Old Cumbria Gazetteer
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| placename:- | Old Corpse Road | |
| site name:- | Selside Pike | |
| locality:- | Mardale | |
| parish |
Shap Rural parish, once in
Westmorland
| |
| county:- | Cumbria | |
| corpse road; track | ||
| coordinates:- |
NY492122 | |
| 10Km square:- |
NY41 | |
| 1Km square | NY4912 | |
| old map:- |
Jefferys 1770 (Wmd)
| |
| Map, The County of Westmoreland, scale about 1 inch to 1 mile, surveyed by J Ainslie and perhaps T Donald, engraved and published by Thomas Jefferys, London, 1770. | ||
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| track to Swindale | ||
| county:- | Westmorland | |
| date:- | 1770 | |
| period:- | 18th century, late; 1770s | |
| story |
Before 1728 the chapel at Mardale was not licenced for
baptisms, marriages or burials. The dead of Mardale had to
be taken to Shap, and the corpse road was the route over
Selside Pike into Swindale, and thence to Shap. This is a
rough path; foot and horse only.
The corpse of one man from Mardale, said to have been a bad character, was being taken over the fell road when a thunderstorm frightenned the horse on which his coffin was tied. The horse bolted, and evaded capture for three months. Eventually it was caught and the man buried at Shap. The last man carried over the corpse road was John Holme of Brackenhow, 17 June 1736. | |
| Old Cumbria Gazetteer - JandMN: 2013 | ||
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