Church Coniston (Chapelry), 1848

CONISTONE, CHURCH, a chapelry, in the parish and union of Ulverston, hundred of Lonsdale north of the Sands, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 6 miles (S.W.) from Ambleside; containing 1,148 inhabitants. The manor, which was held by the Urswicks, passed by marriage in the reign of Henry III. to the le Flemings, and became the seat of seven descents of the family. About the 10th of Henry IV., Thomas le Fleming married one of the four daughters of Sir John de Lancaster, by whom he acquired the manor of Rydal, in Westmorland; and for seven generations more, Rydal and Conistone vied to fix the family in Westmorland or Lancashire. Sir Daniel Fleming, Bart., died in 1821, leaving his lady his estates. The township is the most northern part of the county, stretching to the shire-stone near the hills of Wrynose and Hard-Knot; within its limits are Yewdale and the reputed lordship of Tilberthwaite. The population of the village has increased from the flourishing state of the copper-mines and slate-quarries here. A fair for cattle is held on the third Saturday in September. The chapel was consecrated in 1586, and re-erected in 1819, when 230 additional sittings were provided: the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of T. R. G. Braddyll, Esq.; net income, £100. To the north-west of the village is the Old Man, the most elevated mountain in the county, 2576 feet above the level of the sea; on its summit are three heaps of stones called the Old Man, his Wife, and Son, supposed relics of the Sabæan superstition.