Manor of Hougun

The Manor of Hougun is the historic name for an area which now forms part of the county of Cumbria in north-west England. Of the three most northern counties of England surveyed in the Domesday Book of 1086 (Northumbria, Durham and Cumbria), only the southern band of land in the south of Cumbria was recorded. The westernmost entries for Cumbria, covering the Duddon and Furness Peninsulas are largely recorded as part of the Manor of Hougun. The entry in Domesday Book covering Hougun refers to the time (ca. 1060) when it was held by Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria.

The exact location of Hougun has been long disputed and Millom is often suggested, although High Haume near Dalton-in-Furness has also been proposed, given that it was recorded in 1336 as Howehom. It has also been suggested that the centre of the district was Furness, and that the territory included the Millom area, plus part or all of Cartmel – what would later be the Lancashire territory known as Amounderness.

The name itself is commonly thought to derive from the Old Norse haugr meaning mound or hill. Island of Hougun (Houganai) was also the name given to nearby Walney Island.

The Domesday entry for Hougun is therefore significant in indicating the extent of Norman control of the north-west, probably down to 1092, when William II of England took over Carlisle and northern Cumberland. North of the Hougun district, the land was part of Strathclyde/Cumbria, under Scottish overlordship.

At some time before the shiring of Lancaster, Cumberland and Westmorland (which took place around 1157-1182), parts of the Hougun area had been split off. Furness Abbey was given the Furness peninsula; and St Bees Priory was granted land from the Norman lord of Millom around 1125. The Hougun entry is as follows (land is measured in carucates in the north, which is roughly the amount of land assumed to provide for one household for one year):

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