This thesis is concerned to discover the nature of regional identity in Furness and Cartmel, also known as Lancashire North of the Sands, in the 50 years around 1800, and explore the relationship between the essential regional qualities, geographical and cultural, of the area, and the way it was viewed by the human inhabitants. The methodology is heavily biased towards a thorough survey of surviving archival material in the county record offices and public libraries of Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire and the integrating of these sources into a coherent narrative of the period, which is then analysed. Attempts have been made to quantify wherever possible, but the sophistication of the statistical manipulation is kept in proportion to the reliability of the gathered data. Chapter 1 surveys the ways in which regions within England have been defined and the uses to which a regional approach can be put. Chapter 2 provides an introductory overview of the society of the area, concentrating on the degree of population mobility. Chapter 3 examines the development of various economic sectors in the period, and the way in which those sectors were spatially organised, both as a result of natural topography and under the influence of human actors. Chapter 4 studies the way in which the manorial administrative system of the area was replaced by a more rationalised system mediated by lawyers, and the influence of statutes and enclosure on this process. Chapter 5 is concerned with the degree of local distinctiveness from national patterns in the administration of the Poor Law, and in the way the authorities reacted to the problems of crime and popular politics. Chapter 6 looks at the factors affecting religious observance, and the reference of both Anglican and dissenting churches to authorities from without the area. Chapter 7 inquires into the ways in which patterns in education, recreation and sexual practices mark either the exclusivity of the area or its absorption into national trends. Chapter 8 concludes that although the area had many distinct regional characteristics, both of ecotype and of culture, and although these are important in explaining many aspects of development in this period, the most distinctive quality of the area was the way in which it lent itself to reinvention by individual human actors, particularly outside colonisers. The originality of the thesis lies in its genuinely integrated study of an area of town and country, and its application of extra-disciplinary ideas (particularly the distinctions between essence and imagination, and material and information) to an English local study of this period.

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This thesis investigates the impact of modernisation upon popular death customs in Cumbria between 1700 and 1920. Specifically, it explores the role and nature of mutuality, arguing that despite the growth of individualism, the mutual ideal which had underpinned many popular death customs in the pre-industrial environment continued to play a crucial role in shaping working-class mortuary practices in the towns. This study challenges historical arguments that mutuality was simply individualism in disguise; it suggests that at its heart lay an internal tension: a conflict between self-interest and collectivism which was exacerbated by modernizing trends. Ultimately individualism was to triumph, but not in the way historians have claimed. Its success can be gauged, not by the apparent readiness of the nineteenth-century urban working classes to embrace a more materialistic attitude to death and burial, but in the growth of the burial insurance industry which capitalised on the collectivism of the majority to further the self-interest of an enterprising minority. The thesis begins by tracing the roots of mutuality in death through an examination of popular death customs in pre-industrial Cumbria. It reveals that although such practices were designed to alleviate individual distress, they also worked to cultivate an ideal of collectivism by encouraging community participation, and by publicly affirming a common notion of ‘decency’ which was rooted in powerful spiritual beliefs. Informal aid of this type was supplemented by that supplied by the guilds and friendly societies. In this more formal, premeditated setting, the contractual nature of mutuality was more pronounced, and a tension between collectivism and self-interest more clearly articulated. This conflict was exacerbated by the sanitary reforms of the nineteenth century, and in particular the passage of the Burial Acts of the 1850's. The creation of the private grave, and the division of the cemeteries into areas of greater and lesser desirability, increased social discrimination while emphasising conspicuous consumption as a means of articulating individual social position. A consequence of such reforms was the commercialisation of the funeral. Many of those who could afford it now modelled their obsequies on much older aristocratic rites which were designed to indicate social standing. These materialistic rituals set a new standard in funerary protocol, and increased social pressure on the working classes to conform to elite norms. Despite greater stress on materialistic individualism, however, many working-class people continued to observe familiar death customs which were rooted in community participation. Familiar customs of long-standing were of value in many ways, not least because they symbolised values which helped sustain a distinct cultural identity. Thus, while individualism emerged as a powerful cultural force, collectivism did not vanish. Indeed, this thesis concludes by arguing that the continued potency of popular collectivism was most strikingly exemplified in the growth to prominence, in the early years of the twentieth century, of working-class burial insurance. / Graduate

