Askam in Furness, United Kingdom

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. Several sources name a settlement called Gerleuuorde, part of the Manor of Hougun, as the correct entry but there is no conclusive evidence to support this, not least because of the discrepancies in spelling. Samuel Lewis' A Topological Dictionary of England, written 1848, posits a different contender as the true Ireleth. He claimed Ouregrave referred to the village because of the existence of a mill named Orga-Mill, but he conceded this was also conjecture. Lewis' full text on Ireleth is below.

IRELETH, a chapelry, in the parish of Dalton-In-Furness, union of Ulverston, hundred of Lonsdale north of the Sands, N. division of Lancashire, 3 miles (N.) from Dalton; containing 744 inhabitants. Ogra-Mill, in this township, has been conjectured to be the Ouregrave of the Domesday survey: Roanhead is the point for crossing Dudden sands by the ancient road into Cumberland. Upon the east borders of Ireleth, also called Above Town, are the iron-mines of Whitridge, Lindal Moor, Cross Gates, and Inman Gill, the richest and most productive mines in Furness, with the exception of Cross Gates, the works of which have been suspended. Many thousand tons of ore are raised annually in the township. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £100; patron, the Vicar of Dalton. The chapel was built in 1608, by Giles Brownrigg, and was originally intended for a school.

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. The religious history of the village is recorded as starting around the year 1608, when an endowment was created to fund a village school. Giles Brownrigg, named variously as a local landowner or a tailor who had left the area to make his fortune in London, gave money to establish a school house and a salary for a schoolmaster. This building existed on what is today Sun Street; the only remains today are a font and a plaque, kept in the modern day school building, inscribed:

Giles Brownrig caused this school house to be builded the 6 yeare of King James ano 1608 and gave a yearly salari to the schole maister for ever [sic]

Ireleth featured in the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales. In this, it is said-

IRELETH, a village and a chapelry in Dalton-in-Furness parish, Lancashire. The village stands at a st. of the Furness railway, on the E side of the Duddon sands, 2¾ miles N of Dalton; is a small sub port to Lancaster; and maintains communication across the sands at low water. The chapelry includes also the hamlets of Lindale and Marton; but does not appear to have definite limits. Post town, Dalton-in-Furness. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Carlisle. Value, £100.* Patron, the Vicar of Dalton. The church stands on an eminence, overlooking the Duddon.

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. Lacking a place of worship, it was decided the newly built school could also be put to use as a chapel. Fishwick's 'Lancashire & Cheshire Church Surveys, 1649–1655' of 1849 cites this record from a church survey taken in 1650:

That the Chappell of Irleth is not farr distant from its parish Church [Dalton in Furness], but neare enough thereto, and was onely built for a schoole, and some for their perticuler ease would have the same made a Chappell [sic]

In 1860, Ireleth, along with the newly founded Askam, petitioned for the creation of its own parish following the rapid increase in population. Construction of a parish church began, with the money to build St. Peter's coming from the new-found profits of iron ore mining, giving rise to the name the 'Iron Church'. It was dedicated for use on St. Peter's Day, 29 June 1865, but approval for a new ecclesiastical parish of 'Ireleth-with-Askam' did not come until almost ten years later in 1874.