Lower Holker, 1848

HOLKER, LOWER, a township, in the parish of Cartmel, union of Ulverston, hundred of Lonsdale north of the Sands, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 1¾ mile (S.W.) from Cartmel; containing 1,070 inhabitants. This township is chiefly distinguished for the Hall to which it gives name. In the time of Elizabeth the house was the family mansion of the Prestons, from whom it passed to the Lowthers, and from them to the Cavendish family, the present owners. Many picturesque objects are seen hence; the woody hills of Conishead Priory, the shipping in the port of Ulverston, the capacious bay of Morecambe to the south, and Cartmel Fell towering to the north, enrich and dignify the scene. Flookborough, in the township, now a small village, was formerly a market-town: a large part of the marshes below this village has been embanked, but ineffectually, for, in the course of a few years more than 200 acres have been washed away by the heavy surfs of Morecambe bay. At Flookborough is a chapel, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, which has been enlarged with 170 sittings: the living is a perpetual curacy, with a net income of £121, and in the patronage of the Earl of Burlington.