The Shap Granite outcrops in eastern Cumbria, N.W. England and is a post—orogenic granite intruded during the Lower Devonian (ie 394 Ma) into rocks of Ordovician to Siturian age. It is of adamellite composition and is notable in having megacrysts of orthoclase which crystallised late (relative to the matrix) by an essentially metasomatic process. Late in its cooling history, hydrothermal fluids resulted in alteration ano mineralisation in and about the joint structures. Comparison of whole — rock element and stable isotope data between the hydrothermally — altered and non —altered granites shows that this late — stage process- was isochemical and only involved localised redistribution of the available elements, the hydrothermal fluid being derived from the granite itself and acting in a closed system. The associated suite of granitic dykes extends the chemical range of Shap granitic rocks from the restricted compositions of the granite itsetf (around 68%)to 62 to 77% Si02. Mineralogical and chemical evidence suggests that the Shap magma compositions were controlled mainly by biotite and plagioclase fractionation over much of this silica range. The granite is intruded about much of its outcrop into rocks of the mid—Ordovician, calk—alkaline Borrowdatt Volcanic Group. The aureate is lkm wide and 'generally displays limited contact metamorphic reactions apart from in the Blue Quarry, where higher sub—surface heat flow during the granite's intrusion resulted in localised more extreme metamorphic and some metasomatic conditions resulting in the development of garnet veins. Analysis of 61 samples from the aureole region show only very limited modifications to their original calk—alkaline chemistry. Stable isotope and the whole rock geochemistry indicates that the contact metamorphism was essentialty, isochemical and that chemical interaction with the granite did not occur. Aureole metamorphic reactions took place at moderate temperatures (250 — 400°C) apart from in a narrow (<1000 zone about the granite contact where temperatures may have reached close to those of the granite-solidus (around 600°C). Xenoliths from the 'granite Pink quarries at Shap contain the same mineralogy as their host granite, including the megacryst orthoclase. The xenolith chemistry compares well with that of the more basic dykes, with the xenoliths - forming a coherent group over the compositional range 56 to 674 Sia. Comparison with the country—rock chemistry shows that the xenoliths were not externally derived but probably represent quenched, more basic, comaqmatic melts related to the generation of the main Shap Granite magma. Limited Sr and Nd isotope data for the xenoliths show that these isotopes were in equilibrium with the granite and lends strong support for the cogeneric origins and chemical relationships for the granites, aykes and xenoliths together. The narrow aureole width is typical of those formed by conductive ratner convective cooling with interaction with the adjacent granite limited to thermal effects and not involving the cycling of fluids through the granite or aureole as in convective pluton cooling.

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The influence of anthropogenic activity on the natural environment is constantly changing. A series of major developments in human culture have resulted in a shifting nature of impact. Separating change attributable to humans and the change resulting from natural forcing is complex. This study investigates the degree of human impact during the onset of agriculture when humans were shifting from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to herding livestock and the cultivation of plants. This cultural development is known as the Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition within Europe. In particular, this project focuses on the nature of environmental change in Cumbria in the British Isles during the mid-Holocene. This region exhibits strong contrasts in landscape from coastal lowlands to mountainous uplands. Cumbria also has a rich record of archaeological sites and environmental reconstructions, but existing datasets have not allowed for detailed comparisons of the different landscapes. Two contrasting sites (one upland, one lowland) were investigated to produce a high-resolution environmental reconstruction including: vegetation change, burning patterns, catchment erosion and climatic changes. A radiocarbon chronology was produced for each site investigated. This was used to re-address the archaeological record and in particular, determine the details of the impact of humans on the landscape. Key differences are highlighted in the nature of human impact during the late-Mesolithic and early-Neolithic in contrasting landscapes with different types of land-use. There is an estimated temporal offset of around 200 years between similar events occurring in lowland and upland landscapes. Climatic variability indicates only small fluctuations and is unlikely to account for the extent of vegetation modification on its own. It is clear Neolithic activity is far more intensive than Mesolithic activity, but importantly the scale of impact in the upland landscape is far more extensive than the archaeological evidence would suggest. Furthermore, the upland landscape appears to recover relatively quickly after clearance events, whilst in the lowland environment, the open vegetation landscape remains far more dominant.

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