35 King Arthur’s Lake – Martin Mere in Lancashire: 2 October 2024

About 6 years ago when I discovered that the Hankin family came from a place I had never previously heard of, I came across an ancient map of the area of Lancashire called Lathom.  The Hankin family were farmers in Lathom from at least the late 1500s, which is when regular records of births, deaths and marriages commenced in England.  Specifically, the Hankin family farms was located in a part of Lathom called Hoscar Moss.

Wiki claims “The name Hoscar is derived from the Old Norse “hross” or Old English “hors” and “kjarr” (marshland), again from Old Norse.”  It seems Hoscar Moss means something like “horse swamp”.

I became intrigued about Lathom and Hoscar Moss when I found this old map of Lathom.  The top of the map is oriented to the west rather than to the north as is now the usual practice.

The area with the circular “oval” ring has the word “Lathom” written inside it.  Above and to the right of the Lathom oval is a large, elongated lake which has no name.  The lake has an outlet where water discharges into a waterway running through the middle of the Lathom ring and if you look, you will see that there are 3 islands in the lake.

When I found this map of Lathom, I wondered what the name of the lake was and I began looking for the lake.  I could not find the lake shown on this map because this lake no longer exists. 

The lake did exist in 1600 when the map was made and it was called Martin Mere.

Martin Mere is the fabled lake around which the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are set. 

according to the legends, Sir Lancelot was brought to the shores of Martin Mere by his parents King Ban and Queen Elaine, who had fled from France. They landed in Lancashire and the baby Sir Lancelot was placed and abducted by the Lady of the Lake (Vivian) who raised him as her son.  This gave Lancelot his name – Sir Lancelot of the Lake.   the Lady of the Lake ws probably the local manifestation of the Irish Goddess Brigid

Even more famously, as King Arthur was dying, he ordered Sir Bedivere to throw his sword Excalibur into a lake.  Twice in succession, Sir Bedivere lied and said he had thrown Excalibur into the lake.  The dying King Arthur finally knew that Excalibur had been thrown into the lake when Sir Bedivere told him that a hand had come out of the lake and caught it when he threw it into the lake.

Martin Mere was the lake into which Sir Bedivere finally threw Excalibur.

Martin Mere was a magical place in the past and it is still a magical place today

Draining of Martin Mere was first attempted in 1697 by one of the local landowners Lord Fleetwood.  Given that Lord Fleetwood was deliberately destroying a sacred lake so that he could make money, it was appropriate that Lord Fleetwood was bankrupted by his drainage attempt.

The farm operated by my ancestors in Hoscar Moss was just south of the original shoreline of Martin Mere, but to reach the shoreline, you would have had to navigate your way through the boggy ground which had given the name Hoscar Moss to the marshland immediately to the north of the ancestral farm.

I doubt it is practical for Martin Mere to be kept drained indefinitely into the future.   I am staying 3 nights in Scarisbrick, where some of my ancestors once had a farm.  This is a picture of Scarisbrick in 1956 when the drainage works were unable to cope with the heavy rainfall.

In surface area, King Arthur’s Lake was the largest lake in the whole of England.  It was a truly impressive lake.

The siting of King Arthur in Lancashire is not at all implausible.  The Romans stationed a heavy cavalry regiment throughout most of their occupation of Britain (about 300 years) at Ribchester, near Preston in Lancashire.  The notion that all Roman military units – including units which had been continuously in Britain for nearly 300 years – simply left when the Empire ordered them to go to Europe to fight its wars in Europe, is difficult to believe. 

I think the tales of King Arthur and his knights probably originated in the Roman cavalry units from Ribchester area which stayed on after the Empire ordered them to abandon Britain.

The original Martin Mere is by no means completely conquered.  A new pumping station was opened at Crossens in 1961 and it was upgraded in 1997.  The drainage pumps are capable of shifting 1,700 tons of water per minute and were required to run at full capacity for the first time in 2000 to avoid flooding.  The volume of water pumped out of Martin Mere to keep it drained, increases every year.

In place of the original gigantic Martin Mere lake, there is now only the magnificent Martin Mere Wetland Centre – a wonderful bird sanctuary which I visited today.  These photos were taken at Matin Mere Wetland Centre.