St Michaels Mount, Workington (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
How Micheal

In the civil parish of Workington.
In the historic county of Cumberland.
Modern Authority of Cumbria.
1974 county of Cumbria.
Medieval County of Cumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NX985283
Latitude 54.63978° Longitude -3.57417°

St Michaels Mount, Workington has been described as a probable Pele Tower.

There are no visible remains.

Description

A tower 23-1/2ft. & 17ft. repaired early 19th Cent. Probably carried the beacon in 1468 and 1688 (Collingwood 1923). Destroyed in 1946 to make way for a slag tip (OS Record – H Valentine Sept 1948)
St. Michael's Mount or How Michael is a typical small pele tower. Itis built of rough masonry with narrow loophole windows except that two larger, unornamented, windows face landwards. The arched ground floor measures 23-1/2 by 17ft. and there is a narrow winding stair to the upper floor. Although called Watch Chapell (State Papers (Domestic) 1569 (PRO)) in 1569 and Holme Chapel by Pennant (1726-1798) it is quite unlike a chapel. It stands on Chapel Bank Hill 90ft above sea level, the only considerable hill in the parish. The hill is probably the Workington Hill given in a list of Mid-15th century beacon sites (Nicholson & Burn). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 8570.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 3682.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Books
- Perriam, Denis and Robinson, John, 1998, The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 29) p. 108
  Curwen, J.F., 1913, Castles and Fortified Towers of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands (Kendal: CWAAS Extra Series 13) p. 335
  Whellan, W., 1860, The History and Topography of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland (Pontefract: W.Whellan and Co.) p. 464 online copy
  Nicholson, J. and Burn, R., 1777, History of Westmorland and Cumberland (London) Vol. 1 p. xliv fn online copy
Periodical Articles
- Collingwood, W.G., 1923, 'An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Cumberland' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 23 p. 250 online copy
  1900, 'Excursions' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol. 16 p. 52 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 2006, Extensive Urban Survey - Cumbria (Cumbria County Council) Download copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

Data >	PastScape	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio