One of the loveliest and easiest routes in the Lakes is along the old corpse route from Chapel Stile to Grasmere. Some beautiful scenery and a wonderful paved path some of the way. Until the church at Chapel Stile was built, the dead of the Langdale Valley would have been carried to Grasmere for burial.

It’s a short route, so with a minor variation, we walked it in both directions, from Grasmere to Chapel Stile and then back again.
We walked up the lane from Grasmere to Huntingstile, where almost immediately you arrive at the paved section of the path. It seems almost miraculous to me that such old paths have survived as much as they have. It’s why we really must fight to preserve the original lines of our ancient rights of way. Take them away and you take away a hugely important part of our social history.

What I love about this path most are the views. So many familiar places, so many memories of walks in ancient sunlight.


In the steep graveyard at Chapel Stile is the grave of George Macauley Trevelyan, one of our greatest social historians, and perhaps the founder of the discipline of social history as we know it. “Historian of England”, his gravestone reads. What a wonderful epitaph.

Reading Trevelyan’s books on social history inspired my own studies, and prompted me to do the degree I did at the University of East Anglia. It led me to the historical writings of G.D.H Cole, E.P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm and Patricia Hollis – the latter a wonderful teacher who became my history tutor at UEA.

Too often these days, our politicians try to knock social history off the agenda, in favour of big names and kings and queens. All worth knowing no doubt, but important to remember the majority of us are descended from the workers of the world. In my time there has been a carefully constructed plot by some politicians to rewrite our history to excise working people from the agenda, Please don’t fall for it!

It was my study of social history that made me look again at the history of our old ways, the paths that tell so many stories.

And if you want to get a good slant on real British history, rather than the Establishment’s view of what you should know, then do read Trevelyan, and then Thompson, Cole, Hollis, the Hammonds and Hobsbawm.
Then, if walking is important to you, seek out the historians of walking and paths. GM Trevelyan was a grand fell-walker from a famous political and fell-walking family. He also used to participate in Lakeland “man-hunts”, where a volunteer would try to get from one point in the fells to another, evading a crowd of pursuers. I once did something similar on Dartmoor, where I had to get from Belstone to South Brent over two days without being captured. Grand fun…

Near to the grave of Trevelyan lies the last resting place of the wonderfully-named Cornelius Soul, who – the stone says – finished his days out on the Langdale Fells.

We had refreshments in Brambles cafe in Chapel Stile, then followed the lane back to Red Bank, once a gentleman’s residence but now the youth hostel. I was for many years a member of the YHA, in those days when hostelling was cheap and cheerful, when you slept and eat simply, couldn’t arrive by car, had sing-songs in the common room, and when hostels were so close together you could do walking tours from one hostel to another (you still can in the Lake District). Happy days!
Not sure I could afford YHA prices anymore!
We walked down to the start of Loughrigg Terrace, then down through the woods back to Grasmere. I often wonder what the old-timers like GM Trevelyan and Cornelius Soul would make of the Lake District of the 21st century?
Thinking of so many of the places I’ve walked, such as Dartmoor, I’m rather glad that I first knew them fifty years or more ago.
Oh wow, I never knew that! I’ve been going to Grasmere all these years, and I never knew that Trevelyan was buried near there. One of my university history professors was so proud of having taught Trevelyan’s granddaughter!
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Trevelyan’s mother’s family’s estate is now a public park very close to where I grew up, so I think Trevelyan understood North Manchester 🙂 .
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He certainly had a better understanding than many historians.
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I’m a life member of the YHA but I don’t hostel any more if I can help it – I loved it back then when it was as you describe but it’s just too changed now!
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As costs go you might as well do B and B/
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That’s very true!
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I didn’t know about that paved Corpse Road. Thank you for sharing and what an amazing name is Cornelius Soul..
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Well worth a couple of hours walk.
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Reblogged this on charles french words reading and writing and commented:
Please enjoy this wonderful post from John Bainbridge!
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May I ask what you think of Churchill’s History of the English-Speaking People?
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I have to say I’m not a fan. Churchill relied too much on his researchers and did little original research, and it does tend to be about the rulers rather than the ruled. But of course he was writing it at a time when this was the standard way of presenting history, so not altogether his fault. It’s well worth a critical read, though, but now very dated.
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I love grabbing the chance to catch up on your posts, John, as it gives me a break from all the current hassles I’m going through with the move (and other things!). What a great walk this was, and I enjoyed reading about Trevelyan and his interest in social history. I, too, have an interest in the lives of ordinary medieval people who, as in all history, made up the vast proportion of the population. After all, it’s their lives, customs and concerns that formed the bedrock of England’s story.
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Thank you; Wish you well with your move.
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