Deep History: 6000 Years Of Moor Row

For the modern visitor, Moor Row appears as a product of the nineteenth-century industrial revolution - a landscape of red-brick terraces built to house the miners of the West Cumberland iron ore boom.

However, to view this village only through the lens of industry is to overlook a human story that stretches back six millennia. Before the first mine shaft was sunk, this was a "row" of dwellings on the edge of the great Egremont Waste, held by families whose roots reached back to the very foundations of England.

Searching Historic Records

In historical Cumbrian records, the Bailiwick of Egremont refers to the administrative and judicial division of the Barony of Egremont (also known as the Barony of Copeland).

Before 1600, a "bailiwick" was the area of jurisdiction for a Bailiff - an officer appointed by the Lord of the Manor (the Percys) to manage the land, collect rents, and enforce local laws.

1. Administrative Structure

The Bailiwick was the "middle management" of the feudal system. Because the Barony of Egremont was so vast (covering much of West Cumberland), it was divided into smaller administrative units to make it manageable.

The Head Bailiff: Usually a local gentleman of standing who acted as the Earl of Northumberland’s representative.
Bailiffs of the Wards: The Bailiwick was often split into sections like the Middleward or the Forest of Copeland.
The "Bailiff of the Liberty": Egremont had special "Liberty" status, meaning the King’s Sheriff could not enter the bailiwick to serve legal papers without the Bailiff’s permission. This gave the area a high degree of legal independence.

2. Connection to Moor Row

As mentioned previously, Moor Row was not a village in the 1500s; it was literally a "row" of dwellings on the edge of the common moor. In the 1578 Percy Survey, this specific area would have been managed by the Bailiff of Egremont.

The Bailiff was responsible for preventing "encroachments" on the moor - where people built houses or fenced off land without permission.

3. The Forest of Copeland

A large part of the Bailiwick was governed by Forest Law. This didn’t necessarily mean the land was covered in trees; a "Forest" was a legal term for a hunting preserve.

The Bailiff oversaw the Keepers and Foresters who protected the "vert and venison" (the vegetation and the deer).

Tenants in the bailiwick were subject to the Forest Courts, which met at Egremont Castle.

4. Key Records for the Bailiwick

If you are searching for names of people living in the Bailiwick before 1600, you should look for the Bailiff's Accounts. These are financial ledgers where the Bailiff recorded:

Rents: received from specific tenements (farms).
Amends (fines): from the Manorial Court.E
Scheats: Land that went back to the Lord because a tenant died without an heir.

In the late 1500s, the Bailiff of Egremont was not just a debt collector; he was the Earl of Northumberland’s most important man on the ground. He lived in or near the castle and oversaw the entire "Liberty" of Egremont, including the moorland that would one day be Moor Row.

Based on the 1578 Percy Survey and the records of the Barony of Egremont, here is the administrative world of the bailiwick just before 1600.

Key Figures in the Late 1500s

While the Earl of Northumberland (the Percy family) was the Lord of the Manor, the day-to-day governance was handled by his officers.

The Patrickson Family: During this period, the Patricksons (specifically Anthony and William Patrickson) were arguably the most powerful local family serving the Percys. They were frequently appointed as Bailiffs of Ennerdale and high-ranking officials within the Barony of Egremont.
Local Jurors (Homagers): When the Bailiff held court in 1578 to verify who lived where, the following men acted as the "eyes and ears" for the bailiwick near Moor Row:

Nicholas Hartley
William Nicholson
Thomas Fisher
Robert Jackson

The Two Jurisdictions

The Bailiwick of Egremont was split into two distinct sections for administrative ease. Depending on exactly where "on the moor" a resident lived, they fell under one of these two officers:

Between Ehen and Derwent: The northern section (towards Whitehaven/Arlecdon). Managing the lowland farms and early coal mining pits.
Between Ehen and Duddon: The southern section (towards Calder Bridge/Millom).

