Foulsyke is a small hamlet on the boundary between the civil parishes of Holme Abbey and

Holme St. Cuthbert Holme St Cuthbert (occasionally Holme St Cuthberts; pronounced and occasionally written Holme Saint Cuthbert) is a small village and civil parish in the borough of Allerdale, in the county of Cumbria, United Kingdom. The village is located approx ...

in Cumbria, United Kingdom. It is located just under one mile to the east of

Pelutho Pelutho is a hamlet in the civil parish of Holme St. Cuthbert in Cumbria, historically in Cumberland, England. It is situated on the B5301 road between the towns of Aspatria and Silloth. The village of Mawbray is located to the south-west ...

, three-quarters of a mile south-east of

Highlaws Highlaws is a hamlet in the civil parish of Holme Abbey in Cumbria, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately two-and-a-quarter miles south-west of Abbeytown, one-and-a-half miles east of Pelutho, and one mile to the north of Aldoth. Other n ...

, and two-and-a-half miles south-east of

Abbeytown Abbeytown, also known as Holme Abbey, is a village and civil parish in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The name Abbeytown dates to the mid-17th century (''The Towne of the Abbey'', ''Abbey Towne''; ''Abbeytown'' from mid-18th century ...

. Other nearby settlements include

Aldoth Aldoth is a hamlet in the civil parish of Holme Abbey in Cumbria, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately two-and-a-half miles south-west of Abbeytown, one-and-a-quarter miles south of Highlaws, and two-and-a-quarter miles north-east of th ...

, three-quarters of a mile to the south-east, Tarns, one-and-a-half miles to the south-west, and Beckfoot, two-and-a-half miles due east as the crow flies, or four-and-a-half miles by road. Cumbria's

county town In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...

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 ...

, is located twenty-one miles away to the north-east.

History and etymology

The name Foulsyke comes from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''ful-sīc'', meaning a "dirty stream". There have been several historical variant spellings recorded, including Fowlesyke, Foalsyke, Fullsyke, and Foulsike. Foulsyke is best known for its former Methodist chapel, which today has been converted into a private dwelling. The chapel was built between 1898 and 1899 by a man named Thomas Hurst, who was 27 years old at the time construction began. The initials of three of the chapel's biggest financial backers were engraved on stones in the wall. Most of the £150 raised to build the chapel was donated by local farming families. Hurst died in 1906, and his funeral was held in the chapel he'd built. Thomas' wife, Sarah Ann Hurst, took over running the chapel when he died, and continued to do so until she retired in 1947. The chapel ran its own Sunday school, and continued to do so even when only a single pupil remained in the 1970s. The chapel's Harvest Festival was one of its congregation's favourite times of year, and it was just after the Harvest Festival in 1992 when, due to falling numbers in the congregation (down from dozens to just six regulars) that the chapel was closed. It was later converted to a private residence. In July 2014, a mill worker named Brian Rudd was killed while cutting grass in Foulsyke, near to the chapel, when his tractor overturned. A verdict of accidental death was recorded at an inquest into the accident in December 2014.

References

{{Reflist Hamlets in Cumbria Allerdale