Natland, 1848

NATLAND, a chapelry, in the parish, union, and ward of Kendal, county of Westmorland, 2¼ miles (S.) from Kendal; containing 251 inhabitants. It comprises by measurement 1,117 acres, of which about 100 are common, and the remainder old inclosures; the lands are nearly in equal portions arable, pasture, and meadow: the lower grounds are watered by the river Kent. The Lancaster canal, and the Lancaster and Carlisle railway, which passes through the whole length of the chapelry, afford facility of conveyance. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £110, with a house; patron, the Vicar of Kendal. The chapel, rebuilt about 1735, was taken down in 1825, and a neat edifice in the early English style, with an embattled tower, erected near its site, at a cost of £550. A school is endowed with £40 a year, arising from Crow Park estate, given by Charles Shipphard in 1779. Water-Crook, a place so called from a bend of the river, was the site of the Roman station Concangium, a square fort, the ramparts of which are still discernible, where foundations of buildings, coins, seals, fragments of altars, statues, and urns, with other relics, have been found. There is also a hill called Helm, a mile and a half from the station, on which are remains of a fort, Castlesteads, the inner and outer vallum being distinctly discernible; this was probably an exploratory camp to Water Crook. It is in sight of the beacon on Warton-Crag, which communicates with Lancaster.