Eden Valley in Westmorland
For much of its course, the River Eden winds through a broad green vale of fertile countryside. To the west are the Lakeland fells and to the east are the Pennines. The valley of the Eden and its broader vale are a home to country towns and villages accompanied by pleasing scenery. On this page we feature those parts of the Eden valley that lie within the historic county of Westmorland. The Cumberland stretch of the Eden is featured on a separate page.
The vale plays a central role for route-ways, both ancient and modern, knitting so many parts of northern England together. Significantly, the Eden flows south to north, its valley forming a short-cut to and from Scotland. This made the vale a not-so-welcoming target for Border raiders in times past giving rise to the imposing castles of Brough; Brougham; Appleby and Carlisle.
From Appleby northward, the A66, arriving from Brough to the east, closely follows the Eden’s northward course, while far to the west near Tebay and Penrith, the M6 runs close to the western fringes of the vale where we find the Rivers Leith and Lowther. Other minor route-ways linked to the vale take us into valley passes, crossing watersheds between river catchments. These may take you south into Lancashire, via the Lune; south west to Kendal and the southern lakes or south and east into Yorkshire’s Swaledale and Wensleydale.
Further north you may head east through the ancient route-way of the Stainmore Gap onward to Durham and York or perhaps nipping into neighbouring Teesdale via a different River Lune, the Teesdale Lune, not to be confused with its Lancaster-destined namesake to the south.
Further north still along the Eden as we head towards Cumberland, we have the looming presence of Cross Fell, overlooking the vale and marking the highest point in all the Pennines. In Cumberland the Eden can lead us into the northern lakes; the Tyne Gap; the Carlisle plain or onwards into Scotland through Eskdale and Annandale.
Although the far north-western part of England including the Lake District region is familiarly known as ‘Cumbria’, the course of the Eden and its vale really belongs to two separate historic counties: Westmorland and Cumberland. The southern part of the Eden vale including Mallerstang; Brough; Warcop; Appleby, Kirkby Stephen and Temple Sowerby belong to the county of Westmorland, with the ‘by’ of these last three place-names revealing their Viking origin.
Westmorland is historically the least populous county in the north. It stretches north west to the River Eamont (an Eden tributary) and its far north western corners includes Brougham, Yanwath, Pooley Bridge and the eastern bank of Ullswater. To the south and south-west, Westmorland historically includes some lakeland locations such as Grasmere and Rydal as well as the north-easterly banks of Lake Windermere, including Ambleside and Bowness-on-Windermere. Westmorland also includes the large town of Kendal to the south. In fact this old county of Westmorland stretches all the way south to Kirkby Lonsdale near the Lancashire border.
However, it is the Eden valley that forms the heart of Westmorland, where perhaps we can find the closest cultural attachment to the historic county. Here, Westmorland flags proudly fly high in the market place of Kirkby Stephen while the town of Appleby still goes by the title ‘Appleby-in-Westmorland’, leaving us in no doubt where it belongs.
Westmorland is a county that was seemingly colonised from the east, possibly from the Yorkshire part of what was once the Kingdom of Northumbria or perhaps its name recalls a people of more ancient times. Its name derives from ‘Westmoringas’ or ‘Westmaringas’ meaning ‘the people who reside west of the moors’ (possibly west of Stainmore) or perhaps ‘the people of the western march’, meaning the western borders of Northumbria. We cannot be sure.
Hell Gill Beck
The River Eden begins in the Pennines near the historic border of Westmorland and Yorkshire. It starts life on Black Fell Moss as Hell Gill Beck, the principal tributary of the Eden at its source. For two and a half miles this beck flows south-west, marking the old Westmorland and North Riding of Yorkshire border before suddenly bending north near the Hellgill Force waterfall to form the Eden itself, beginning its journey to Carlisle and the Solway Firth.
The ‘force’ of Hellgill Force derives from a Viking word ‘fors’ meaning waterfall, a term found in parts of Yorkshire, Teesdale, Cumberland and Westmorland. Hellgill is a picturesque waterfall, thirty-two feet high and is the highest on the Eden.
We are in a watershed area here. The catchment of the Eden lies to the north while to the south-west the becks feed the Lune, destined for Lancaster and the Irish Sea. Only a quarter of a mile south of Hell Beck, over in Yorkshire, we find the early course of the River Ure in what are the uppermost parts of Wensleydale. The Ure is destined for the Ouse; the Humber and ultimately the North Sea.
If we continue west from where Hell Beck bends at Hellgill Force there is a ridge of a little less than a mile called Stubbing Rigg, leading to another ridge at Swarth Fell where the borders of Yorkshire’s North Riding and West Riding traditionally met with that of Westmorland.
Along the Eden, a little over half a mile north of the waterfall is a farm called Aisgill, overlooked by Aisgill Viaduct on the Settle-Carlisle railway. It crosses the neighbouring Aisgill Beck. The Settle-Carlisle railway reaches the highest point on its course near Aisgill. Coming up from the south east, the B6259 road from Garsdale and upper Wensleydale follow the course of the Eden from here. To the west is Wild Boar Fell and someway to the south-east is Great Shunner Fell.
Much of this area is called Mallerstang, a civil parish in what is actually the far south-eastern corner of Westmorland but lying just within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Mallerstang is the name of a ridge to the east of the Eden valley here, with its highest point, High Seat, being on the old Westmorland boundary with Yorkshire. A mile or so to the south are piles of stones and a cairn at a point called Gregory Chapel. The ‘stang’ of the name Mallerstang refers to a pole or landmark of some kind while the first part of the name comes from an Old Norse personal name Málmfríðr or possibly from the Brittonic ‘moel-fre’ meaning ‘bare-hill’.
The first Eden valley village we encounter in Mallerstang, to the north of Aisgill, is Outhgill, a tiny place in Pennine scenery on the eastern side of the Eden. The father of the famous scientist, Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was once the village blacksmith here. The village church, on the south bank of the river, is dedicated to St Mary and dates from 1663. It was instigated by Lady Anne Clifford, whose presence and influence can be found throughout the Eden valley.
Less than a mile north of Outhgill village is Pendragon Castle, a late Norman pele tower associated in local legend with Uther Pendragon, the father of the legendary King Arthur. According to one story Uther tried to divert the River Eden to protect this castle but failed as the stubborn river had ideas of its own:
Let Uther Pendragon do what he can,
Eden will run where Eden ran.
However, there is no evidence of a pre-Norman site and the name of the castle doesn’t occur until 1309, at a time when a passion for Arthurian legends was at its height. The castle protected the hunting forest of Mallerstang and routes between Yorkshire and Westmorland. Pendragon Castle may be the castle of ‘Malvestang’, first mentioned in 1228. Whatever its roots, Pendragon Castle was burnt by the Scots in a raid of 1541 and restored by Lady Ann Clifford in 1664. It was one of a number of castles in her family’s ownership. Sadly, it fell into ruin again in the eighteenth century.