The Bailiff’s "Perks" and Powers

The Bailiff of Egremont held a prestigious position with powers that would seem strange today:

The Right of Execution: In the late 1500s, the Bailiff still maintained the "Gallows" at Egremont. He had the power to try and execute certain criminals without the King’s Sheriff interfering.
Enclosure Fines: The Bailiff was responsible for "pining" (impounding) stray cattle on the moor. If a resident of the early Moor Row dwellings let their sheep wander onto the Earl’s private land, the Bailiff would fine them.
Mineral Rights: Even in 1578, the Bailiff was starting to oversee "licences to dig." This was the very beginning of the iron ore industry that would eventually make Moor Row a boom town 300 years later.

The Original Families of Low Moor Row

Based on the 1578 Percy Survey and genealogical records for the Egremont area, the most prominent family associated with the specific site of Low Moor Row before and shortly after 1600 was the Wildridge family.

The Wildridge Dynasty: The Wildridges are the earliest recorded owners of the "Low Moor Row" homestead. They lived on what eventually became Church Street.
The Inheritance: The family held this land until the 18th century, when the Wildridge daughter, Elizabeth, married a local gardener named Dalzell. This marriage is why one of the main roads in Moor Row is named Dalzell Street today.

Records from the 1590s suggest that residents of these moorland rows were already paying small fees to the Bailiff for "licences to dig" for iron ore, which was found very close to the surface at Low Moor.

Tracing the Wildridge family back to the 1500s is actually a significant genealogical achievement, as this period marks the absolute earliest boundary for written records in West Cumberland.

The lineage can be traced back through four distinct "layers" of history:

The Medieval "Hugo Wilrick" (1203)

The earliest recorded variation of the name in the North is a Hugo Wilrick in 1203. While connecting a direct line from a 13th-century individual to the 16th-century inhabitants of Low Moor Row is impossible without missing links, it proves the family (of Saxon origin) was established in the region shortly after the Norman Conquest.

The 1578 Percy Survey

The Wildridge family (recorded as Wylrigge or Wildrig) is listed as holding a tenement in the Egremont Quarter. This is crucial because it suggests they had already been on that land for "time out of mind."

In 1578, the head of the family would have been paying rent to the Earl of Northumberland. Because tenure was hereditary, the Wildridge name was likely already attached to that "row on the moor" by the mid-1500s.

The Tudor Parish Registers (1538–1600)

The Egremont Parish Registers began in 1538. You can find Wildridge baptisms and burials throughout the late 1500s.

By working backwards from Elizabeth Wildridge through these registers, you can find her father, grandfather, and so on, reaching back into the late 1500s where the records meet the 1578 Survey.

Tracing the Wildridge name back to Hugo Wilrick takes us to the very beginning of formal record-keeping in Northern England.

While a direct, generation-by-generation link between a man in 1203 and the tenants of the 1578 Percy Survey is difficult to prove due to the "dark age" of genealogical records between the 13th and 15th centuries, Hugo Wilrick serves as the foundational figure for the surname's presence in the region.

Hugo Wilrick (1203)

Hugo Wilrick is the earliest recorded individual bearing a variant of the Wildridge name.

Origin: He is recorded as holding lands in Northumberland (which at the time had close administrative and familial ties to the Barony of Egremont in Cumberland).
Etymology: The name is of Saxon origin, derived from the Middle English personal name Wilrich (Old English Wilrīc), which combines will (desire/will) and rīc (ruler).
Significance: His appearance in 1203 is notable because it occurred during the reign of King John, a period when surnames were first beginning to stabilise among land-holding families. The fact that he held lands suggests he was a man of some local standing, likely a minor member of the landed gentry or a significant free tenant.

Evolution of the Name

As the family moved or expanded into the Barony of Egremont (Cumberland), the spelling evolved significantly across different records:

1200s: Wilrick.
1400s/1500s: Wylrigge, Wildrig, Welrige.
1700s onwards: Wildridge, Willdridge.

By the time the Percy Survey of 1578 was conducted, the family - now firmly established as the Wylrigges - were the recognised customary tenants of the land at what became Low Moor Row.

In the feudal system of the 1200s, Hugo Wilrick would have held his land under a similar structure to the one his descendants used in the 1500s.

Who were the Saxons?

The Saxons were a Germanic people from north-western Germany (Old Saxony) who began migrating to Britain in the 5th century as the Roman Empire collapsed. Over several hundred years, they merged with other groups like the Angles and Jutes to form the Anglo-Saxons.

