A very unusual
pub, tucked away alongside the Abbey Bridge Inn, and
clearly made from a converted associated building.
It may have been the blacksmith's, or it may be marketing.
Either way, they have ended up with a nice little
pub that needs to be weathered in yet, but is winning
awards for its beer in the meantime.
Actually, this pub was something of
a pleasant surprise. Certainly from the outside, you
do not expect much (I saw some other people arriving
who were not even sure that it was a pub), and I was
expecting only hotel guests and a couple of tourists
to be occupying the place. But no, there were locals,
and they were looking very comfortable in there. If
you want something very different, removed from the
typical pub, try out the Blacksmiths.
Across the street
and along a bit is Lanercost Priory, which is what
brought us down this road in the first place (that
and an unexpectedly rapid 3 1/2 hour drive all the
way from Daventry, getting us to Carlisle way ahead
of our appointed time). Founded in 1166 by Robert
de Vaux, Lanercost Priory was one of about nine hundred
religious buildings of comparable size and importance
in England at that time. About twenty percent of these
were Augustinian monasteries like Lanercost. Although
the Priory has an official completion date of 1220,
it is quite likely that it was occupied well before
that, and added to well after.
Although it was
a monastery, its inhabitants were not called monks,
but canons, living by the teachings of Saint Augustine.
Lanercost is
still a sizeable building and certainly looked like
it could house a large number of canons, but research
has shown that there were probably only about fifteen
in addition to the Prior and Sub Prior, so they were
spread out a bit.
While the site chosen for Lanercost
is undoubtedly scenic, it was unfortunately plopped
down on a strategically significant location. The
marauding Scots saw Lanercost as a perfect foothold
south of the border, and also as an easy target being
not only lightly populated, but also close by. In
turn, the English considered Lanercost to be an ideal
outpost the guard against the same marauding Scots.
In 1296 the Scots invaded the area and set fire to
the cloister at Lanercost. Hexham to the east in Northumberland
fared even worse: the church was burned down and two
hundred boys locked into their school and burnt alive.
The Scots continued to pick on Lanercost for several
years after.
King Edward I was a regular visitor
on his royal tours. He first visited in 1280, then
again in 1300. When he dropped by in the Fall of 1306
he had the misfortune to fall ill and had to spend
the long dark and strikingly miserable Cumbrian winter
there with an entourage of some two hundred hangers-on.
In a building used to housing fifteen.... I bet that
was pleasant after a few months.
The monastery was again raided and
badly damaged in 1346 by King David of Scotland with
a little help from several hundred of his countrymen.
These frequent attacks started getting a little expensive
for the canons, because they had to repair or replace
buildings after each attack and counter-attack. So
impoverished did the monastery become, that much of
its land had to be sold off to cover the bills.
When Henry VIII
instigated the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536,
the Canons were unceremoniously ejected and the building
was stripped of all valuable items. Sir Thomas Dacre
(he of the Naworth Castle Dacres, albeit of a questionable
branch) bought the building from the Crown. He set
about converting it into a private residence, and
moved in during the summer of 1559.
Dacre created
a parish church by blocking up the north aisle of
the Priory nave but allowed the rest of the building
to decay. As was typical with these large, under-used
buildings, much stone was taken from it for use on
other buildings in the neighborhood, which is what
happened, astonishingly, to much of Hadrians Wall
too! In 1716 this branch of the Dacre family died
out, someone forgot to do the paperwork, and Lanercost
reverted to the Crown.
The remains of
the Priory are in the care of English Heritage, and
makes for a very pleasant little visit. The day we
were here, several of the buildings were being used
for a rummage sale, complete with some rather nice
teas and cakes.