West of the castle, a road called ‘Tommy Road’ leaves the B6259 and crosses the Eden at a little bridge before crossing the hills westward to join the A683 Sedbergh to Kirkby Stephen Road. We, however, now continue north, following the B6259 and Eden valley, encountering a little farm called Southwaite on the east side and further to the north, in an isolated location, not accessible by path are the ruins of Lammerside Castle, a fourteenth century pele tower.
Continuing north, the next place we encounter is the village of Nateby, just south of Kirkby Stephen. Nateby’s Viking ‘by’ village-name means ‘settlement belonging to Nati’ or perhaps ‘settlement amongst the nettles’. Across the Eden, south west of Nateby, is Wharton Hall, a fifteenth century fortified house that was a seat of the Wharton family who hailed from here, although they also resided at Healaugh Priory near Tadcaster.
Wharton Hall was attacked during the Pilgrimage of Grace by Robert Aske in 1536. In 1568, Mary Queen of Scots was brought here on her way to Bolton Castle in Wensleydale. She had arrived in England at Workington and was initially held in Carlisle before being brought to Wharton via Lowther Castle.
Kirkby Stephen
Kirkby Stephen is the first town on the journey northward along the River Eden valley. ‘Kirkby’, the first part of the name, is Viking and means ‘farmstead or village with a church’. Kirkby Thore, further north along the Eden (to the north of Appleby) and Kirkby Lonsdale (another Westmorland town) in Lunedale, to the south, have the same meaning.
Why Stephen was added to the name of Kirkby Stephen is a matter of debate. The obvious reasoning would be that the church is or was dedicated to St Stephen. However, although the church is often referred to as the ‘church of St Stephen’, there is no evidence that it has ever been dedicated as such. In fact it seems that it was possibly dedicated to St John.
Another suggestion for the origin of the town’s name is that there was once a tower here belonging to someone called Stephen. Alternatively, it could refer to Stephen de Whitby, who was an early Abbot of the Benedictine abbey of St Mary’s Abbey in York. The early church at Kirkby Stephen was given by the powerful eleventh century baron, Ivo Taillebois, to that abbey. One other idea is that ‘Stephen’ derives from a corruption or popular mispronunciation of Kirkby ‘Sur-Eden’ (Kirkby on Eden).
The first Norman church at Kirkby Stephen was built around 1170 on the site of an Anglo-Saxon Viking age church but the oldest parts of the church today are mostly of the thirteenth century, with the chancel and its chapels dating from the mid nineteenth century.
The prominent tower of around 1506, which provides a focal point for the town, gives it the unofficial status and moniker ‘Cathedral of the Dales’, although it should be said that other churches throughout the dales of northern England make similar claims to this title.
Tombs in the church include Thomas Wharton, First Lord Wharton of 1568, and two of his wives. Wharton bought the church and its lands following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Other, earlier tombs represent members of the Musgrave family, including one featuring the effigy of a knight.
The church is also home to a carved Viking hogback tomb, of which similar examples can be found at Appleby, Lowther, Penrith and in western Cumbria towards the coast. Also in the church from this era is the shaft of an Anglo-Danish Viking cross from a period when Pagan Viking and Christian beliefs were fusing into one. The cross shaft features a bearded ‘devil’ identified as the Norse god, Loki, who is bound and chained.
Kirkby Stephen itself is an attractive little Westmorland town situated on the western bank of the River Eden and is centred on the A685. This road forms the Main Street through the town which continues north towards Winton and Brough, where it joins the A66. At the heart of the town is Market Square which has a great deal of character. Kirkby Stephen was first granted a charter for a market (and also a fair) in 1353, during the reign of Edward III.
Between the market square and grounds of the church is a screen called ‘The Cloisters’ built of local red sandstone by George Gibson in 1810. According to the inscription it was: “Built at the will of John Waller Esq, a Purser in his Majesty’s Navy and a Native of this Town”.
The Upper Eden visitor centre occupies an island in the market place with lots of local information and maps. Nearby are some interesting buildings, one of particular note being a bank that was given its unusual facade by John F Curwen in 1903 and features a high chimney right down the centre of the facade between two gables.
In front of the visitor centre is a sculpture of Lady Anne Clifford (1590-1676). It was the creation of Dianne Lawrenson, an artist from Winton to the north of Kirkby Stephen. Installed in 2020, it commemorates Lady Clifford’s important role in the wider Westmorland community.
As well as restoring buildings, Lady Anne set up churches, schools and almshouses in what was a relatively poor region during a difficult period of history. Lady Anne would have passed through Kirkby Stephen on her travels between her castles at Pendragon and Brough.
Pubs overlooking the Market Square and Market Street include the Pennine Inn; Black Bull and Kings Arms, while a little further north beyond where Market Street becomes North Road is a pub called ‘The Taggy Man’, opposite the church.
Its curious name relates to the Kirkby Stephen tradition of the church bell being rung at eight o’clock every evening to signify a curfew (‘taggy’ being an old word for a curfew). Local children were once told that the mysterious ‘taggy man’ would get them if they were not home by eight.
A number of narrow streets, wiends (wynds) and alleyways (some with stone stairways) adjoin Main Street and have great character adding to the charm of Kirkby Stephen.
One attractive narrow street is Croft Street with an interesting inn on its corner. Back in the Market Place, near ‘the Cloisters’, a narrow lane called ‘Stoneshot’ heads down towards Frank’s Bridge and the River Eden.
Who Frank was is not certain, but he may have been a brewer called Francis Birkbeck, since a number of the neighbouring stone buildings between the bridge and market square were formerly part of a brewery.
The bridge itself dates from the seventeenth century and is one of two bridges of that era in the town. The other is the larger Low Mill Bridge, slightly to the north, which takes the Hartley Road across the Eden to the nearby village of Hartley to the east. Frank’s Bridge is said to be haunted by a female ghost who ‘jangles her chains’ – she was once apparently a prisoner at nearby Hartley Castle.
Beyond the bridge you can climb the nearby Kirkby Hill where there are lovely panoramic views from the top. The crest of of the hill is topped by a feature with a circular metal plate on which are marked out the specific names and heights of distant fells in all directions as well as pointing out the locations of neighbouring regions such as Swaledale, Mallerstang and Lunedale. There is also a pleasing view of Kirkby Stephen itself.
