Upper Allithwaite Township, 1848

ALLITHWAITE, UPPER, a township, in the parish of Cartmel, union of Ulverston, hundred of Lonsdale north of the Sands, N. division of the county of Lancaster, 3¼ miles (N.E.) from Cartmel; containing 740 inhabitants. A conical rock in this township, called Castlehead, is supposed, from some imperial coins found on the spot, to have once had Roman inhabitants. It had the appearance of a rough neglected wood, till the late J. Wilkinson, Esq., the great iron-master, improved and adorned all around, by cutting paths, and planting trees and shrubs wherever the soil invited the hand of cultivation. In effecting these improvements, many relics of antiquity were found, rings, Roman money, fibulæ, ornaments, and fossils, and the bones of animals that no longer inhabit this country. At the foot of the rock is a house built by Mr. Wilkinson, and afterwards occupied by Mr. Legh, who married his daughter; it is now in the possession of Robert Wright, Esq. At a short distance from it is a pyramidical mausoleum of iron, twenty tons in weight, which, until 1828, pressed the mortal remains of its founder: in that year, however, the remains of Mr. Wilkinson were removed to the churchyard of Lindale.