The Name "Wilrick": As a Saxon name, it is a "dithematic" name - built from two distinct words. Wil (desire or mind) and Ric (powerful or ruler). To have a Saxon name in 1203, over a century after the Norman Conquest, suggests a family that had deep, ancestral roots in the local soil, likely serving as "thegn" (minor nobles) or high-status free farmers before the Normans reorganised the land into Manors.
Saxons in Cumbria: Cumbria was unique. While much of England became Anglo-Saxon quickly, Cumbria remained a Celtic stronghold (the Kingdom of Rheged) for longer. The Saxons eventually integrated into the region, followed later by the Vikings. A Saxon name like Wilrick in West Cumberland indicates a family that survived the "Harrying of the North" and the transition into the feudal system.

Pushing Back In Time

While the Wildridges represent the earliest named lineage of Low Moor Row, the landscape they farmed was already ancient by the time the first Wilrick arrived.

If we look back nearly 2,000 years, we find that the Romans were also present in this corner of West Cumberland - not as farmers, but as engineers and soldiers.

The Roman Road: A Hidden Highway

Moor Row sits directly on, or very near a significant Roman route that historians and archaeologists refer to as Margary 75.

The Route: This road linked the Roman fort at Papcastle (near Cockermouth) with the coastal fort and harbour at Ravenglass.
Traces in the Soil: Using modern LiDAR technology (laser scanning from aircraft), archaeologists have identified the path of this road as it heads south from Cleator Moor. It crosses the River Ehen at Egremont, passing remarkably close to the western edge of the Moor Row village.
Construction: Unlike the muddy tracks of the later Middle Ages, this was a "metalled" road, built with layers of cobbles and local sandstone to ensure the Roman legions could move rapidly through the territory of the Carvetii (the local British tribe).

Romans and the "Iron Moor"

One of the most intriguing questions for historians is whether the Romans were the first to "industrialise" the area.

Iron Ore Extraction: Research into the iron industry of Roman Britain suggests that the shallow, high-quality haematite deposits at Bigrigg and Moor Row were likely exploited by the Romans.
Bloomery Sites: Small mounds of "slag" (the waste product of smelting iron) have been found throughout West Cumberland. While many are medieval, some are believed to date back to the Roman period. The Romans needed vast amounts of iron for weaponry and the construction of Hadrian's Wall (only 30 miles to the north), and the "Moor" offered some of the richest ore in the empire.

The People of the Frontier

In the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, the residents of the area would have seen a world very different from the later Saxon settlement:

The Military Presence: Soldiers from across the Roman Empire - including auxiliary troops from as far away as North Africa or the Adriatic - would have marched past what is now Low Moor Row.
Vicus Settlements: Small "civilian" towns often grew up along Roman roads. While no major town has been found at Moor Row, the proximity to the road suggests that Romano-British families likely lived in small farmsteads nearby, trading food and leather with the passing military convoys.

To understand the Roman presence in the area, one must view them not as isolated outposts, but as vital links in a coastal and mountain defensive chain designed to protect the "soft underbelly" of Hadrian’s Wall from seafaring raiders and rebellious mountain tribes.

1. Moresby (Gabrosentum)

Located just north of Whitehaven, Moresby was the site of a significant fort perched on the cliffs overlooking the Irish Sea.

The Purpose: Built during the reign of Hadrian (c. AD 122), its primary role was to monitor the coastline. While the great wall ended at Bowness-on-Solway, the "fortified frontier" continued down the Cumbrian coast to prevent attackers from sailing around the end of the wall.
Archaeological Evidence: Today, the graveyard of St Bridget's Church sits directly within the remains of the fort. Inscriptions found here mention the Twentieth Legion (Legio XX Valeria Victrix), who were responsible for its construction.
Life at the Fort: The name Gabrosentum likely means "Goat Path." It would have housed a cohort of about 500 auxiliary infantrymen who patrolled the cliffs and maintained signal beacons.

2. Ravenglass (Glannoventa)

Ravenglass was arguably the most important Roman naval base in North West England.

The Gateway: As a deep-water port at the confluence of three rivers (the Esk, Mite, and Irt), Ravenglass was the primary supply entry point for the entire Lake District frontier.