Crossing back over the Eden via Frank’s Bridge we can take a back road called Mellbecks to the south end of Market Street. There are a number of stone houses along this back street, including an old smithy. At is south end Melbecks terminates close to where Main Street becomes High Street. Nearby, in Victoria Square there is an imposing Temperance Hall of 1856 and a large Georgian style Methodist chapel of 1839.
Hartley
Just east of Kirkby Stephen and Kirkby Hill is the village of Hartley that was once the site of Hartley Castle. Hartley was historically called Harcla and is thought to derive from ‘hard-claw’ referring to a curved ridge of land between the Eden and Hartley Beck. The manor originally belonged to the Clifford family but was confiscated from them and given to Andrew De Harcla before 1315. He took his name from the place and fortified the manor house.
It was in 1315 that De Harcla became a hero for his defending of Carlisle Castle against the Scots but he was later accused of being a traitor and colluding with Robert the Bruce. He was executed and cut to pieces with his limbs put on display on town walls throughout England. His castle later came into the hands of the Nevilles and Musgraves but was abandoned after 1677 and virtually nothing remains. An eighteenth century farmhouse stands on the site.
On a hill-top called Hartley Fell in the Pennines just under three miles south east of Hartley is the intriguing Nine Standards Rigg, which is named from nine prominent tall-standing cairns on its summit that are thought to have marked the boundary between Hartley parish and Winton parish.
Ravenstonedale
Three miles south-west of Kirkby Stephen along the A685 Tebay road is Ravenstonedale. Just to its west we reach a watershed where streams feed the Lancaster-destined River Lune rather than the Eden, with the village of Newbiggin-on-Lune to the west. Ravenstonedale features houses of light grey carboniferous limestone and a Georgian church of 1738-1744, dedicated to St Oswald. Near the church are scant foundations of a Gilbertine monastery, an outlying cell of Watton Priory in East Yorkshire. It fell into ruin following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s.
The village is located on the Scandal Beck, an Eden tributary, which downstream hosts the Smardale Viaduct of fourteen arches, built in 1861 by Cumberland engineer, Sir Thomas Bouch for the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway. East of the viaduct, towards, Kirkby Stephen, is a farm called Smardale on a road called ‘Towngate’ and a little to its east, a tiny village of stone houses called Waitby – from the Viking ‘vatr-by’, meaning ‘wet farm’.
A little west of Smardale Viaduct is Crosby Garrett on the Crosby Garrett Beck, another Eden tributary. The village has a part Viking name ‘Crosby’ meaning ‘village with a cross or crosses’, while the Garrett part comes from the French name Gerard though who exactly Gerard was is not known.
Crosby Garrett’s church is dedicated to St Andrew and dates from a number of periods up to the nineteenth century, including a north arcade of 1175 and part of an Anglo-Saxon arch in the chancel. Above the village is Crosby Garrett Viaduct of six arches, dating from 1866, carrying the Settle-Carlisle Railway across Crosby Garrett Beck. A Roman helmet was discovered by a metal detectorist near the village in 2010. A mile and a half west of the village are the tiny settlements of Little Asby and Asby Farm.
Further down the Scandal Beck north east of Kirkby Stephen is Soulby village, home to the church of St Luke, built by Sir Philip Musgrave of Hartley in 1663 and renovated in the 1870s. Soulby is thought to be ‘Sulh-by’ meaning ‘farmstead made of posts’.
Brough and Belah
We now briefly depart from the River Eden, to the north of Kirkby Stephen and follow the A685 towards Brough but still remaining firmly within Eden’s broader vale. A little to the north east, between the A685 and the Mill Beck is Winton, a village just over a mile north of Kirkby Stephen, with lots of pleasing red stone cottages. Its most prominent house is the Georgian manor house of 1726, built with pink and grey stones, three storeys high and six bays wide.
Here, we are now in a side vale of the Eden that penetrates east towards the wilds of Stainmore in the Pennines. It is this vale that appears as a sudden striking oasis of lush green fields, to motorists travelling from the east along the A66 across the bleak Stainmore Gap. This lovely little vale is home to the River Belah that flows east to west north of Winton, entering the River Eden near Great Musgrave.
The A685 crosses the River Belah just under a mile north of Winton, just west of a little village called Kaber, bypassing an older stone bridge across the river. Kaber, on the wonderfully named Popping Beck, has an old English name that apparently comes from ‘Ka-Berg’ meaning ‘Jackdaw tumulus’. A little to its west, the crow theme continues in the name of a farmstead called Rookby.
After crossing the River Belah the A685 passes through the village of Brough Sowerby less than half a mile to the north. The ‘sower’ part of its name is from a Viking word meaning ‘muddy, dirty, sour’. The Brough part is from the nearby village of Brough itself, which is less than a mile to the north.
Brough (pronounced ‘bruff’) is a name that signifies a fort (likely a reference to the Roman site) and is in fact two places divided by the A66. The older of the two is on the south side of the road where we find Brough Castle and Brough church standing above the valley of the Swindale Beck and this village is sometimes called ‘Church Brough’.
Brough Castle, now in ruins, was first built by William the Conqueror’s son, King William Rufus in 1092, of earth and wood. It was built on the site of a Roman fort called Verterae of which traces of a ditch and earth platform can be seen. This fort was situated on the Roman road that crosses the Stainmore Gap linking York (Eboracum) to Carlisle (Luguvalium).
In 1092 Rufus also built Carlisle Castle on the site of a Roman fort. Like the Roman fort that preceded it, Brough Castle guards a strategic location, protecting the entrance to Stainmore Gap from the vale of Eden and it housed a garrison to defend against raids.
The Stainmore Gap, with the North Pennine dales of Tees, Wear and South Tyne to its north and the Yorkshire Dales of Arkengarthdale and Swaledale to its south, has long been an important crossing point, linking the Vale of York, Vale of Tees and Vale of Mowbray, all to the east of the Pennines with the Vale of Eden to their west.
Along with the Eden Vale, the Stainmore Gap was an appealing route for raiding armies, particularly the Scots under Robert the Bruce. In earlier times Stainmore had been the place of ambush and murder of the Viking king, Eric Bloodaxe (see Teesdale) who met his end somewhere in the vicinity of the ancient Rey Cross on Stainmore.
During the twelfth century Brough Castle was held, along with Appleby Castle, as part of the Lordship of Westmorland by Hugh de Morville. However, the castle was confiscated from Morville by King Henry II after he had supported a rebellion against the king in 1173. Brough Castle then came to be held by the king but was destroyed in a devastating raid by King William the Lion of Scotland in 1174.
