty object, and on its right, Reston Hall.”

 

Ings Road Diversion 1913-14

The Diversion had two ‘stages’, the Hill Diversion and Ings Village Diversion, which were agreed at meetings of South Westmorland District and Hugill Parish Councils in the autumn of 1912. A public notice in the Gazette of Feb 1st 1913 announced the commencement of construction of the Hill Diversion which was completed by April.

A new bridge over the River Gowan seems to have delayed the Ings Village Diversion. Nonetheless, all construction was finished by March 1914 and surplus land then sold off. A letter from Rev. Reade from Ings Vicarage, on 4th March 1914, to the County Surveyor says: ‘I hereby accept the terms agreed upon by us this morning for the purchase of the plot of land, 2490 sq yds, adjoining Ings Churchyard, for the sum of £50.’ In this manner St Anne’s churchyard was considerably extended.

 

The Thirlmere Pipeline

Construction of the aqueduct took place from 1885 and formal opening of the works took place in October 1894. There is plenty of evidence of its passage through Ings, the line being marked by iron gates in the field walls, by occasional manhole covers and some disused buildings. The pipeline passes through Mislet Farm, then through St Anne’s Farm and Grassgarth Farm to Rawgill, then along the lower slopes of Reston Scar crossing the Kentmere Road just to the north of the now converted Methodist Church.

While construction was in progress the population of Hugill and Staveley increased sharply. Workmen and their families were housed in temporary wooden huts. One such hut in Grassgarth was occupied by Joseph Rowley with his wife, three sons and two daughters, James Slaney with his wife, two sons and two daughters, and 18 other boarders! An office, for use by the pipeline engineers, still exists on the road leading to High House.

 

Storm Desmond

Ings is a word of old Norse origin referring to water meadows and marshes. The flood plain either side of the River Gowan is just that. Over the years, the main road and the gated road have been built up such that they impede the path of flood-water reaching the Gowan. The 5th December 2015 brought a lot of water to Ings. Ings became a lake as this photo looking from Ings Hall to the A591 shows. The Watermill Inn was closed for three months when water swept down Church Lane from the west. Several properties further down the lane were also flooded and their residents evacuated.