Arkholme
Lancashire

Photo: Richard Farn

Arkholme is on the bank of the Lune off the Carnforth to Kirkby Lonsdale road, a single street leading to the ancient ford across the river. The mediaeval parish church is on a bluff above the ford; in the churchyard, nearly touching the north-east corner of the church, is a high mound called Chapel Hill Motte - a defensive earthwork from possibly Saxon times. The countryside round Arkholme is of rolling limestone hills, pasture for sheep and cattle. Further off, eastwards, are the higher Pennine fells, the most prominent mountains being Gragareth in Lancashire and Ingleborough in Yorkshire.

In the 1911 Census, the population of Arkholme is given as 319 persons, 179 being male, in 62 separate households. A plaque (see photograph) inside the south doorway of the parish church names 59 men from Arkholme who served in the Great War and returned - the greatest number we havediscovered from any Thankful Village. There is also a stone tablet on the north wall of the church which says:- IN GRATITUDE TO GOD FOR VICTORY AND IN MEMORY OF HAROLD EDWARD NEWBY WHO DIED FOR HIS COUNTRY IN 1941 AND IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE GREAT WARS 1914 - 1918 & 1939 - 1945

Photo: Richard Farn

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