In 1179, King Henry II granted Brough Castle to Theobald de Valoine who is thought to have rebuilt the keep of which we can see the remains today. In 1203 the castle was subsequently granted to Robert de Vipont (Vieuxpont) who also took ownership of Brougham Castle near Penrith. In 1268 there were no male Vipont heirs so Brough Castle passed to Roger Clifford who had married Robert de Vipont’s great-granddaughter, Isabella that year.
The Cliffords would have a long association with Brough Castle. One of whom was Thomas, eighth Lord Clifford who supported the Lancastrians in the Wars of the Roses. His lands and castle were confiscated by the Yorkist king, Edward IV but restored when the Tudors came to power, after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
In later years a legal battle ensued between Clifford family members regarding inheritance of the castle. After Henry Clifford, fifth Earl of Carlisle, died in 1643 it passed to Lady Anne Clifford along with the family’s other Westmorland castles of Brougham, Pendragon and Appleby as well as Skipton Castle in Yorkshire. Lady Anne played an important role restoring these castles. Brough Castle had been severely damaged by an unfortunate fire in 1521.
Lady Anne was succeeded to her estates by the Earls of Thanet (the Tuftons) through a marriage to her daughter and in the eighteenth century this family became focused on Appleby Castle. Over time the restored castle of Brough fell into ruin and is now in the care of English Heritage.
A little to the south of the castle and neighbouring Brough Castle Farm is Brough church, dedicated to St Michael, which includes Norman traces in its architecture but mostly dates from the fourteenth to sixteenth century with a tower of 1513.
‘Church Brough’ which hosts Brough Castle and its church, is linked to the other Brough (‘Market Brough’) north of the A66 by a road that passes underneath the A66. The A66 now bypasses Market Brough but originally this old route from Stainmore passed along its High Street and Main Street.
The most striking feature of Brough High Street is Brough clock tower, actually situated on an island at the junction with the road from Church Brough. It was built to commemorate the coronation of King George V in 1911.
The Swindale Beck which forms a little valley beneath Brough Castle is a tributary of the Eden and like the River Belah to the south, joins the Eden near Great Musgrave. The beck can be traced upstream through ‘Market Brough’ and north towards Teesdale where it begins a short distance from the source of the Lune, a Teesdale tributary. In Church Brough the beck is joined from the east by the Augill Beck. To the south of this beck and about half a mile west of Brough is Augill Castle, a building of early Victorian origin.
Musgrave and Warcop
West and north-west of Brough, the A66 passes Warcop and Appleby, heading for Penrith, Keswick, Cockermouth and Workington. From Brough we return to the Eden following Musgrave Lane, along the valley of Swindale Beck towards Great Musgrave.
Great Musgrave is linked by bridge to Little Musgrave across the Eden. Musgrave, means ‘grove inhabited by mice’ and is the place of origin for the surname Musgrave. The ballad ‘Little Musgrave’ possibly has roots here. It concerns a young man who has a tryst with the wife of Lord Barnard, who discovering the affair, slays them both. Lord Barnard is the title of a powerful landowner in neighbouring Teesdale, however, the ballad seems to be fictional and its lyrics have several variations:
It fell upon a holy day,
As many’s in the year,
Musgrave to the church did go,
To see fine ladies there
And some were dressed in velvet red
And some in velvet pale
Then came Lord Barnard’s wife
The fairest ‘mongst them all
She cast an eye on the Little Musgrave
As bright as the summer’s sun
Said Musgrave unto himself
This lady’s heart I’ve won
St Theobald’s church, on the Great Musgrave bank of the River Eden was once traditionally a place of procession for girls dressed in garlands at midsummer festivals. Built in 1845, the church is on the site of an earlier medieval one.
A mile and a half north of Musgrave between the Eden and A66 is Warcop, a village of pink stone houses. Its name combines the Old English word ‘copp’ meaning ‘summit’ with a Viking word ‘vorthr’ a look-out or possibly ‘varða’, a cairn. Warcop Hall near the Ministry of Defence’s Warcop Training centre is a private house. It is part Elizabethan, part Georgian and part Victorian.
East of the training centre, just off the A66, is the two-mile long Eden Valley Railway, operated by Eden Valley Railway Trust. It has historic working diesel locomotives and rolling stock. At the south end of Warcop is a sixteenth century bridge across the Eden, and west of the village is St Columba’s church, which is of the thirteenth century with a part-Norman nave.
Ormside
The next villages along the Eden to the west and north west are Sandford and Great Ormside. Sandford, on the north bank of the Eden (the river twists and turns here) is just under a mile west of Warcop. Less than a mile to its west is Little Ormside (a farm) and Great Ormside (a village). Ormside is a Viking place-name featuring the Old Norse personal name Ormr meaning ‘serpent’ or ‘snake’. Old spellings show it was ‘Ormesheved’, or Orm’s Head, perhaps a headland formed from the shape of the river.
Ormside Hall, a private home towards the river at the north end of the village has a fourteenth or fifteenth century tower wing. Just to its north on higher ground, above the Eden is St James’ church, partly of the eleventh century, with a late twelfth century tower.
Two remarkable finds were discovered in what is now St James’ churchyard. One was the famous Ormside Bowl, a beautiful mid-eighth century, intricately carved Anglo-Saxon bowl of gold, silver and bronze uncovered in 1823 and now displayed at the Yorkshire Museum in York. The other find, of a later age, was a Viking sword found buried alongside a Viking warrior and uncovered in 1898. It is thought the bowl may have been part of a Viking hoard plundered from York and buried here. The Viking burial finds and sword are in Carlisle’s Tullie House Museum.
The Viking theme continues a mile and a half west of Great Ormside at the little village of Hoff which derives its name from the Norse word ‘Hof’ intriguingly signifying a heathen temple or sanctuary. Upstream along the Hoff Beck to the south of the village is the beautiful Rutter Force, a particularly picturesque waterfall alongside an old mill.
A mile and a half to its south is the village of Great Asby with its pretty stone bridge across the Asby Beck. Further south are the smaller settlements of Asby and Little Asby with Crosby Garrett and Soulby to their east, which we have already mentioned.
Returning north, back towards the Eden, is the village of Burrells, a quarter of a mile north of Hoff. Its name is from the Old English word ‘byrgels’ meaning ‘burial place’ and its main street takes us north along the Eden valley, in less than a mile to the town of Appleby.
Appleby-in-Westmorland
Appleby is an attractive market town on the River Eden, with a castle and a name that means ‘apple farm or settlement’; the ‘by’ of course being of Viking origin. Appleby is more fully known as Appleby-in-Westmorland to distinguish it from other places called Appleby. It is historically the county town of Westmorland, though it is much smaller than the major Westmorland town, Kendal, over in Kent Dale about twenty miles to the south-west.
