Registered Charity 1191666
Early Settlement of Lindale
The occupation of Lindale dates back some 15,000 years to times when England was joined to France and the West Coast was some 30km to the west of Barrow-in Furness, which almost linked it to Ireland. Towards the end of the last Ice Age periods of warmer climate enabled hunter gatherers to migrate northwards following herds of Irish Elk and Reindeer. They sheltered in caves and rock shelters around what is now the Cartmel Peninsula in what would have been cold Arctic conditions. This period was called the Late Upper Palaeolithic and the oldest inhabitants of Lindale date back to this period and the Mesolithic which is a period when humans were beginning to develop ideas of farming for food and setting in one place. There are recorded Neolithic burial mounds located in the village too.
Bronze trunnion chisel 1400-1150 BC
The first metal tools used by humans were those of soft Copper combined with Tin to form Bronze. Several artefacts relating to the mid Bronze Age (1400 – 1100 BC) have been found around the village and elsewhere on the Cartmel Peninsula. The sea levels would have been some 5m higher than they are now as a result of the ice sheets melting and Lindale would have been a very desirable place to live with good food resources in the Bay.
Castlehead or Atterpile Castle, an estate close to the village, is always thought to have been an Iron Age Hillfort although there is little evidence to support this due to later modifications to the property. Here and elsewhere in the area there is a little evidence of Roman occupation which is probably connected to the routes crossing the sands from Lancaster to Barrow- in -Furness via outposts in Cartmel and Ulverston. Later Anglo Saxon and Viking findings from around 800 AD suggest possible settlement here in connection with the trade routes from York to Dublin.
Northumbrian styca - Archbishop Wigmund of York
More recently the Village of Lindale has been strongly connected with the production of Flax with ponds and mills in the village utilising the beck which runs through the village. Flax is used to produce Linen which along with wool were really the only fabrics used for everything from clothing to sails and ropes prior to cotton imports in around 1860.
Its most famous residents are of course John Wilkinson the Great Iron Master and Kendal Architect George Webster who designed St. Paul’s Church in Lindale (1828) and is buried in an elaborate tomb outside the church doors. Other written accounts of residents and occupations will be tackled elsewhere.
Socketed double side looped spear head (1450 - 1100 BC)
There is much to celebrate in the small village of Lindale in terms of Heritage as it has some of the earliest known settlers in the Northwest of England. Most early written accounts of the area describe poor road access, poor soils for farming and poor folk but despite this it has been occupied in various ways since receding ice sheets have allowed access.