Scales is a small village in

Westmorland and Furness Westmorland and Furness is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Cumbria, England. The economy is mainly focused on tourism around both the Lake District and Cumbria Coast, shipbuilding and the Royal Port of Barrow, Royal ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, England. The town of

Ulverston Ulverston is a market town and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it lies a few miles south of the Lake District Lake District National Park, National Park and j ...

is around 3.5 miles south of the village. The name Scales comes from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

''skali'', with an Old English plural ''*Scalas'', meaning ''huts''. It is in the historic county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. The village has a long history, proven when

mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

human remains were discovered in a cave in a

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

outcrop known as Scales Haggs to the east of the village. A fragment of gravestone was once discovered in

Aldingham Aldingham is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness Unitary Authority of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is situated on the east coast of the Furness p ...

Church, which bore an inscription to one Goditha of Scales, who it appears was an abbess and was probably the daughter of the local Lord, Michael le Fleming. The village was once home to a small local primary school called Aldingham Parochial School, which was closed down in 1994 and amalgamated with two other local schools. The symbol of the three interconnected circles is still clearly visible on the renovated building, now a house. The village hall, officially called Aldingham Parish Hall is known to locals as The Malt Kiln and would once have been used to dry and ferment locally grown

Barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

into

Malt Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...

for use in vinegar, beer and bread making. Until relatively recently, it was possible to see remnants of the old process in the building but it has since been renovated.

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Aldingham
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page) {{authority control Villages in Cumbria Furness Aldingham

See also

External links