Prehistoric flint scatter.
A small quantity of worked prehistoric flint was recovered from Knocksharry by CH Cowley, from the 'Rouyr Magher'.
No further details concerning the discovery were recorded and the grid reference relates to the farmstead for indicative purposes only.
The antiquary Charles Harry Cowley was an avid collector of worked flint and coarse stone artefacts revealed by agricultural activity, mainly on farms located around Peel, and occasionally from further afield. He was active from 1900 until 1943. His entire collection of artefacts, together with a daybook cataloguing his discoveries, was later donated to Manx National Heritage.
The site of an early medieval keeill or chapel and burial ground thought to have been used between circa AD500 and AD1000. The name of this Keeill is lost as is that of the Treen. The raised plateau is a natural bank of gravel and now reduced to a triangular area about 38 metres by 18 metres. Lintel graves have been noted here. The site is occupied by a modern house and garden and no identifiable feature remains.
A funerary monument which has been identified as a Neolithic 'Ronaldsway' type burial site, utilising a glacial mound. It has also been described as a "round cairn of early Bronze Age type." It may be a late Neolithic chambered cairn.
The cairn measures 29.0 metres northeast to southwest by 23.0 metres northwest to southeast. Its height to the southeast is 1.9 metres. At the foot of the mound to the north is a block of quartz 1.4 m long. There is a narrow opening into a chamber formed of large blocks of white quartz is exposed on the North side
The cairn was a prominent feature in the field numbered 253 on the 1869 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey map.
The site of the Knocksharry Methodist chapel which was founded in 1843, but closed in 1929. It was used as a Young Men's Club and Recreational Hall afterwards, but was sold in 1953 and converted into a dwelling.
This flat slab was found at Knocksharry, and is possibly derived from a nearby chapel and burial ground (IOMHER 0899.00). It is incised with many lines, but a long line down the centre of one face is crossed by two others to form a double-ended cross. The limbs are terminated by short lines forming serifs.
An important early prehistoric flint scatter has been found in this area. Numerous worked flints were recovered by C.H. Cowley. They include scrapers, knives and spearheads. No further details concerning the circumstances of these discoveries were recorded and the grid reference relates to the farmstead for indicative purposes only.
The antiquary Charles Harry Cowley was an avid collector of worked flint and coarse stone artefacts revealed by agricultural activity, mainly on farms located around Peel, and occasionally from further afield. He was active from 1900 until 1943. His entire collection of artefacts, together with a daybook cataloguing his discoveries, was later donated to Manx National Heritage.
The site of a flint scatter in Gowan field, Knocksharry, recorded in November, 1919. This is an area which has produced many 'Ronaldsway' type flints.
A Neolithic axe was also found on the surface of the west side of the field. The axe is in the Manx Museum, Accession No. 1135/34 (1)
Prehistoric flint scatter.
A very large quantity of worked prehistoric flint was recovered from Knocksharry by CH Cowley, from 'Cubbon's Field'.
The description relates to OS Field nos 0568 and 0570, which were amalgamated some time after 1868. The grid reference relates to the centre of Cubbon's Field as now delineated.
The antiquary Charles Harry Cowley was an avid collector of worked flint and coarse stone artefacts revealed by agricultural activity, mainly on farms located around Peel, and occasionally from further afield. He was active from 1900 until 1943. His entire collection of artefacts, together with a daybook cataloguing his discoveries, was later donated to Manx National Heritage.
The site of an early medieval keeill or chapel and burial ground thought to have been used between circa AD500 and AD1000. The name of this Keeill is lost as is that of the Treen. The raised plateau is a natural bank of gravel and now reduced to a triangular area about 38 metres by 18 metres. Lintel graves have been noted here. The site is occupied by a modern house and garden and no identifiable feature remains.
The site of a major Neolithic Ronaldsway 'Camp' site which has produced large quantities of worked flints. It is located in Cubbon's Field, Knocksharry, which is the fields numbered 568 and 570 on the 1869 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey map. Some Mesolithic 'Bann' material has also been found here.
The site of a major Neolithic Ronaldsway 'Camp' site which has produced large quantities of worked flints. It is located in Cubbon's Field, Knocksharry, which is the fields numbered 568 and 570 on the 1869 1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey map. Some Mesolithic 'Bann' material has also been found here.
A pair of white quartz boulders, measuring 0.75 metres high by 0.45 metres wide, which have been interpreted in the past as possible "portal stones" associated with the nearby Neolithic chambered cairn (PRN 0896.00). It is not known if they are in situ or if they are genuinely of antiquity.
C.H. Cowley undertook an excavation on 24 July 1921 and opened two graves thought to be part of an early medieval cemetery associated with a lost keeill. One of the graves was built of shore stones, the other with slate slabs. Pebbles were found in the graves but no bones survived. On 12 November 1922 Cowley also found the base of a flint "sickle stone."