The old heart of the town of Appleby lies within a loop or meander of the River Eden where the main streets are Boroughgate; Bridge Street; Chapel Street; High Wiend; Doomgate; Holme Street and, at the south end near the castle, Shaws Wiend and Scattergate. Across the river to the east is a riverside street called The Sands leading northward into the street called Barrowbattle (once the site of a Carmelite friary) and southward into Bongate.
Bongate (the Bondsmens’s street) lies across the river from the castle and means street of the free peasants or villeins (compare with Bondgate in Darlington or Bishop Auckland in County Durham). Bongate designates what was once virtually a separate place (certainly a separate parish) and is probably the site of the original Appleby of Viking times.
The main features of Bongate are a pub called The Royal Oak and the church of St Michael, which is tucked away off the adjoining Mill Hill. Despite restorations by Lady Anne Clifford in the seventeenth century and the addition of the north tower in the 1880s, this is an ancient edifice with a Saxon layout and a Viking hogback grave used as a lintel above the door.
The Sands doesn’t have many buildings of special note, though there is a Georgian police station building and a Wesleyan Methodist chapel of the 1880s overlooking the river with views of the nearby bridge. The bridge across the Eden is Appleby Bridge (also called St Lawrence’s Bridge) which takes us via Bridge Street into the most historic part of Appleby, centred on Boroughgate at the centre of the river meander.
Despite hosting many of the most historic features, this is in fact the ‘new town’ area of Appleby, a planned Norman town or ‘borough’ (hence the street-name Boroughgate). It was laid out in the twelfth century when the castle was built. Appleby’s borough status was confirmed by a charter of King Henry II in 1179.
Starting at the top of the meander the first features we encounter are the not-so-ancient Appleby Cricket Club and the town’s leisure centre. Nearby is Chapel Street, with the neighbouring principal historic feature being the church of St Lawrence. It has a Norman tower with much else of the thirteenth and fourteenth century. The north chapel of the church is thought to have been the family chapel of the Clifford family, dating to the 1650s.
St Lawrence was the church of the Borough of Appleby. Bongate and the church of St Michael lay outside this borough. Appleby borough was the head town of the Barony of Westmorland before it became the county town for Westmorland.
In front of the church at the north end of Boroughgate is a screen of seven arches that was constructed by the architect Sir Robert Smirke in 1811. In front of the screen is the street of Low Wiend leading into Chapel Street to the west and Bridge Street to the east.
In addition to the screen and also marking the north end of Boroughate, is the seventeenth century Tuscan column of the market cross, called ‘Low Cross’, as there are two, with ‘High Cross’ at the opposite south end of the street.
Boroughgate was planned as a broad street and gives a great deal of charm to the little town of Appleby as it slopes up bank towards the castle at the south end of the town. It is lined with trees and green verges which gives it a village-like feel, particularly at the castle end.
Occupying an island in the centre of the street is Appleby Moot Hall which dates from 1596 and a reminder of Appleby’s historic administrative role. It now houses tourist information.
A little further along Boroughgate to the south of the Moot Hall is High Wiend which joins the west side of the street. A ‘wiend’ is a narrow street equivalent to ‘wynds’ found in historic Scottish towns such as Edinburgh or places in south Durham (Staindrop, Darlington) and North Yorkshire (Yarm, Richmond, Hutton Rudby).
High Wiend leads west to the south end of Chapel Street and to the north end of Doomgate and in itself continues west as Holme Street. It crosses the river by a small bridge to a farm called ‘Holme’ which lies at the centre of another river meander as the River Eden actually forms an ‘S’ shape at Appleby. Despite its name, Doomgate, a backstreet that heads south, running parallel to Boroughgate is not forbading and has a number of charming pink stone houses.
Beyond High Wiend, Boroughgate is steeper at the south end near the castle where the street takes on a more village-like characteristic.
Other than the castle the main building of interest at this end of the street is St Anne’s Hospital which was founded by Lady Anne Clifford in 1651 and completed in 1653. At its centre is an archway that leads into a rectangular courtyard.
Nearby, the south end of Boroughgate is marked by the High Cross which complements the Low Cross at the north end of the street. High Cross is of a similar style to Low Cross and also dates from the seventeenth century. It features the inscription ‘Retain your loyalty Preserve your rights’.
To the west of the High Cross, a road called Shaw’s Wiend curves south to join Doomgate, Scattergate and the B6260 road to Burrells and Hoff.
At Scattergate a narrow walled lane called Castle Bank rounds off the southern defensive edge of the hill on which the castle stands with the River Eden at its east end crossed by a footbridge across to Bongate and the church of St Michael.
Right opposite the High Cross is the entrance to Appleby Castle on which much of the town’s history is focused.
The castle is a privately owned residence, its current owner being Sally Nightingale. Occasional tours may be booked. Appleby Castle was initially built in 1095 at the time of King William Rufus and was protected by deep ditches supplemented by earthworks. The Eden valley was vulnerable to Scottish raids and the castle’s site at Appleby provided a well-defended location.
The most prominent feature of the castle is the impressive keep known locally as ‘Caesar’s Tower’. It dates from the twelfth century, built about 1110 by the Norman baron Lord Ranulf le Meschin. De Meschin, a close associate of Henry I, was a powerful figure in the north. He seems to have held semi-independent powers in Cumberland, Carlisle and Westmorland, although he had no formal title confirming this. In 1120 he became Earl of Chester and seems to have given up his Cumberland and Westmorland lands.
Appleby returned to being a Royal Castle, with the kings of England as its lords. Under Henry II the castle was in the charge of Hugh De Morville, Lord of Westmorland. He was one of the assassins of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury who he murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. In 1174 De Morville rebelled against King Henry II and his lands and castle were confiscated.
In 1174 Appleby Castle surrendered to the Scottish king William the Lion on his invasion of the Eden valley. After falling back into English Royal hands the keep was raised and strengthened.
In 1203 the royal lord of Appleby, King John, gave the castle to Robert de Vieuxpont (Vipont) and in 1264 it passed through marriage to the Cliffords who began a long association with Appleby Castle. The castle saw significant damage at the hands of Parliamentarians in the Civil War and was restored by Lady Anne Clifford for whom it became a principal residence. During her life, Lady Anne undertook much restoration in Appleby, rebuilding houses in Boroughgate.
After Lady Anne’s death the castle passed to the Earls of Thanet and it was her grandson, Thomas the sixth Earl of Thanet, who created the grand Palladian style mansion house at the castle’s east range from 1686, in marked contrast to the medieval keep. It was built using stone from Brough Castle and Brougham Castle.
Appleby has been a market town since the twelfth century from which period it was also noted for its cattle fairs. In the early eighteenth century, a ‘New Fair’ was established which took over from the earlier fairs. By the 1880s it became predominantly a horse fair and over time this came to be associated with gypsies and travellers, developing into what is now the largest gypsy and traveller gathering in Britain.
