Dalton in Furness in 1839
Dalton in Furness is 25 miles from Lancaster across the Sands. The whole parish contains 16,210 acres, with a population in 1831, of 2,697 ; but Dalton township, one of the three into which the parish is divided, contains 770 acres and 759 inhabitants. This town flourished at an early period through the neighbourhood and favour of the abbey of Furness, but on the dissolution of the abbey its consequence diminished. The town consists of a principal street terminating on the west in a spacious market-place. The church is a small neat building of considerable antiquity. There is a square tower on a rocky eminence west of the town, the remains of a castle probably built by the monks of Furness to guard the northern approach to the abbey. This building is now appropriated to the courts leet and baron of the manor and liberty of Furness. The market is on Saturday : the chief trade carried on is malting ; and there are some iron-works near the town. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Richmond and diocese of Chester, of the clear yearly value of £113, with a glebe-house. There were in the township, in 1833, two dame-schools, with 26 children ; two endowed day-schools, with 189 children ; ten other day-schools, with 189 children ; and four Sunday-schools, with 196 children. |