Crosscanonby
| Crosscanonby | |
| Cumberland | |
|---|---|
 Church of St John the Evangelist | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NY069391 |
| Location: | 54°44’10"N, 3°26’39"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,054 (2001) |
| Post town: | Crosscanonby |
| Postcode: | CA15 |
| Dialling code: | 01900 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cumberland |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Workington |
Crosscanonby (otherwise Cross Canonby[1]) is a village in the west of Cumberland. It is to be found a mile inland, on the county's coastal plain, less than two miles north-east of Maryport. The county town, Carlisle, is twenty-six miles to the north-east.
The wider civil parish of Crosscanonby includes Crosscanonby itself and the villages of Birkby, Crosby, Crosby Villa. The parish is within the area designated as the 'Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty'.
Crosscanonby is located half a mile off the A5996 road and north of the River Ellen. It is close to the southern end of Allonby Bay, an inlet of the Solway Firth.
Parish church
The parish church is St John The Evangelist, a Norman church.
About the village
Close by the village is the Crosscanonby Carr.
North of the village are the Crosscanonby salt pans. The area was long known for the production of salt from the sea, and salt was produced in the salt pans from the 1630s until about 1760. It is thought that some of the worker's cottages were constructed in this village at the same time. These cottages became a pub, then reverted to being cottages again in 1900. The coast road, the B5300, which runs between the salt pans and the former cottages, was built in 1824.
Name
The earliest form of the name was 'Crosseby' (1123–50), from the Old Norse krossa býr meaning 'cross village'. The name 'Crosscanonby' results from the gift of land in Crosby with the church to the canons of Carlisle.[2]
Crosscanonby Parish church
Crosscanonby church, a Grade I listed building, is known as St John the Evangelist's Church, Crosscanonby.[3] It occupies one of the earliest Christian sites in Cumberland. The church was built in c1130 and has been extensively restored since 1880. The southwest view includes a Viking era gravestone in the lower centre to the church wall. Some of the stonework in the original construction is believed to have come from earlier Roman settlement in the Crosscanonby area. Outside the church you can see the tomb of local salt tax officer John Smith, who died in 1730. The tomb has an unusual panel showing the salt officer working at his desk.
Crosscanonby Carr
This is a nature reserve, the first in the Solway Plain AONB. It first began as a Solway Plain Rural Initiative Project, which evolved from a vandalised site. Crosscanonby Carr now provides a wetland, meadow and woodland refuge for numerous animals, birds and plants. The site has an Access for All Trail provided for people with all disabilities.[4]
History
North of the village, along the coast, is the Roman Milefortlet 21 and the Elizabethan salt pans. Milefortlet 21, part of the Hadrian's Wall system, is believed to date back to the AD 79 and AD 122,[5] revealing a wealth of information about the lifestyle of Roman troops in Britain.
Another fortlet, Milefortlet 22, is west of the village, but it now lies underneath Maryport Golf Course.[6]
Close to Milefortlet 21 are the remains of the Elizabethan salt pans. It is thought that they were begun around 1630 and leased to Richard Barwise in 1634.[7] On the beach was a water tank on a wooden scaffold, whose footings remain, from which sea water ran onto the Sleech in the Kinch. Sleech is the sand from the beach; the Kinch where it was piled up is the large pond, sealed by puddled clay. The remains of these salt pans can be clearly seen to date. The strong brine from the Kinch trickled down to the south. The brine was then boiled in iron pans to produce salt, which crystallised out of the brine.
From 1698 a salt tax was levied. One salt tax Officer was John Smith, (died in 1730), whose tombstone is at St John the Evangelist's Church, Crosscanonby, with a carving of him at his desk.[7]
After being abandoned for salt production, the salt pans suddenly had a new use in the 20th century between 1918 and the 1930s, when holiday cottages and a caravan site grew around them. These pans were seen as a tourist attraction up until when the caravan site was abandoned in the 1970s as a result of coastal erosion.[8] Later in the mid-1980s, the significance of the Salt pans was realised leading to the redevelopment of the historical monument after some research had been carried out.
Between 1997 and 1998, Major works were carried out to protect the salt pans at Crosscanonby from threat of coastal erosion by the Solway Rural Initiative, having realised that one or two more tides could result in the loss of the Salt pans forever.[8] To protect the Salt pans, emergency work which included building a wooden palisade around the most affected site was carried out. Over 2,000 tonnes of material from nearby Crosscanonby Carr nature reserve were used in the process. Today, the site remains intact, although under constant threat from the tides.[8]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Crosscanonby) |
References
- ↑ Cross Canonby: The Diocese of Carlisle
- ↑ Armstrong, A. M.; Mawer, A.; Stenton, F. M.; Dickens, B.: 'The place-names of Cumberland' Part 2 (English Place-Name Society), vol.xxi (Cambridge University Press, 1950) page 282
- ↑ St John the Evangelist's Church, Crosscanonby
- ↑ "Crosscanonby Carr". SolwayCoastAOAB.org. http://www.solwaycoastaonb.org.uk/crosscarr.php. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
- ↑ SolwayCoast AONB: Milefortlet
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 8970 – Brownrigg Milefortlet 22
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Salt Pans:| Department of Geography, Portsmouth
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Solway Coast AONB: The Saltpans: 20th Century to Date