We visited Staveley on Sunday morning after saying farewell to new friends at Pound Farm, Crook. It was nice to see that Staveley Village Hall was expressing support for Ukraine by flying their national flag.
The village straddles where the river Gowan joins the River Kent, which in turn flows on towards Kendal.
It also has a railway station on the line to Windermere from the West Coast Mainline at Oxenholme.
The village has been in existence for a long time. Historically part of Westmorland and occupied since around 4000 years BC, the village was granted a market charter in 1329 when weekly markets and an annual three-day fair was held.
On High Street, the chapel of St Margaret was built on land donated by Sir William de Thweng, Baron of Kendal and Lord of the Manor of Staveley, in 1388. This was to enable local people to worship without travelling to Kendal every Sunday, a journey of 7 miles. The tower is the only remaining part of the building, but it now houses some of the original windows from the nave. A plaque on the tower wall “honors” Staveley men who fought in South Africa in 1900-1901. The tower dates from 1589; it was restored to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887.
And a stone tablet in the wall alongside the tower, remembers Sir William de Thweng, Margaret Ross and all founders of the chapel and marks the place where “The Northern Tenant Farmers claimed their ancient rights AD 1620”
According to the Old Cumbria Gazeteer, but marked as hearsay:
“There was a meeting of local statesmen farmers here in 1620, where they protested against a decision of James I to take away their ancient rights as tenants to divers parcels of land. The attempt to close down was on the excuse that border fighting had stopped on the union of England and Scotland.“
The village now boasts a number of thriving businesses, including the largest cycle shop in the country, an artisan ice-cream parlour, a chocolatier and Hawkshead Brewery. Before heading homewards, we called in at Inglefield Speciality Plants who had a fine selection of architectural plants, planters and statuary:
"See-u-Later" 