Welcome to the Duddon Valley Local History Group Website
Winners of the Marsh Award for Community Archaeology presented at the AGM of the Council for British Archaeology in London in November 2019
DVLHG was formed in the early 1990s and runs a programme of activities and talks for its members. Our five year long study of the whole valley has restarted extending the survey to cover areas not walked in earlier phases. Our findings led to our current major project with Oxford Archaeology North excavating three medieval longhouse sites near Seathwaite Tarn.
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Duddon Valley Local History Group Home Page
Latest News
June 2026
We are conscious that previous Archive Exhibitions have been assembled by a very small group of members and that early in the new year is not the best time to get people preparing for displays.
So next year’s (2027) exhibition will take place towards Easter. We have decided to go for a single theme rather than a mix of subjects. We hope this will encourage people to take a look at what they know and what they can find out relative to their own area and interests. The theme will be shopping and entertaining. We hope that people will find out about the shops, pubs and adverts from yesteryear. Do you remember going to local shops that are no longer here. Do you have memories of drinking in pubs that are long closed. Do you have interesting examples of packaging and posters advertising products that may have been renamed or are no longer for sale.
For more information or to share ideas contact Colin Robertshaw or Stephe Cove.
Walks Programme –
The programme for the coming year will feature many of the walks we had to cancel, with something to suit everyone. If you intend to go, please contact the Leader at least the day before stating where you will meet. In the event of very bad weather confirm with leader on the day to see if the walk is going ahead.
Sunday 21st June Broughton Mills Circular
Email or ring Stephe Cove for details and to let him know you are coming along
stephe.crumbly@gmail.com 01229 773965
See Walks Page for details of the Walks programme –
Stan Aspinall’s sell-out book featuring Photographs of Broughton is now available to view on the Publications Page.
The story of Angerton Moss and its uses is predominantly by William D Shannon PHD, FSA from whom permission to reproduce his work is recorded and acknowledged. Lex has added his own research and provided many of the photos and graphic interpretation.The actual book is A5 size. It is a quality publication, beautifully illustrated and runs to 66 pages. It is a splendid read.
Copies are £5 each when purchased directly from the History Group or £6.50 if posted.
Recent Projects
Shard fencing
We completed a joint LDNP/DVLHG project to survey shard fencing in our area. It is sometimes referred to as vertical stone fencing and a survey has already taken place in the Hawkshead area. The plan is to produce a format to record this feature which is one of the important areas of agricultural archaeology identified in the bid for Unesco status. this could then be rolled out in the other valleys of the Lake District.
Like the washfold project, groups of volunteers from both our members and Lake District Archaeology Volunteers will carry out the survey to locate and record sites in our area..
People are still getting in touch with new locations in the UK and abroad as they travel away on holiday.
More information on our findings can be found on the projects page of the website
Wordsworth’s Duddon Sonnets
Display at Wordsworth Museum 2021
It was the publication of the thirty three sonnets in 1820 that made a star out of the provincial poet living in the lake District. He followed the river from source to the sea, making the journey an allegory for the life of a man. Wordsworth later added a thirty-fourth sonnet in which, as Jonathan Bate says, ‘the poet deconstructs, then reconstructs, the analogy between human life and the life of the river.
The celebration was delayed by a year due to Covid19. we didn’t intend to do anything for inside the museum. Our original plan was a self guided walk from Wrynose to Askam, using signposts at parking places taken people down to the river. This wasn’t going to be possible, so we used a map, photographs and selections from the sonnets to provide a visual representation of the river.
Gail Batten, Dave Hughes and Stephe Cove
Furness Railway 175th Anniversary
Following contact with Stephen at the level crossing and Richard at the signal box, we got involved in the celebrations for the 175th Anniversary of the Furness Railway with a plan for a display at Foxfield Station. It seemed a very disjointed project and it was hard to find out who was organising it, so Dave and I thought we go ahead anyway. Photos from our archives, from photographers on the web and valuable help from Geoff Holme put together a board over a metre square in the waiting room at the station. It gets it official opening on 24th of August with a representative from Northern Rail doing the honours.
A second board for Broughton and the line to Coniston is with Furness Plastic at the moment. CGP have generously agreed to make a plinth and install the board on the old line leading our of the village.
