Ireleth Ireleth is the smaller and older of the two villages, with its origins stretching back to the
Viking occupation of Britain. It was originally clustered along a stream, named 'Hole Beck', about half a mile up the hill from the estuary below. It was also the junction of four roads passing through the area. Firstly, there was the 'Sands' road, named 'Marsh Lane' in maps of the 1850s, heading down the hill towards the shore, where it met one of the possible routes for crossing the treacherous tidal sands of the
Duddon at low tide. Secondly, there was the lane heading north along a ridge towards
Kirkby-in-Furness. Part of these two roads form today's A595 main road. There was also a road leading up the stream's valley towards the hamlet of
Marton, and finally a road east over the hills towards
Dalton-in-Furness.
Viking origins exist in two forms: remains have been found near St. Peter's parish church It is thought the village was included in the
Domesday Book, compiled soon after the
Norman Conquest, but there is debate over which of the entries for the
Furness area in
William the Conqueror's census actually refers to modern day Ireleth. During the
Middle Ages, the entire area was controlled by the
Cistercian monks of
Furness Abbey. During this time, Ireleth was little more than one of many farming communities in Furness. The iron ore developments of Askam largely bypassed Ireleth, and the village developed slowly, housing farmers and workers from local towns. or a tailor who had left the area to make his fortune in London, Ireleth did not have a parish church at this point, falling into the 'Above Town' area, together with the hamlets of Marton and Lindal, of the parish of
Dalton-in-Furness. In 1860, Ireleth, along with the newly founded Askam, petitioned for the creation of its own parish but approval for a new ecclesiastical parish of 'Ireleth-with-Askam' did not come until almost ten years later in 1874.
Askam Askam's history starts much more recently. In 1850, iron ore deposits were discovered in the area by
Henry Schneider. These turned out to be the second largest iron ore deposits in the country, with over 7 million tons of ore extracted. By 1896, 547 men were employed in the pits by the village and in nearby
Roanhead, 347 of them underground. Several hundred others worked in local mines at Mouzell (between Ireleth and
Dalton-in-Furness), Roanhead and Dalton. Some were owned by the
Kennedy Brothers Ltd. firm of
Ulverston Barrow Haematite Steel Co and the Millom and Askam Iron Company. The latter built four
blast furnaces in the village to smelt the iron ore being brought from mines all over the peninsula by rail. The village continued to grow with terraced houses and allotments erected for the flood of immigrant labour needed to work the mines. They came from all parts of the
British Isles, with a large proportion coming from existing mining areas in
Cornwall and Ireland. The Cornish in particular tended to bring their families and settle, while the Irish often moved on to wherever there was work. Others came from areas where Askam's mine owners had other concerns, such as Scotland and
Wales. Remnants of the steel industry remain in Askam, as evidenced by a pier, consisting of slag from the works, that juts out into the bay toward
Millom. By 1918, the iron ore had run out and most of the industrial buildings were demolished in 1933. While the strip development has effectively created one larger community in the past fifty years, residents of both villages still retain a strong sense of being either from Askam
or Ireleth. Road signs read 'Askam and Ireleth' on entering the villages by road, but an older 'A595 – Ireleth' sign still stands on the former boundary between the two. In administration terms, the civil parish of which they are both part uses the name Askam with Ireleth, as does the local
Women's Institute (WI) which had previously been called Ireleth WI. The parish was formed in 1987 from the unparished area of Dalton-in-Furness. ==Governance==