Discover Garstang

Make sure your volume is on: "Origins of Garstang"

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If you are a visitor to Garstang or perhaps you live here, it's easy to think that this town is mainly 18th century. This is not the case, and Garstang actually is considerably older than it first appears. The settlement of Garstang as its name might imply, was Norse in origin. The people who came here came from Scandinavia, and the word Stanger means settlement. And the settlement was founded by a Norseman by the name of Gary. He brought a stake and set it into the ground and declared that this was where the settlement was going to be established.

After Gary established his settlement, the Normans came in 1066 and changed everything at Garstang. They did three things to this country. They brought in the use of surnames, they brought in taxation, and they also brought sheep to this country for the first time.The Normans gave this town the name Cherestanc, because they could not pronounce the name Garstang, nor for that matter could they properly understand the native tongue of the Norse people who had made the settlement. The Normans were hated in the north of England as much as anywhere else in Britain. The Norman leader who was in charge of Northwest Lancaster was a man called Roger de Poitou. And as is well known, he introduced strict laws about hunting in this part of the country, which contained the famous forest of Bowland. The Normans decreed that no one was allowed to keep a hunting dog without special permission. And also it was forbidden to cut down trees for firewood. At the same time, anyone who threatened any Frenchman with a bow had his first two fingers cut off from his right hand.

Many years later, when William II died, he bequeathed the town of Garstang as an estate to the Abbots of Cockersand, and the Abbots had charge of Garstang for more than two centuries. But because Cockerham, where their Abbey was located is only a short ride away on horseback, there was never a need for a grange at Garstang. A grange is an established office created by Abbots for administration purposes on their estates.But despite this, a tithe barn was established in what we now call Church Street, and it is Garstang's only surviving Queen Anne building, and it is now used as a very attractive waterside restaurant and gathering point for visitors.