~ The Effects of the Mining Industry ~ on Town Size and the Local Economy
In discussing the effects that the mining5 industry had on the town, for purposes of comparison we should first look at the way things were before the mines opened. At the beginning of the 19th century Dalton was a small agricultural town, consisting of a single street which extended from Market Place1 to Tudor Square1 (or Bally Green1 as it was then known). From the Returns of the Overseers of the Poor, taken on 27 May 1811, we learn that the population2 of the parish was 2,074, and that of its total 329 families were chiefly employed in agriculture1, and that the average number of persons in each family was five. If we make the modest assumption that two members of each family were employed, then 31 per cent of the total population was employed on the land. By 1834, 28 per cent of the population was employed in agriculture, and by 1841, at the time of the census, the figure had fallen to about 21 per cent. At first glance, these figures could be interpreted as showing a decline in agriculture over this 30 year period. This was not the case however because the population was continually increasing, and the actual number of people engaged in agriculture remained reasonably constant at about 700.
Another industry which flourished for many years in the town was the manufacture of malt, and on Horatio Merryweather's1 map of Dalton as it was in 1825 (see L17), there are two malt kilns shown - one at the junction of what is now Station Road and Market Street where Barclay's Bank stands, and the other in Market Street almost opposite the Wellington Hotel. According to Parson and White's Directory of 1829, there were at this time seven maltsters in the town. Some of these were probably only small concerns, as at least two of them combined malting with some other trade - one was also a butcher, and the other a coal merchant. By the end of the 19th century, all the maltings in the town had closed down. The following article taken from the Barrow2 News for Saturday 11 January 1930 presents us with an interesting insight into the way at least one of the malt kilns in the town operated: '…malt kiln on the corner where the bank is now, and where the boys used to go to tread the malt, receiving in payment a drink of the brew. The grain was allowed to sprout a little and was then dried and spread on the floor. A line of boys would go on to it barefooted and tread in file up and down to break off the growth, the remaining grain being boiled and brewed. Dalton, once of local fame for many malt kilns and breweries1, now possesses not one'.
This flurry of building in latter part of the 19th century created Dalton almost as we know it today, with rows of houses standing where once there had been meadows, fields and pastures. Cleater Street, for example, was built on a croft belonging to Miss Cleater, and which stretched in a long, narrow strip from Market Street to the lane which is now Chapel Street. Farther down the hillside towards the centre of the town was Dalton Meadow, also situated between Market Street and the lower end of this same lane, which incorporated land now occupied by Wellington Street, Nelson Street, and up to where Fell Croft now stands. This latter was built on a croft owned by a Mr. Andrew Atkinson. The area around Queen Street, King Street and Prince Street was known as Yarl Well Fields, and on the opposite side of Ulverston Road was a large open area, terminating at the old tithe barn which stood near where Beckside Road joins Ulverston Road, and this general area was known as Crooklands1.
A Celtic stone head foun embedded in the wall of a house in Market Street, seen here on display in the castle museum.
The castle1 and Market Place2, 1770, from a drawing by Thomas Hearne.
Ever since the later abbots of Furness lost interest in the upkeep of the castle3 it seems to have been frequently in need of repair, and at the beginning of the 19th century, when part of the ground floor was being used as a stable, it appears once again to be in a rather dilapidated condition. Cuitt's drawing (see below) shows it as it appeared in 1817, with houses built on to its northern and eastern walls. The two houses attached to the front (eastern) side of the castle, were raised clear of the ground, supported on eight-foot tall stone pillars. The covered space beneath was used for a time as a shambles, or covered market3.
Dalton Castle4 1817. From an engraving by G. Cuitt.
Building in front of the castle, erected in 1851 by attorney, William Butler, for office premises. The building was demolished in 1896.
Church Street. Note the columns at each side of the door of Bank House (centre), which originally supported the upper floor of the shambles or covered market4.
The ancient doorway in the south wall of the castle6.
The old St Andrew's cross2 had stood for centuries in front of the castle7, its condition, as portrayed by Cuitt, unmistakably neglected. This also is likely to have been a direct consequence of the Commonwealth, some two centuries earlier, when so many ancient crosses throughout the land were deliberately damaged or destroyed. It was repaired in 1824, and again in 1843, and finally replaced by the present cross in 1869 when the fish-stones were also erected. The stocks and whipping post1 were situated close to the south-east corner of the cross. In 1856 the stocks were removed by the simple expedient of cutting through the wooden legs, leaving the stumps in the ground; and three years later, the whipping post suffered a similar fate. About ten years after this, when work on the new cross had started, the buried stumps, which were made of oak were dug up, and the vicar1, the Rev.J.M.Morgan, used them for firewood.