The Bath House: The most spectacular remains at Ravenglass are the Walls Castle bath house. Standing nearly four metres high, these are some of the tallest Roman remains in Northern Britain. The survival of the original cement and niches for statues provides a rare, tactile connection to the domestic lives of Roman soldiers.
The Garrison: The fort was home to the First Cohort of Aelia Classica, a unit originally raised from sailors of the fleet.

3. Hardknott (Mediobogdum)

If Ravenglass was the gateway, Hardknott was the sentinel. It is one of the most lonely and breathtakingly situated forts in the entire Roman Empire.

The High Pass: Built on a rocky spur overlooking the Hardknott Pass, it protected the vital military road (Margary 75) that linked Ravenglass to the inland forts at Ambleside and Penrith.
The Challenge: The fort was only occupied for a short period. The conditions were brutal; the garrison of Dalmatians (from modern-day Croatia) would have struggled with the harsh Cumbrian winters and the sheer logistical difficulty of hauling supplies up the steepest road in Britain.
Key Features: You can still see the clear outlines of the Principia (headquarters), the Praetorium (commander's house), and the granaries with their raised floors to keep the grain dry in the mountain mist.

The remarkable state of Hardknott Roman Fort is a result of its extreme isolation. Perched 250 metres above the Eskdale valley on a rocky spur, it has escaped the "stone robbing" that decimated most other Roman sites. In many lowland areas, local farmers and builders carted away Roman stones to build barns and walls, but the sheer difficulty of accessing Hardknott ensured its preservation.

Why It Remains Intact

While the timber roofs and upper floors are gone, the footprint of the fort is exceptionally clear. It was constructed during the reign of Hadrian (AD 117–138) by the Fourth Cohort of Dalmatians from the Adriatic coast. Because the fort was only occupied for a relatively short time, the original layout has not been obscured by later medieval or modern modifications.

The Outer Ramparts: The square perimeter wall, constructed from local stone, still stands several feet high in places. You can clearly see the four gateways (Portae), which were once arched entrances large enough for supply wagons.
The Three Core Buildings: In the centre of the fort, the foundations of the most important structures are strikingly visible.
The Principia (Headquarters): The administrative heart where the unit's standards were kept and orders were issued.
The Praetorium (Commander's House): A more comfortable dwelling for the officer in charge and his family.
The Granaries (Horrea): These are particularly well-preserved. You can see the raised floor supports (low stone pillars) designed to allow air to circulate beneath the grain, preventing damp and rot in the notoriously wet Cumbrian climate.

The Parade Ground and Bath House

What makes Hardknott truly unique is the survival of features outside the main walls:

The Parade Ground: To the east of the fort lies a rare, levelled plateau carved directly into the hillside. This is where the soldiers performed drills and ceremonies. It is one of the few surviving examples of a Roman parade ground in Britain.
The Bath House: Located down the slope towards the road, the remains of the circular Sudatorium (steam room) and the various bathing chambers are still identifiable, showing where soldiers sought warmth and hygiene in the brutal mountain winters.

Preservation Through Isolation

Walking through the site today, you can trace the exact rooms where soldiers slept and worked nearly 1,900 years ago. The lack of modern development around the fort means the "context" is intact; the view from the ramparts - looking down into Eskdale and up toward the Scafell range - is exactly the same view the Roman sentries would have seen.

The Bronze Age

The Bronze Age (c. 2500 BC – 800 BC) was a time of profound social and technological transition for the inhabitants of the West Cumbrian moorlands.

In the fields surrounding Moor Row, the Bronze Age represents the moment when the descendants of the first Neolithic farmers began to organise into more complex, territorial societies.

1. The Introduction of Metal

The transition began with the arrival of the "Beaker People," named for their distinctive pottery. They brought the knowledge of how to smelt copper and tin to create bronze.

The Tools: While flint scrapers remained in use for daily tasks, the prestige items were now metal. Bronze palstaves (axes) and spearheads have been discovered across West Cumberland, marking a shift toward more specialised tools and weapons.
Mining Origins: Long before the Victorian haematite mines, Bronze Age people were likely scouting the "Iron Moor." While they were looking for copper and gold, their presence established the early prospecting routes that would be used by every subsequent generation.