A little to the north of Appleby along Battlebarrow, beyond the meander at the heart of Appleby is Appleby Grammar School. Dating from at least the 1450s, but with roots in the thirteenth century, the school relocated to this site in 1887. Its previous site was in the town centre near Chapel Street to the west of St Lawrence’s church. In the 1570s its headmaster was John Boste, who is venerated in the Catholic church as St John Boste.
Born in Dufton along the Eden Valley north of Appleby about 1544, Boste later became a Catholic martyr priest, who performed mass illegally across the north in the reign of Elizabeth I, when Catholic mass was forbidden. In 1593 he was captured at Waterhouses near Durham after performing mass in secret there, encouraged by the Neville family, who were Earls of Westmorland and important landowners in Durham. Boste was taken to London to be displayed before the queen before he was returned north to be hanged drawn and quartered at Dryburn in Durham the following year.
Notable former pupils of Appleby Grammar School include the two elder brothers of George Washington, first president of the United States. It is thought that George’s father, Augustine, may have also been educated at the school. The family had connections to the county of Westmorland in England but George was born in a different Westmoreland (with an ‘e’), the name of a county in Virginia. The family’s ancestral roots can be traced back to Washington near Sunderland with later connections to Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire.
To the west of Appleby, extending south from the River Eden, is the village of Colby, with its pleasing red stone houses. Its name either means ‘hill farm’, deriving from an old word ‘kollr’ meaning hill or possibly incorporates a Viking personal name, Kolli.
Long Marton and Dufton
To the north of Appleby but away from the River Eden to the east are the villages of Brampton, Long Marton and Dufton. All lie within the vale of the Eden close to its eastern fringes as we approach the Pennines. Brampton, not to be confused with the Cumberland town of Brampton is the smallest and nearest of the three to Appleby, about a mile to its north. It is home to a pub called the New Inn.
Long Marton and Dufton are a further mile to the north. Long Marton, the more westerly of the two, has a church dedicated to St James that dates to the eleventh and twelfth century.
Dufton, the birthplace of the Catholic martyr, John Boste, is centred on a village green and lies closer to the Pennines. Its name means ‘dove farm’ and its church, half a mile north of the village, is dedicated to St Cuthbert. The church has a history going back to medieval times but has seen many restorations. However, it is thought to have been one of the resting places of the monks from Lindisfarne, who carried the coffin of St Cuthbert.
Above Dufton to its north is Dufton Pike with Dufton Fell beyond. Dufton Pike is one of three cone-like hills in a row on the edge of the Pennines here. To the south east, above the village of Murton is Murton Pike with Murton Fell beyond. To the north of Dufton Pike, above a village called Knock is Knock Pike with Knock Fell and Cross Fell beyond to the north.
Part of the Pennine Way long distance footpath runs through Dufton, which lies between what are regarded as some of the toughest sections of the route. About five or so miles along the Pennine Way north of Dufton (as the crow flies) is Cross Fell, the highest point in all the Pennines.
Along the Pennine Way four miles west of Dufton is High Cup Nick (or High Cup Gill) a spectacular U-shaped valley formed by an igneous outcrop of whin sill. Following the Pennine Way for another five miles from High Cup Nick brings us to Cauldron Snout waterfall in Teesdale and the nearby Cow Green Reservoir.
Crackenthorpe and Bolton
Returning to Appleby and following the A66 and River Eden to the north west are the villages of Crackenthorpe on its east bank and further along the valley is Bolton village to the west of the river.
The ‘thorpe’ of Crackenthorpe’s name is a Viking word for an outlying or dependent farm but it’s uncertain whether the ‘Cracken’ first part of the name is from a Viking personal name Krakandi or a reference to a crow or raven. King Henry VI is said to have fled to Crackenthorpe following his defeat at the Battle of Hexham in 1464.
Crackenthorpe Hall, just across the A66 south of Crackenthorpe village is partly of the 1680s and partly of the 1880s. Both periods of building at the hall were undertaken by members of the Machel family who had already lived in the area for centuries, being reputedly descended from a Roman centurion. Interestingly, Roman altars are incorporated into the house. The Machels had sold the house in 1786 but they re-purchased it in 1877.
Bolton, across the Eden to the north west is a more substantial village than Crackenthorpe with a church dedicated to All Saints that includes several Norman features.
About a mile or so south of Bolton are little delightfully named streams called Tea Sike and Sweetmilk Sike on private farmland almost opposite Crackenthorpe. They host the ruins of Bewley Castle. Dating from around 1223 this was once a residence of the Bishops of Carlisle and was later associated with the Machel and Musgrave families.
Kirkby Thore
Kirkby Thore is a little under four miles north of Appleby; about a mile north of Bolton and a mile and a half north-west of Long Marton. It is a substantial village situated near the A66 (on its south side) with the River Eden across the A66 road further to the south. Nearby, to the north of the village is a gypsum works run by British Gypsum, where plaster and plasterboard is manufactured.
Like Kirkby Stephen, the ‘Kirkby’ part of Kirkby Thore’s name is Viking, meaning ‘church-village’. The Thore part of the name is most likely a personal name of some unidentified individual who is likely to have been Scandinavian, rather than a direct reference to the Norse god, Thor.
Kirkby Thore’s beginnings go back beyond Viking times to the Roman era. The A66 near the edge of Kirkby Thore runs south-east to north-west along the Eden valley and follows the course of a Roman road. At Spittals Farm alongside the old course of the A66 towards Temple Sowerby (which the A66 now bypasses) is a Roman milestone protected by a surrounding metal fence of more recent times.
At Kirkby Thore, the Roman road (A66) is joined by another Roman road from the north. This road is known today as the Maiden Way and leads northward to the Roman fort of Epiacum at Whitley Castle in South Tynedale.
Kirkby Thore itself was the site of the Roman fort or camp of Bravoniacum and several Roman finds, including Roman coins, altars and ornaments have been made in the village. Interestingly, in the third century, the fort housed an auxiliary light cavalry unit of Numidians (from what is now Algeria), the first known African community in Britain.
The fort was centred roughly to the west of Main Street and south of Chapel Lane, where a long-lost twelfth century castle called Whelp Castle was later situated. Other features of the village are Kirkby Thore Hall which is a farm at the south east end of the village dating partly to the fourteenth century.
Kirkby Thore’s pretty red stone church of St Michael at the north end of the village stands outside the site of the Roman fort and its neighbouring vicus or civilian settlement. The church, which includes some Norman features has some splendid views of Cross Fell in the neighbouring Pennines.
