Hawkshead village

The village owes its existence to monks from Furness Abbey, who founded Hawkshead as a center for the medieval wool trade.

Wool – bog business at the time – built the large church above grey slate roofs and white walls. Following the dissolution of the abbey under Henry VIII, Hawkshead was granted its own market charter by James I in 1608, and became one of the main trading villages in the central Lakes.

By then the town had gained a grammar school, which was established by Archbishop Edwin Sandys of York in 1585.

Its most famous pupil was the poet William Wordsworth who described its warren of alleys, overhanging gables and medieval squares in his poem, The Prelude.

Hawkshead’s other famous literary connection is the children’s writer and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866-1944) who purchased Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey at the opposite end of Esthwaite Water in 1906.
Hawkshead village

Who is Alan Rufus (1040 - 1089)?

Alan Rufus, second of at least seven legitimate sons of Count Eudo, regent of Brittany from 1040 to 1047 and Agnes alias Orguen his Angevin wife.

Alan the Red (Rufus) one of the companions of the Conqueror was the greatest magnate in the north England and a son founder of the monastery of St Mary’s York, a man good reputation.

His title was, Alan Rufus, Earl of Brittany and Richmond. The Earl of Brittany and Richmond was the first subject in the kingdom of England and next rank to the royal family.

In 1086, Alan Rufus had aided his cousin William the Conqueror to claim his birth right as King of Normandy, England and Scotland. For his services, Alan was given lands, which became the headquarters for Richmond Castle on the River Swale.

Alan Rufus seized a huge swath of northern England at an estimated cost of some 150,000 lives and then left an estate worth £11,000 which computes to £81.3 billion in today’s money.

Alan Rufus, dying without issue in 1089, his immense possessions became vested in his brother Alan Niger, who died 1093, and afterwards in his brother Stephen. Stephen as a great benefactor to Swineshead Abbey and died 1137-8.
Who is Alan Rufus (1040 - 1089)?