2. Ritual and Burial: The Sacred Landscape

The Bronze Age is most visible in the landscape through its funerary monuments. Unlike the communal Neolithic long barrows, Bronze Age people favoured individual burials under circular mounds known as Barrows or Tumuli.

Local Sites: The high ground surrounding Moor Row, particularly towards the fells, is dotted with these circular remains. These were not just graves but "territorial markers," showing that a specific clan or family claimed the land below.
Cremation Urns: In the later Bronze Age, the tradition shifted toward cremation. Discoveries in the Egremont area have unearthed "Collared Urns" - large pottery vessels containing the ashes of the deceased, buried in small pits or stone-lined "cists."

3. Climate and Settlement

During the early Bronze Age, the climate was slightly warmer and drier than it is today. This allowed families to farm higher up the slopes than they do now.

Roundhouses: The residents of the moor lived in circular timber houses with thatched conical roofs. A family unit in Moor Row 3,500 years ago would have managed a small "field system" of rectangular plots, growing barley and raising sheep.
The "Upland" Retreat: As the climate cooled towards 800 BC, the moor became wetter and more acidic (leading to the formation of the peat "waste" the Wildridges eventually farmed). People were forced into the valleys, consolidating the settlements that would later become the medieval farmsteads.

The Neolithic Era

The Neolithic (New Stone Age) predates the Romans by approximately 4,000 years.

Lifestyle: These were the first people to move away from purely hunting and gathering to settled farming.

They were responsible for clearing the original forests around Egremont and the Keekle valley using polished stone axes.

Long before the Saxons or even the Romans arrived, the land around Moor Row and Egremont was home to the first pioneers of West Cumberland: the people of the Neolithic (New Stone Age) and the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) before them.

Flint scrapers found in local fields are tangible evidence of these people. While the village of Moor Row is a relatively new creation, the site has been a place of human activity for over 6,000 years.

Who were these people?

The transition from hunter-gatherers to Britain’s first farmers happened during the Neolithic period (c. 4000–2500 BC).

The Mesolithic Foragers (Before 4000 BC): These were highly mobile hunter-gatherers. They followed seasonal cycles, moving from the coast (at places like St Bees and Eskmeals) to the uplands. They used "narrow-blade" microliths - tiny, sharp flints - to hunt deer and wild pig.

The Local Archaeological Landscape

Moor Row sits in a very important prehistoric corridor. Just a few miles away are sites that prove this area was a "hub" for Stone Age activity:

The Neolithic Dawn: Hunter-Gatherers and First Farmers

The earliest residents of what is now Moor Row did not leave written records, but they left their tools in the soil. Flint scrapers found in local fields provide a direct link to the Neolithic (New Stone Age) period, roughly 4,000 to 2,500 BC. These people were the region's first pioneers, clearing the ancient forests of oak and elm to establish the first grazing lands.

The presence of these flint tools is significant because flint is not native to the Cumbrian fells. These inhabitants either gathered "pebble flint" from the beaches at St Bees or participated in vast trade networks reaching as far as Antrim in Ireland. The scrapers were essential for leather-working - cleaning animal hides to create clothing and shelter. Each flint found today represents a moment thousands of years ago when a person sat in a clearing on the moor, preparing for the winter ahead.

Ehenside Tarn: A Prehistoric Hub

Located just a few miles from Moor Row, Ehenside Tarn (drained in the nineteenth century) revealed a remarkably preserved Neolithic settlement. Because the site was waterlogged, organic materials that usually rot away survived for thousands of years.

Stone Axes: The site is famous for the discovery of polished stone axes, some still fitted into their original wooden hafts. These axes were the primary tools used to clear the dense oak and elm forests that once covered the Egremont area.
The "Rough-outs": Archaeologists found "rough-outs" (unfinished axes), suggesting that Ehenside Tarn was a finishing centre for stone tools brought down from the great "axe factory" at Great Langdale in the central fells.
Wooden Artefacts: Unique items such as wooden bowls, paddles, and even a throwing stick (similar to a boomerang) were found, proving that these early residents were skilled woodworkers and utilised the local waterways for transport and fishing.
Pottery and Agriculture: Finds of "Grimston-style" pottery and charred cereal grains confirm that by this stage, the people of the West Cumbrian coastal plain were fully established as the region's first agriculturalists.

