Greystoke Parish, 1848

GREYSTOCK (St. Andrew), a parish, in the union of Penrith, Leath ward, E. division of Cumberland, 11 miles (W. by N.) from Penrith; comprising the townships of Berrier with Murrah, Little Blencow, Bowscale, Greystock, Hutton-John, Hutton-Roof, Hutton-Soil, Johnby, Matterdale, Motherby with Gill, Mungrisdale, Threlkeld, and Water-Millock; and containing 2,786 inhabitants, of whom 364 are in the township of Greystock. This place belonged soon after the Conquest to Lyolf, whose descendants assumed the name of the estate. Thomas de Greystock obtained from Henry III. the grant of a weekly market and an annual fair, both of which have been long since discontinued. During the war in the reign of Charles I., the ancient baronial castle was garrisoned for the king, but being besieged by a detachment of the army under General Lambert, surrendered, in 1648, and was soon afterwards demolished by order of the parliament: some of the ruined towers only are at present remaining, near the site of the modern castle, erected about the year 1670. The parish comprises a tract of rich and fertile land, extending ten miles in length and eight in average breadth, and abounding in richly diversified scenery. The soil is generally a red loam, alternated with gravel, and the substratum abounds with coal and limestone; there are also some quarries of good slate. The present castle, erected by the Hon. Charles Howard, and greatly improved by the late Duke of Norfolk, is a magnificent structure, containing several stately apartments, and a large collection of paintings; the grounds are beautifully laid out, and embellished with artificial waterfalls. The village is situated near the source of the river Petterill, and the neighbourhood abounds with various kinds of game. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £40. 7. 8½.; patron, Adam Askew, Esq. The church was in 1382 made collegiate by Neville, Archbishop of York, for a prior and six canons, whose stalls are yet remaining, though their chantries have been demolished; it is a handsome structure in the decorated English style, and near the altar is a table-monument of alabaster, with effigies of two of the barons of Greystock, in armour, under highly-enriched canopies of alabaster. There are chapels at Matterdale, Mungrisdale, Water-Millock, and Threlkeld. In the parish are vestiges of a Roman intrenchment, called Redstone Camp, near which have been found urns, stone coffins, and human bones; leading from it in a direction towards Ambleside, are traces of an ancient road, and in the same tract lie three large cairns. In the vicinity of Motherby is a circle of stones, seventeen yards in diameter, within the area of which heaps of bones have been discovered.