Photo: Richard Farn
Arkholme
Lancashire
Photo: Richard Farn
Arkholme is on the bank of the Lune off the Carnforth to Kirkby Lonsdale road, a single street leading to the ancient ford across the river. The mediaeval parish church is on a bluff above the ford; in the churchyard, nearly touching the north-east corner of the church, is a high mound called Chapel Hill Motte - a defensive earthwork from possibly Saxon times. The countryside round Arkholme is of rolling limestone hills, pasture for sheep and cattle. Further off, eastwards, are the higher Pennine fells, the most prominent mountains being Gragareth in Lancashire and Ingleborough in Yorkshire.
| In the 1911 Census, the population of Arkholme is given as 319 persons,
179 being male, in 62 separate households. A plaque (see photograph) inside
the south doorway of the parish church names 59 men from Arkholme who served
in the Great War and returned - the greatest number we havediscovered from
any Thankful Village. There is also a stone tablet on the north wall of the
church which says:-
IN GRATITUDE TO GOD FOR VICTORY AND IN MEMORY OF HAROLD EDWARD NEWBY |
|
During the visit of the Thankful Villages Run to Arkholme, on 3rd August, 2013, Avril Newey's poem, These Thankful Fields was read. It made a big impression on all who were there, including Norman Thorpe, one of us three Thankful Villages researchers, along with his wife Mary, who were present as guests of honour. We think that These Thankful Fields is worthy of a wider audience and, with Avril's permission, we reproduce it here.
For the continued support of the ideals behind the Thankful Villages Run,
Avril suggests
donations
to the Royal British Legion
Text - Norman Thorpe
Click here to return to the main Thankful Village listing
