Hincaster is a small

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

South Lakeland South Lakeland is a local government district in Cumbria, England. The population of the non-metropolitan district was 102,301 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 103,658 at the 2011 Census. Its council is based in Kendal. It includes ...

district of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

, England, located between Kendal and

Milnthorpe Milnthorpe is a small market town on the southern border of Cumbria, 7 miles south of Kendal, civil parish and electoral ward are in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. Historically in the county of Westmorland and on the A6, ...

. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 195, increasing at the 2011 census to 209. "Caster" often suggests a Roman origin (from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''cæster'' and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''castrum'' for "fort"), but no Roman remains are known at Hincaster. Hincaster is most famous for the 19th century Hincaster Tunnel (currently dewatered) which is the longest tunnel on the

Lancaster Canal The Lancaster Canal is a canal in North West England, originally planned to run from Westhoughton in Lancashire to Kendal in south Cumbria ( historically in Westmorland). The section around the crossing of the River Ribble was never complete ...

Transport

Hincaster Tunnel

Work to extend the canal from Tewitfield to Kendal began in 1813. The building of the

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

through Hincaster Hill brought the canal close to gunpowder works at Sedgwick (an 18th century gunpowder works was replaced in the 19th century). The tunnel is long. The tunnel's entrances, the east and west portals, are faced with

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

and are Grade II listed. The tunnel itself is lined with something like four million

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

s. The bricks were made from clay dug at Mosside Farm, on the canalside about south south east of Milness, by the present A65. On 4 February 1817, it was reported that 'two million bricks had been made and half the length of the tunnel completed'. The Mosside brickworks, were too efficient, for in 1818, Thomas Fletcher, the canal engineer, put up for sale 10,000 bricks, left over from the tunnel. These clay pits and the brickworks were resuscitated in 1845, employing over 100 men and 30 horses; these bricks were made for the new Lancaster and Carlisle Railway.

Navvies Navvy, a clipping of navigator ( UK) or navigational engineer ( US), is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects and occasionally (in North America) to refer to mechanical shovels and ea ...

, the tough canal 'navigators' who were to dig the Hincaster section, attended the contract meeting in Kendal, afterwards causing a considerable riot in the town'. The ''

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

Advertiser'' promptly declared 'Sound policy demands that the ruffians should be held as an example to the unruly multitude which the culling of the canal will shortly bring to this populous neighbourhood'.

Hincaster Branch Railway

The Hincaster Branch was a single track railway branch line of the

Furness Railway The Furness Railway (Furness) was a railway company operating in the Furness area of Lancashire in North West England. History Formation In the early 1840s, the owners of iron ore mines in the Furness district of Lancashire became interested i ...

which ran from

Arnside Arnside is a village and civil parish in Cumbria, historically part of Westmorland, near the border with Lancashire, England. The Lake District National Park is located a few miles North. Travelling by road, Arnside is to the south of Kendal, ...

on the Furness main line to a junction with the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (later the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

) at Hincaster Junction (Conolly, 1997). Intermediate stations were provided at Sandside and

Heversham Heversham is a small village and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 647, increasing at the 2011 census to 699. It is situated above the marshes of the Kent est ...

. The branch was opened in 1867, but passenger services ended on 4 May 1942 and the track between Sandside and Hincaster Junction was lifted in 1966. A short stub from

to Sandside lasted into the 1970s to serve local quarries.

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Hincaster
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page) Hamlets in Cumbria Civil parishes in Cumbria {{Cumbria-geo-stub

Transport

Hincaster Tunnel

Hincaster Branch Railway

See also

References

External links