Here is an area with delightful and curious place names. By Silver Street and Liquorice Hill, up steep Harberwain to higher land above the Livennet to green open moorland where early Britons set up their stone circles and where the patterns of ancient village settlements and dykes still mark sites at Ewe Close and Cowe Green. The Romans came this way building a road from Borrbridge, Tebay to Kirkby Thore and the lines of their highway can still be seen. Here, the Normans laid the foundations of the church which has been called a miniature cathedral.
The changes of the ages have not robbed it of its loveliness. The old and the new certainly keep their dignity. Its 15th century tower with a modern top is seen from afar and draws the traveller to this village amongst the fells and settlements of people long forgotten.
Amongst its many interesting features are four 12the century arches, a 14th century chapel, and two fonts dating from the 13th and 17th centuries.
Like other buildings in the area it was destroyed by Scottish raiders. The village belonged to Scotland at the end of the 12th century and beginning of the 13th century, and the church was then re-built.
One and a half miles south is Ewe Close containing the remains of one of the most important escavated Romano-British settlements in Northern England. It was a walled village of one and a quarter acres with outlying walled fields. The surviving village walls are 6feet high. There are also remains of other settlements in the district.
The old school (1784) and the old forge are close by.
The one time home of one Thomas Bland too may be seen hereabouts. He sculptured statues of many famous people and placed them in his extensive garden. He added his own oil paintings and hung them in alcoves and he put up a building for his musicians. He called the garden his 'Pleasure Grounds' and people at one time flocked in their hundreds to see all his creations. The paintings were removed in 1907 and today the statues stand, some bold, some forlorn, overlooking the sheep grazing contentedly on the grass below.
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