Crosby-on-Eden is the combined name for two small villages, High Crosby and Low Crosby, within the

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 ...

Stanwix Rural Stanwix Rural is a civil parish in the City of Carlisle non-metropolitan district, district of Cumbria, England, immediately to the north east of Carlisle, Cumbria, Carlisle itself – parts of the Carlisle urban area are in the parish boundaries ...

near

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

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. It was formerly a parish in its own right under the name Crosby upon Eden. In 1931 the parish had a population of 238. On 1 April 1934 the parish was abolished and merged with Stanwix Rural, part also went to

Wetheral Wetheral is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in Cumbria, England. At the 2001 census, the population of the Wetheral Ward was 4,039, The civil parish of Wetheral is slightly larger, with a population of 5,203. being counted as 4,541 ...

. The villages are by the River Eden north-east of

, joined by a road that used to be the line of the

Stanegate The Stanegate (meaning "stone road" in Northumbrian dialect) was an important Roman road built in what is now northern England. It linked many forts including two that guarded important river crossings: Corstopitum (Corbridge) on the River Tyn ...

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

. It has been thought on spacing grounds that there might have been a small

Roman fort In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, the Latin word ''castrum'', plural ''castra'', was a military-related term. In Latin usage, the singular form ''castrum'' meant 'fort', while the plural form ''castra'' meant 'camp'. The singular and ...

in Crosby-on-Eden, as part of the so-called Stanegate frontier which preceded

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. R ...

, but if such a fort exists it has not yet been found. The Stanegate ran in a deep cutting still visible next to the road running west from High Crosby, and it has been suggested that part of the reason for the cutting was to produce stone for building work. The line of Hadrian's Wall passes a mile or so to the north, and the

Hadrian's Wall Path Hadrian's Wall Path is a long-distance footpath in the north of England, which became the 15th National Trail in 2003. It runs for , from Wallsend on the east coast of England to Bowness-on-Solway on the west coast. For most of its length it ...

follows the Stanegate through the villages. In Low Crosby is the Church of St John the Evangelist, a rebuilt church by R.H. Billings in the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style. A grange was built here and named Crosby. High Crosby is a half mile east of Low Crosby, and located in the village is Crosby House, a former mansion that is now a hotel. The villages are bypassed by the

A689 road The A689 is a road in northern England that runs east from the A595, to the west of Carlisle in Cumbria, to Hartlepool in County Durham. The road begins west of Carlisle, just outside the city at the A595. The initial stretch was recently co ...

which used to be numbered as part of the B6264 and follows the route of General Wade's Military Road. Crosby-on-Eden has a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

, Crosby-on-Eden C. of E. School, built in 1844.

RAF Crosby-on-Eden

RAF Crosby-on-Eden Royal Air Force Crosby-on-Eden or more simply RAF Crosby-on-Eden was a former Royal Air Force station located north east of Carlisle, Cumbria, Carlisle, Cumbria and west of Brampton, Carlisle, Brampton, Cumbria. It is nowadays Carlisle Lake Di ...

was a

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

airfield which was home to No.59 Operational Training Unit providing day training for

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

pilots. It was replaced by No. 9 Operational Training Unit, 17 Group

Coastal Command RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands and played an important role during the Second World War. Maritime Aviation ...

, in August 1942 for training long-range fighter crews on

Bristol Beaufort The Bristol Beaufort (manufacturer designation Type 152) is a British twin-engined torpedo bomber designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and developed from experience gained designing and building the earlier Blenheim light bomber. At l ...

and

Bristol Beaufighter The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter (often called the Beau) is a British multi-role aircraft developed during the Second World War by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was originally conceived as a heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Beaufort ...

conversion squadrons, as well as air firing and night flying. In August 1944, the station came under the command of No. 109 Operational Training Unit, a transport command of Douglas Dakotas.History of Dakota KG651
The station was renamed 1383 TCU on 1 August 1945. After the Second World War,

British European Airways British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom. The a ...

commenced flights to

Ronaldsway Ronaldsway () is a place in the parish of Malew in the south of the Isle of Man, between the village of Ballasalla and the town of Castletown. Features It is notable as the location of Isle of Man Airport and historically of RNAS Ronaldsway, to ...

and

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

. However, the RAF station had no post-war use or need and was closed in 1947. It was reopened in 1960 as Carlisle Airport. Since 2006 the airport has been known as

Carlisle Lake District Airport Carlisle Lake District Airport is a regional airport located east north-east of Carlisle, England. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the passenger terminal has been closed as from the 1st of April 2020 "until further notice". Carlisle has a CAA ...

, and since 30 May 2009 the airport lease has been owned by the

Stobart Group Esken Limited (), formerly Stobart Group Limited, is a British infrastructure, aviation and energy company, with operations in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company is registered in Guernsey but has its operational head office in Londo ...

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Crosby on Eden
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page)
Entry at "The Cumbria Directory"
{{authority control Villages in Cumbria Former civil parishes in Cumbria City of Carlisle

RAF Crosby-on-Eden

See also

References

External links