The church was first mentioned in 1179 when there was a grant of land by the Whelp family who were Lords of the Manor. However, considering that ‘Kirkby’ means ‘church village’ there was likely an earlier church. The church of 1179 suffered damage during a Scottish raid on the Eden valley around 1388 so there would have been some restoration as there has also been in more recent times.
A list of Kirky Thore rectors, displayed in the church includes Eudo ‘Priest of Kirkbythore, circa 1150. Others include Alexander de Millburn (1220-30); Roger de Clifford (1307-1345); William de Corbrigg (1362-); Roger Crackanthorpe (-1430); Henry Wharton (circa 1470); Richard Evenwode ‘Abbot of Shap’ (1526-); Michael Crackenthorpe (1559-68); Robert Warthcoppe (1568-1597); Thomas Warcop (1597-1629); Lancelot Lowther (1629-54); Thomas Machell (1677-1698) and Gilpin Gorst (1775-1803).
Richard Evenwode, previously Abbot of Shap, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when he was relocated here to become the rector at Kirkby Thore, is thought to have installed the bell from Shap Abbey at the church, which can still be seen.
Temple Sowerby
Temple Sowerby, a little over a mile along the valley of the Eden to the north west of Kirkby Thore is known as ‘The Queen of Westmorland’. It is an attractive village with a large village green and prominent maypole.
Originally, Temple Sowerby was simply called Sowerby or ‘Sourebi’ as its name is recorded in 1179. In this respect it has the same meaning as another Westmorland village, Brough Sowerby and also the Yorkshire village of Sowerby near Thirsk. The ‘by’ or ‘bi’ element being Viking for a farm or village, while ‘sower’ refers to the once muddy, dirty (‘sour’) location which must have been quite different from the pretty village we see today.
The ‘Temple’ part of Temple Sowerby’s name recalls the Knights Templar, who were given the manor of Sowerby around 1228 and by 1292 the place was recorded as ‘Templesoureby’. The Knights Templar were a European-wide military order of Christian knights founded in Jerusalem around 1118. In 1307 they were suppressed by the pope following accusations of immorality and the order was dissolved in 1312. This suppression was partly encouraged by King Philip IV of France who was heavily indebted to the Knights from his wars with England.
In 1312 Temple Sowerby passed to Robert de Clifford who granted the manor to the Knights Hospitaller who were a similar, rival order to the Knights Templar. In 1544, about the time the Knights Hospitaller were dissolved Temple Sowerby was sold to Thomas Dalston (of Dalston near Carlisle) and it subsequently passed to his son Christopher who resided at Acorn Bank, near the Crowdundle Beck, north of Temple Sowerby. He built the present house Acorn Bank house there in the seventeenth century.
Temple Sowerby’s lovely red stone church, dedicated to St James was built in 1754 and its aisle enlarged in 1770. Some restorations were made to the church during the nineteenth century.
The village is situated on a Roman road but in the eighteenth century it was developed as a new turnpike road that crossed the Pennines making the village a coaching stop. The road developed many years later into what is now the A66. In 2006 the Temple Sowerby bypass was built to divert this busy road away from the village, leaving the quiet haven we have today.
Temple Sowerby is home to an extensive village green which is the home to the village maypole. A maypole was first recorded here in 1817 but there was was likely one long before that time. It was replaced by a new maypole in 1848 and again in 1884 and then another new maypole in 1908. The maypole of 1908, donated by Lord Hothfield of Appleby Castle was 77 feet high. Subsequently it was replaced by a 65 feet maypole in 1960 and then by the present ‘Millennium Maypole’ of the same height in 2000 and topped by a weather vane.
Acorn Bank and Crowdundle Beck
Acorn Bank on the south bank of the Crowdundle Beck valley just north of Temple Sowerby is a property of the National Trust and set in 180 acres of parkland. It was given to the National Trust by the writer and traveller, Dorothy Una Ratcliffe in 1950, who had owned it since 1934. Its gardens were not opened to the public until the 1990s. The centre and west wing of the house date from around 1600 with a south front dating from about 1730 to 1750.
Acorn Bank was mentioned as belonging to Thomas Dalston of Dalston near Carlisle in 1543. His descendants through marriage included the Boazman family of Aycliffe in County Durham, who mined gypsum at Acorn Bank. The family’s descendants were still owners of the property up to the 1930s.
About half a mile up the Crowdundle Beck to the east of Acorn Bank is the village of Newbiggin (it means ‘new building’) with a Norman church dedicated to St Edmund situated close to the beck. Newbiggin Hall, a private home close to the church is mostly Victorian but dates in part to 1533 and is connected with the Crackenthorpe family.
A mile and a half west of Newbiggin, near the Crowdundle Beck tributary called Milburn Beck, is the village of Milburn. It is situated around a rectangular village green with a maypole near its centre and a school building of 1851 at its east end. The village church dedicated to St Cuthbert is part Norman. About half a mile east of the village is Howgill Castle which dates partly to the fourteenth century. The village of Milburn seems to be a likely place of origin for the Milburn surname.
The Crowdundle Beck, which joins the River Eden north of Temple Sowerby begins on Cross Fell, a few metres from the source of the River Tees. Along its course this beck forms the traditional historic boundary between Westmorland and Cumberland. Temple Sowerby and Acorn Bank on the south bank of the beck are on the Westmorland side while the village of Culgaith, to its north was historically in Cumberland.
From where Crowdundle Beck joins the Eden north of Temple Sowerby, the River Eden itself forms the historic Cumberland and Westmorland boundary for two miles. Here Cumberland is on the east side of the Eden with Westmorland to the west. After two miles, the River Eamont, which joins the Eden from the west side takes on the historic boundary role. Penrith, to the north of the River Eamont, was historically in Cumberland.
In 1974 the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland were combined, along with the Furness region of Lancashire to form a new administrative county called ‘Cumbria’. This administrative county was subsequently replaced in 2023 by two new counties; one called ‘Cumberland’ and the other named ‘Westmorland and Furness’.
These newly ‘recreated’ counties of 2023 are not quite what they seem. They are still a cause for confusion because the new county of ‘Westmorland and Furness’, as well as including Westmorland and Furness, actually includes some areas that were historically in Cumberland, most notably Penrith. However, since this website is primarily concerned with history we generally try to focus on historic boundaries.
The River Lyvennet
On its way between Kirkby Thore and Temple Sowerby, the River Eden is joined on its western bank (at this point actually the south bank) by the River Lyvennet, which flows up from the south, passing through the vale of the Eden. This river, also called Lyvennet Beck in its upper stretches is a little over ten miles long and starts its journey three to four miles north of Tebay. Its main village settlements are Crosby Ravensworth, Maulds Meaburn and Kings Meaburn, along with the village of Morland in the adjoining valley of the Morland Beck to the west.
