Stainmore, so small that you will be hard put to find it on your map. But exist it does, and it will be found on the A66 'The Stainmore Pass' bordering Yorkshire and Durham, where some of the most spectacular limestone fells in the Pennines gives way to moors of millstone grit.
Before the roads were made the pass carved by retreating glaciers millions of years ago, was the natural place to cross the Pernnines. The Romans built a road over Stainmore, and a heavy cavalry garrison was stationed at Brough to protect it. It was certainly of great importance to the Romans when marching from York to the Wall and Maiden Castle.
Stainmore's history is long and illustrious. During excavations weapons and tools have been found, dating from the Bronze and Iron Ages. Maidens Castle is though to have been a small square Roman fort on the old Roman road north of the A66 and not far from the summit of the pass. A Roman signal station at Roper Castle or Round Table may have been built on a site going back some 3,000 years and used for religious rites.
Near the summit of Stainmore is the stump of a cross known as 'Rey Cross' which in the 11th century marked the boundary netween Scotland and England...itself erected as a grave monument in the 10th century. A polular theory is that it was erected originally to the memory of the last Danish King, Eric Bloodaxe, killed in a battle on Stainmore in AD 954.
Nearby, and visible for miles around, Brough Castle looms as dramatically over the landscape today as it has done for centuries. Built on the earthworks of a former Roman fort, the ruins form part of a chain of castles standing guard over what was once a crucial trade route across the Pennines. Besieged and burnt by the Scots in the 12th century, rebuilt but left to fall derelict again in Tudor times, the castle rose from the ashes under the skilful ownership of Lady Anne Cliffordin the 17th century.
Sir Cuthbert Buckle, Lord Mayor of London in 1593 endowed a school at South Stainmore with £8 per year allowance in 1594. The school house was built by local inhabitants. Although the church, consecrated in 1608 is still in use today, the school closed as recently as 1970 and is now a residential outdoor centre.
Tree worship was at one time a way of life in Brough. On Twelth Night the holly tree would be suitably illuminated with rushlights or candles, and carried through the town, where later it would be thrown amongst the crowd. The younger and more daring members of the crowd would then attempt to seize it and carry it off to rival inns where drinking and dancing continued far into the night.
It is to a Norman family that the ghost of the headless horse-woman of Stainmore belongs.
Apparently on one of the Saxon raids, the Saxons made off with the daughter of the Norman Fitzbarnard.
A particular Saxon decided he would keep her for his wife, but before he was able to tie the knot, a Norman rescue party literally snatched her from his grasp. The Saxon understandably furious of being deprived of his intended hotly rode into the middle of the Norman raiding party laying about everybody with his sword...and in the confusion cut off the head of the girl! Ever since, her headless body has careered around Stainmore on horseback.
Beond Stainmore, near Mortham's Tomb is an old border pele tower, and connected with it a grim legend. Hundreds of years ago a certain Lord Rokeby apparently in a fit of temper caused by jealously, murdered his wife in the glen below the tower, and the bloodstains which cannot be effaced are still to be seen on the steps. It is said they were caused by the blood dripping from his dagger as he mounted the stairs after committing the crime.
|
