Cliburn is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the Eden district of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

, England. The civil parish includes the hamlet of Town Head. In 2001 the population was 204, increasing to 274 at the 2011 Census.

History and Geography

Cliburn village is situated at crossroads on the east–west running C3047 (minor road) between Bolton and Penrith and a north–south road connecting Morland in the south to the A66(T). The

River Leith The River Leith is a watercourse in Cumbria, a county of northwestern England. Rising at Shap, the Leith flows north alongside the M6 motorway via Great and Little Strickland before turning eastward at Melkinthorpe. Having passed through Cli ...

runs through the village south of the road. The village was served by

Cliburn railway station Cliburn railway station was a station situated on the Eden Valley Railway in Westmorland (now in Cumbria), England. It served the village of Cliburn to the south. The station opened to passenger traffic on 9 June 1862, and closed on 17 Septemb ...

on the Eden Valley railway line 1 km north of the village, and the village pub was called the Railway Inn, but after the station closed the name was changed to the Golden Pheasant Inn, the pub is now closed. The etymology of the name Cliburn comes from

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

and burn ''"clay stream"'',The history and antiquities of the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, Volume 1 , Joseph Nicolson, Richard Burn, William Nicolson, Henry Hornyold-Strickland , 1777 , "The Parish of Cliburn" , pp.457-460
google books
/ref> also interpreted as ''"Stream by the bank"''. Cliburn has been known as Cleburn or Cleyburn. Cliburn was historically in

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

Cliburn Hall

Cliburn Hall,Cliburn Hall, Cliburn, Cumbria a three-storey

Pele tower Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, mainly between the mid-14th century and about 1600. They were free-standing ...

was built in 1387 by Robert de Cliburn. Alterations and additions were made in 1567 by Richard Cliburn. In 1872 the tower was de-castellated, and given a gabled roof. Originally there was an additional square tower at the south side of the building. A stone inscription from the building reads:

''Richard Cleburn this they me called
In which my time hath built this Hall
A.D. 1567''

St Cuthbert's Church

The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

of St Cuthberts Church date from the 12th century and the church is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The church was restored in the 19th century and all the windows except one date from that period. The rectory lies between the village and former railway station.

Other features

Cliburn Bridge, at the south of the village over the River Leith on the road to Morland, and Cliburn Mill Bridge to the east at the confluence of the Leith and the

River Lyvennet The River Lyvennet is a river flowing through the county of Cumbria in England. The source of the Lyvennet (as Lyvennet Beck) is to be found close to Robin Hood's Grave on Crosby Ravensworth Moor, an area rich in ancient remains. From there, ...

on the road to Bolton are built of local red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

. They were built after 1822 when a powerful flood destroyed the earlier bridges. Cliburn Moss, northwest of the village is a national nature reserve (NNR). A school was endowed in 1807. The school/house was rebuilt in 1877.

References

Maps

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Cliburn
(nb: provisional research only - see Talk page)
Cliburn
''www.visitoruk.com'' {{authority control Villages in Cumbria Civil parishes in Cumbria Eden District