While Ehenside Tarn represents the lowland, waterlogged history of the valley, Tongue How (located on the western fells near Ponsonby Fell) provides a spectacular "upland" counterpart. It is one of the most significant and well-preserved prehistoric landscapes in West Cumberland, situated only about 5 to 6 miles south-east of Moor Row.

The Tongue How Settlement

Tongue How is a rare example of a "relict landscape," where the remains of Neolithic and Bronze Age life haven't been ploughed away by later intensive farming. Because the land was eventually abandoned as the climate cooled and turned into peat moorland, the original layout remains "frozen" in time.

Neolithic Foundations: Archaeologists have identified clear evidence of Neolithic activity, including several cairns (stone mounds) and the remains of very early enclosure walls. These suggest that Tongue How was a summer grazing ground or a "transhumance" site for the people living in the Ehen and Calder valleys.
Preservation: The site is remarkable for its clarity. You can still trace the outlines of over 100 clearance cairns - small piles of stones gathered by prehistoric farmers to make the soil viable for crops or better grazing.
Continuity with Moor Row: Just as the Wildridges farmed the "intakes" of the Egremont Waste, the pioneers at Tongue How were performing the same task 5,000 years earlier. The flint scrapers found in the fields near Moor Row are identical in type to those used by the residents of Tongue How to process hides from the livestock they grazed on these higher slopes.

Visiting the Site

Because it is situated on "Open Access" land, Tongue How is accessible to those who wish to see a prehistoric landscape exactly as it looked thousands of years ago. Unlike Roman sites which are often built over, Tongue How feels raw and untouched.

Ordnance Survey Map Reference: NY 097 076 (OS Explorer OL6: The English Lake District - South Western Area).

What to look for: Look for the "Tongue How Cairn Field" - a vast expanse of low stone mounds. The most prominent feature is a large, kerbed funerary cairn that marks the highest point of the settlement's ritual life.

Summary of Historical Milestones

Ref	Historical Era	Key Findings / Evidence	Significance to Moor Row
01	Neolithic	Flint Scrapers	First forest clearing and leather-working on the moorland.
02	Bronze Age	Burial Barrows / Beaker Pottery	Establishment of territorial field systems and early metal prospecting.
03	Roman	Road Margary 75	Strategic transport and potential early haematite mining.
04	Saxon / Medieval	Hugo Wilrick (1203)	Establishment of the core Wildridge land-holding lineage.
05	Tudor	1578 Percy Survey	Confirmation of the Wylrigge family as customary tenants.
06	Georgian	Dalzell Marriage (1760s)	The passing of the estate to Thomas Dalzell; origin of local street names.

The Legacy of Elizabeth Wildridge

The final era of the Wildridges at Low Moor Row ended in the 1760s when Elizabeth Wildridge, the family heiress, married Thomas Dalzell. This union merged the ancient Saxon-descended lands with the rising Dalzell family interests. It was the Dalzells who eventually oversaw the transition of these ancient agricultural "intakes" into the village street plan we see today. The very ground where a Neolithic hunter once scraped a hide and a Tudor Wildridge once readied his armour became Dalzell Street and Church Street - the historic heart of Moor Row.

References

Ref	Document / Publication Reference	Historical / Archaeological Significance	Archive / Source
01	D/Lec/301	The 1578 Percy Survey: Listing the Wildridge family as customary tenants at Low Moor Row.	Cumbria Archive Centre
02	D/Lec/29/1-15	Manor Court Rolls: Judicial records for the Bailiwick regarding land use and inheritance.	Cumbria Archive Centre
03	PR/14/1	Egremont Parish Registers: Vital records for the Wildridge/Wilrich lineage.	Cumbria Archive Centre
04	Pipe Roll 5 John (1203)	Great Roll of the Pipe: Earliest northern record of Hugo Wilrick holding lands.	The National Archives
05	Archaeologia, Vol. 44 (1873)	Ehenside Tarn Report: Account of Neolithic stone axes found near Moor Row.	Society of Antiquaries
06	Historic England List 1007137	Tongue How Survey: Data for the Neolithic/Bronze Age cairnfield.	National Heritage List

Visualisation: Neolithic Moor Row Illustration