Everyone loves Cartmel - a parish and old market town two miles from Cark and just over two miles from Grange over Sands.
The name alone is very ancient. The land was originally given to St.Cuthbert by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria in AD 678. The village is centred around the market square (referred to by locals as 'The market cross and fish slabs'). Around the square is a delightful assortment of genuine 'olde worlde' buildings, serving as they have for centuries, as friendly inns, well stocked shops, together with private dwellings.
Cartmel is one of South Lakeland's oldest villages and grew around its famous twelfth century Priory. Cartmel Priory was founded in 1189 by William Marshall, the Regent of England, to be a Priory for regular Canons of the Order of St.Augustine. Not now completely intact, it is nevertheless very well preserved, and a constant attraction to its many thousands of annual visitors. Note in the cemetery the graves of several people who tried to make the hazardous journey across the estuary, between tides - and failed!
An unusual but endearing feature is the tower which is set at a forty-five degree angle to its base. Having fairly recently celebrated its eight-hundredth anniversary, the Priory to this day still serves as the centre of the community, offering not only a place of worship, but a place to give concerts and other special events.
The Priory additionally contains many treasures. These include small fragments of manuscripts, a very famous umbrella (claimed to be one of the first, and over two-hundred years old), a Vinegar Bible of 1716, and the first edition of Spenser's Faerie Queen, printed in 1596 (In 1929 it was stolen, but recovered later in America, and today for safe keeping is kept at Lancaster University). Also note the loaf of bread set out daily in the north aisle for the poor.
Legend has it that the monks started the very popular Cartmel Races as their Whitsun recreation. Originally the wooden grandstand was taken down every year and put away in the tithe barn in Barn Garth. Nowadays, of course, it is a permanent course with various races throughout the year.
From the square, ancient streets wend their way out of the village. Here you'll find flower filled corners, stream-side walks, and hump-backed bridges. The old Gothic style village school is still the most popular primary school for miles around, and the modern Priory School is a worthy successor to the original school held in the 14th century Priory gate house between 1624 to 1790. It was in fact on the 7th July 1624 that 'The Tower of Cartmel', as the gate-house was then called, was purchased by the inhabitants of the district from one George Preston, of Holker for thirty pounds in order to convert it into a public schoolhouse. With such a long history, it seems only a relatively short time ago that the school children were expected to pay annually what was known as the 'cockpenny' to the schoolmaster, to contribute to the very popular cock-fighting under his supervision.
Edmund Law, who became Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and who subsequently became Bishop of Carlisle, was educated at the gatehouse school early in the eighteenth century.
Finally, Cartmel has lots to offer the visitor with some four pubs, together with cafes, shops and hotels, not overlooking the many places to walk. You can sit and watch cricket and football in the park in season. Cartmel Cricket Club is one of the oldest clubs of its kind in the District.
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