Melling, Lancashire

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude= 54.1359
longitude= -2.6182
map_type= Lancashire
official_name= Melling
population=
shire_district= City of Lancaster
shire_county = Lancashire
region= North West England
constituency_westminster=
post_town=
postcode_district =
postcode_area=
dial_code=
os_grid_reference= SD597712
civil_parish = Melling-with-Wrayton

Melling is a small settlement in Lancashire, England, forming part of a cluster of sites along the Lune Valley – the densest distribution of Norman castles outside of the Welsh border countryside. Each has evidence of a motte – as with Arkholme and Whittington - but Melling has no surviving bailey.

The village is in the civil parish of Melling-with-Wrayton, which includes the hamlet of Wrayton, and is in the City of Lancaster district. Wrayton (coord|54.144|-2.594) is north-east of Melling.

Railway Lines

Until 1952 Melling railway station was served by the Furness and Midland Joint Railway. The line continues in use for through traffic, although stopping trains ended on the branch in 1960. To the south-east, a tunnel takes the line to Wennington, where it connects to the Midland Railway; in the opposite direction, the next station was Arkholme. The line is now used by trains travelling between Morecambe/Lancaster and Leeds, as the Midland Railway between Lancaster and Wennington closed in 1966.

Geographical and Architectural Features

On the edge of the first terrace 6m above the flood plain – and within St Wilfrid’s vicarage garden – the motte at Melling is located centrally in the village, some distance from the present course of the river. The mound has been damaged by landscaping activities, but former channels of the varied course of the Lune can still be detected – on the Melling side of the plain.

Locally attributed as, “The Cathedral of the Lune Valley”, St Wilfrid’s Church, with a belfry of six bells appears, originally, to have formed the manorial chapel within the, now missing, castle bailey.

External links

* [http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/archaeologyandheritage/heritage/castle/melling.asp Castles in the Lune Valley]
* [http://home.clara.net/gw0hqd/fandm/fandm.htm Furness and Midland Joint Railway]
* [http://www.lancashirechurches.co.uk/melling.htm Lancashire Churches]