The Manor of Cumwhitton Cumberland: a study in historical geography

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with a study of rural landscape change within a small area of Cumberland – the manor of Cumwhitton between 1603-1810. The work was based on the extensive Howard of Tamworth collection lodged in Durham – the earliest documents within which form the starting point for study. A seventeenth century map and associated field book provide the means of making an examination of the pattern of settlement fields and field boundaries in about 1603, and this study forms a datum line from which to undertake a more detailed analysis of various aspects of the human geography of Cumwhitton. This involves an analysis of settlement change within the manor and a summary appraisal of population dynamics. The picture of settlement so provided creates a bridge to research more pioneering in character which attempts to examine the morphology of cluster settlements, both within Cumwhitton and more generally within the Barony of Gilsland. Cumwhitton manor forms the focus of a consideration of that vital but non-visible framework of human activity – landownership. The more complex problems of northern land tenure particularly as seen in its state of flux at the beginning of the seventeenth century are examined. Enclosure is seen as an important input within a complex process – response system opening up as it did avenues for agrarian change, and leading toward developments in tenurial, economic and social sectors. Finally, many of the themes which have been woven into the thesis, problems of settlement, field patterns and landownership arrangements are brought together in a chapter which considers farms and the functional components of the agrarian system. An attempt is made in conclusion to gain an overview of both change and stability in the rural landscape of Cumwhitton in the period 1603-1840.