The Lyvennet valley has a character all of its own but still forms part of the wider Eden vale. It may be the ‘Llwyfenydd’, described by the sixth century Welsh bard, Taliesin, as the centre of the kingdom of Rheged. This kingdom was ruled over by the Brittonic king Urien, who fought against the expanding kingdom of the Bernicians on the island of Medcaut (Lindisfarne). This was during an era that followed the Roman departure from Britain. Llwyfenydd derives from an old Welsh word for elm tree.
Crosby Ravensworth
Starting from the south end of the Lyvennet valley, there are traces of a Roman road and several traces of ancient settlements and tumuli in the neighbouring fells and moors before we encounter the valley’s first village which is Crosby Ravensworth. It should not be confused with Crosby Garrett, which is seven miles to the south east near Kirkby Stephen.
The first part of Crosby Ravensworth’s name ‘Crosby’ is Viking and means ‘village with a cross or crosses’ and interestingly, the remainder of an ancient cross in the churchyard is thought to date from the seventh century, before the time of the Vikings.
The second part of Crosby Ravensworth’s name is derived from the Viking personal name, Hrafnsvartr (Raven-black), though in later times this personal name has been misunderstood and misinterpreted as an additional place-name ‘Ravenswath’ (Raven’s Ford) or ‘Ravensworth’ (Raven’s Enclosure) as it is called today.
Crosby Ravensworth is located where the Lyvennet is joined on its west side by Dalebanks Beck and a significant part of the village, including its church, is situated alongside this beck. St Lawrence is the dedication of the village church, the heart of which dates to 1190-1200. It has been compared to a cathedral in miniature.
In the hills a couple of miles east of Crosby Ravensworth are Maulds Meaburn Moor, Hoff Moor and Drybeck Moor along with the little valleys of Dry Beck and Scale Beck which feed the Eden further to the east. Further to the south is the upland area of Great Asby Scar, which forms a national nature reserve.
To the west of Crosby Ravensworth is the farm of Wickerslack which can be reached by a public footpath while a street called Harberwain Lane also heads out west for about two and half miles towards the M6 and beyond onward to Shap near the valley of the River Lowther.
Maulds Meaburn to Morland
Mauds Meaburn is situated about half a mile along the River Lyvennet to the north of Crosby Ravesnworth and is a particularly delightful place in a lovely setting with two stone bridges crossing the Lyvennet at either end of the village along with a wooden footbridge between the two.
Early spellings point to ‘Meaburn’ deriving from the Old English ‘maed-burna’ which means meadow burn (meadow stream), and refers to the River Lyvennet.
‘Burn’ is a term for a stream used in Northumberland, northern Durham and Scotland but in Yorkshire, Cumberland, Westmorland and south Durham its use has usually been eclipsed by the Viking term ‘beck’, which is commonly used in the local dialect. However, it is interesting that the earlier Celtic or Brittonic river-name ‘Lyvennet’ has survived and predominated, despite it being a relatively minor river.
Maulds Meaburn is a village of great character with houses clustered quite close to the river on the higher eastern side of the river bank and set away from the river where there is a broad meadow on the opposite western bank. Houses in the village include Meaburn Hall, a stately looking house dating from 1610.
The ‘Mauld’ of Maulds Meaburn’s name derives from the Christian name Maud. It refers to Maud de Veteriponte, wife of William de Veteriponte who granted her the estate around 1174.
A couple or so miles north of Maulds Meaburn is the village of Kings Meaburn. This village and its manor once belonged to Hugh De Morville, the Lord of Westmorland, who was the brother of Maude de Veteriponte. As we have mentioned, De Morville was one of the assassins of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. He later rebelled against King Henry II who stripped him of his lands including those at Meaburn, which became Kings Meaburn.
A mile or so respectively to the north-west and south-west of Maulds Meaburn and Kings Meaburn are the little villages of Reagill and Sleagill which sit close to minor stream tributaries of the River Lyvennet.
To their north and to the west of Kings Meaburn is the village of Newby on the Newby Beck and half a mile to its north, on the Moorland Beck, is a larger village called Morland.
This is another pleasant village of stone houses with a stone bridge across the beck and a cafe opposite. The village church, dedicated to St Laurence, is a very old one having the only Saxon west tower in the historic counties of Westmorland and Cumberland. It dates from the eleventh century (before 1066) although the upper storey of the tower was added in the seventeenth century.
The River Leith
The River Leith is a tributary of the Lyvennet which it joins a mile and a half south-west of Temple Sowerby. Following this river upstream, the first settlement we encounter is the village of Cliburn just over half a mile from the river’s confluence with the Lyvennet. The church of St Cuthbert in Cliburn has a Norman nave and chancel. Nearby is Cliburn Hall which dates from 1567.
Cliburn means ‘cliff-stream’, though ‘cliff’ in an old sense could simply mean ‘hill’, often one overlooking a river or stream, in this case the Leith. North of Cliburn, in Whinfell Forest is the Center Parcs holiday village which opened in 1997 as ‘Oasis Forest Holiday Village’. It was acquired by Center Parcs in 2001.
Less than two miles upstream along the River Leith west of Cliburn is Melkinthorpe, which means ‘village belonging to Melkan’. At this point the Leith changes course, so as we continue upstream we head south along the river, with the course of the M6 just to its west.
Along the valley a little over a mile south of Melkinthorpe is Great Strickland with its church of St Barnabas dating to 1872. Strickland is an Old English or Anglo-Saxon name and means ‘Stirk-Land’. Stirk being a young bullock or heifer. The Strickland manor was held from the thirteenth century by a family called de Strickland, named from the place. Later owners were the Fallowfields from the 1430s; the Dalstons of Acorn Bank from the late seventeenth century and later the Lowther family and Earls of Lonsdale.
The manor of Strickland included Little Strickland, a village just under two miles to the south. Like Great Strickland it lies on the eastern side of the Leith. Like Great Strickland, Little Strickland has a nineteenth century church, this one dedicated to St Mary and dating from 1814. Just under a mile south of Little Strickland and visible alongside the south-bound carriageway of the M6 motorway is Gunnerkeld stone circle, a tiny stone circle made up of 19 outer stones and 13 inner stones.
Following the River Leith upstream to the south west of Little Strickland, the Leith crosses to the west side of the M6 and shortly upstream becomes Shap Beck, which plays host to the village of Shap, although Shap Abbey is over half a mile to its west on the western bank of another river, the River Lowther.
Eden Valley (Cumberland section)
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Brampton and Cumberland Borderland
Eskdale and Liddesdale (Scotland)