Lancashire estate and one of the principal seats of the Stanley family, Lords of Man.
Knowsley formed, with Lathom, the centre of the Stanley family's English estates. The household accounts preserve the scale of the establishment maintained by the Earls of Derby. The ordinary weekly consumption of the household was about one ox, twelve calves, twenty sheep, fifteen hogsheads of ale, together with bread, fish and poultry. The forests around Knowsley supplied logs for the fires, while the low ground around Lathom supplied turves.
James Stanley, seventh Earl of Derby, was born at Knowsley on 31 January 1606/7. Much of the surviving manuscript material used by later editors to reconstruct his life and government was preserved there.
The library contained a vellum manuscript in French and Latin, richly decorated with heraldic arms, setting out the genealogy of James Stanley and his wife Charlotte de la Trémoille. The volume had apparently been prepared around the time of their marriage and emphasised the royal and noble ancestry claimed by both families.
The Stanley Papers were themselves later edited from manuscripts held at Knowsley. The Chetham Society acknowledged the Earl of Derby for allowing access to the papers of James Stanley and to other manuscripts in the library, as well as permitting portraits in the collection to be engraved.
Knowsley also appeared regularly in the movement of people between the English and Manx Stanley estates. Manx officials, tenants and petitioners might deal with the Earl either on the Island or at one of his Lancashire houses.
Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) was a German-born artist associated with the Dada and Merz movements. He fled Nazi Germany in 1937 and, after the outbreak of the Second World War, was interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien, at Hutchinson Square camp in Douglas. During his internment, he continued to produce art and gave lectures to fellow internees, and his time on the Island forms a notable chapter in the history of wartime internment.
May Day in the Manx calendar. Mountain ash branches placed on doorways and gateposts to protect the household from evil. Rowan crosses tied with red thread above the door. Cattle driven between fires for purification. The combat between winter and summer enacted on every farm. One of the quarter days marking the turning of the Manx year, connecting the agricultural calendar to the older world of protective custom. The mountain ash went on the door because that was what you did on May Day. The practice required no explanation to the people who carried it out, and no permission from anyone else.
Laa Columb Killey (St Columba's Day) is a parish fair held in Arbory, in the south of the island, celebrating the Gaelic saint Columba (Colmcille), founder of Iona Abbey. Arbory has held its traditional end-of-June parish fair for over a century; since 1912 the celebrations have taken the form of a fancy-dress procession, a crowned festival princess and attendants, Manx country dancing, sports, entertainment and a ceilidh. Unlike Ireland or Scotland, where the day falls on 9 June, Arbory marks it towards the end of June.
Lammas, 1 August. The people climbed to the highest hills and visited the sacred wells. Probably originally associated with the Celtic god Lug, who in Manx tradition had been brought up at the court of Manannan. Another point in the ritual year where the Christian calendar and something older converged without contradiction.
St Bridget's Day, 1 February, the first of the Manx quarter days. Rushes gathered and laid at the threshold with a spoken invitation: Brede, Brede, tar gys my thie, Bridget, Bridget, come to my house. Was this a Christian saint's day or something connected to the Celtic goddess Brigid? Both. Neither. It was what the Manx people did on the first of February, and they had always done it. The crossing point between the Celtic goddess and the Christian saint was so seamless that nobody needed to choose. The accommodation at work in a doorway.
St Patrick's Day, 17 March. The saint's staff was carried in procession. Staffland was held on that tenure since at least 1231, confirmed by Papal Bull. Another intersection of the Christian calendar with older practice, woven into the land tenure system itself.
Medieval burial ground.
The site was investigated by the Manx Archaeological Survey in 1908. The Survey surveyed an oval enclosure on a slight terrace, within which the chapel stands. This was used as a burial ground, and the site has notably produced a total of ten carved crosses which appear once to have served as grave-markers, though many of them were found built into the walls of the chapel.
The enclosure measures about 24 x 30m and has been artificially levelled by cutting into the slope on the east side. From this higher ground a bank has been extended about two thirds of the distance round the north end and a quarter of the way round the southern, thus defining the enclosure. An entrance from the south-east is marked by an upright stone, 1.2m high.
The two cairns of stones marking the approach from the north are substantially modern.
A stone slab with an incised cross on each face, found during excavation of the keeill site at Lag ny Keeilley by the Manx Archaeological Survey in 1909. It measures 38 x 16.5 x 2 inches. One face is more weathered and may once have borne an equal-limbed cross, while the other bears a Latin cross. It is now kept in the Manx Museum, along with other simple cross-incised slabs found at or near the same keeill.
