Holme St Cuthbert
| Holme St Cuthbert | |
| Cumberland | |
|---|---|
 St Cuthbert's, Holme St Cuthbert | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NY104470 |
| Location: | 54°48’38"N, 3°23’37"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 465 (2011) |
| Post town: | Maryport |
| Postcode: | CA15 |
| Dialling code: | 01900 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cumberland |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Workington |
Holme St Cuthbert (occasionally written Holme St Cuthberts) is a small hamlet and larger parish in Cumberland. The hamlet is to be found about 23 miles to the south-west of Carlisle, the county town.
Name
The name is derived from Old Norse, in which the word holmr meant "islet", so "St Cuthbert's isle".[1][2] The village is named after the dedication of its church, which is named after St Cuthbert, a popular Anglo-Saxon saint for dedications across the northern shires. It is unlikely he visited the parish but he definitely visited Carlisle.[3]
The Civil Parish
The wider parish of Holme St Cuthbert is a rural area, and includes the village of Mawbray and the hamlets of Aikshaw, Beckfoot, Cowgate, Dubmill, Edderside, Goodyhills, Hailforth, Jericho, New Cowper, Newtown, Pelutho, Plasketlands, Salta, and Tarns. It is bordered to the north by the civil parish of Holme Low, to the east by Holme Abbey, to the south by Allonby along the Black Dub beck, and to the south-east by Westnewton. On its western side, the parish meets the Solway Firth, and has approximately four miles of coastline.
There were 465 residents in 185 households at the 2011 census. The parish's population remains well below where it was in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1871-2, the population was given as 821,[4] and steadily declined in the years to at least 1961,[5] when it reached similar levels to those recorded in 2011.
Mawbray, being the largest village in the parish, is the hub of the community. Mawbray's village hall is frequently used for a wide range of activities, and the Lowther Arms in Mawbray has been a popular spot for food and drink with residents of the parish since it re-opened in 2014 after two periods of closure in the 2000s and early 2010s.[6]
History
During the Second World War, 43 evacuees from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and the surrounding area were billeted to farms in the parish.[7]
Extremes of weather are uncommon in the parish, but one serious danger is from the sea. With over four miles of coastline in the parish, and a major road (the B5300) sticking very close to the shore, storms and even very high tides are a threat. In 2014 the sea wall at Dubmill Point, near Salta, was breached in several places, and a £130,000 repair scheme was commissioned by the council.[8]
The Hamlet
Holme St Cuthbert itself is particularly small. While it is home to the parish church, church hall, and the local primary school,[9] there are very few houses.[10] There are two school buildings - the main building and a second, smaller one which serves as both the sports hall and canteen. Separating the two buildings is a car park, shared between the school and church.
St Cuthbert's Church was constructed of locally quarried sandstone, and remains in use today. It has a primary school caternig to fewer than 50 pupils.
The church and school were built in 1845.[11] The opening of the church in that year meant that the hamlet was no longer part of the parish of Holme Abbey, but instead was to become the namesake of a new parish.
The hamlet lies along the road which runs from the B5300 coast road at Mawbray to the B5301 at Tarns. There is also a junction in the hamlet, where a side roads leads past the church hall to Goodyhills, less than a quarter of a mile away, and Jericho. There are no regular public transport links, though a school bus stops in the hamlet bound for the Nelson Thomlinson school in Wigton. The nearest stop on a regular bus service is at Mawbray, where services run every two hours toward Maryport in the south and Silloth-on-Solway in the north. The nearest railway station is at Aspatria, five-and-a-half miles to the south-east, where trains on the coastal line run approximately once an hour north toward Carlisle and south toward Whitehaven, and occasionally Barrow-in-Furness and Lancaster.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Holme St Cuthbert) |
References
- ↑ Armstrong, A.M. & Mawer; A.; Stenton, F.M. & Dickins, B.: 'Place-Names of Cumberland , Part 2' (English Place-Names Society, 1950), page 295
- ↑ Armstrong, A.M. & Mawer; A.; Stenton, F.M. & Dickins, B.: 'Place-Names of Cumberland , Part 3' (English Place-Names Society, 1952), page 478
- ↑ "The Anglo Saxons on the Solway Plain". http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/hstchg/anglos.htm.
- ↑ "Vision of Britain - Holme St. Cuthbert". http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/5420. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
- ↑ "Vision of Britain - Holme St. Cuthbert historical population". http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10194507/cube/TOT_POP. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
- ↑ http://www.solwaybuzz.co.uk/Issues/issue_130/page_all.pdf Solway Buzz, December 2014, page 7.
- ↑ "Holme St Cuthbert history group - The Evacuees". http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/hstchg/evacueestxt.htm.
- ↑ "BBC News - coastal floods leave tons of debris". http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cumbria-26006373. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
- ↑ "Holme St Cuthbert School - Home". http://www.hstcuth.cumbria.sch.uk.
- ↑ "Google Maps". https://www.google.it/maps/@54.8106062,-3.3931406,190m/data=!3m1!1e3.
- ↑ "Solway Plain Churches". http://www.solwayplainchurches.org.uk/churches/holme-st-cuthbert.html.
