Hilton is a village in
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. C ...
, England, in the civil parish of
Murton, about east of
Appleby-in-Westmorland
Appleby-in-Westmorland is a market town and civil parish in the Eden District of Cumbria, England, with a population of 3,048 at the 2011 Census. Crossed by the River Eden, Appleby was the county town of the historic county of Westmorland. It ...
and at an elevation of . In 1870-72 the
township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...
had a population of 253. It has a
rural economy
Rural economics is the study of rural economies. Rural economies include both agricultural and non-agricultural industries, so rural economics has broader concerns than agricultural economics which focus more on food systems. Rural developmen ...
, with much grazing of sheep, though the past was also home to
lead mining
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, l ...
.
History
Hilton was the birthplace of
Christopher Bainbridge
Christopher Bainbridge ( 1462/1464 – 14 July 1514) was an English Cardinal of the Catholic Church. Of Westmorland origins, he was a nephew of Bishop Thomas Langton of Winchester, represented the continuation of Langton's influence and teachin ...
(c.1464-1514), Cardinal and
Archbishop of York
The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...
(where he was the direct predecessor of
Thomas Wolsey
Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's Lord High Almoner, almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the ...
). Bainbridge was closely related to the local families of
Langton, Machell and Blenkinsop.
By the end 19th century, Hilton had a population of around 300 in an area of 4,984 acres there were many lead mines nearby and a
smelt mill was situated in the village.
In 1856 the ''St. John the Baptist Church'' was constructed in the area between Hilton and
Murton which features a three-tier
pulpit. Since the 1980s much of the previously
common land
Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel.
A person who has a ...
of the village has been owned by the
Ministry of Defence as part of the
Warcop Training Area
The Warcop Training Area (WTA) is a UK Ministry of Defence military training area near the village of Warcop in Cumbria. Part of the Defence Training Estate, the area consists of approximately of MoD freehold land. which has been expanded extensively over the years.
Hilton Mine
Some to the northeast of Hilton, between
Hilton Fell and
Murton Fell in Scordale, is the Hilton Mine . Initially it worked for
galena (lead ore) in the nineteenth century by the
London Lead Company
The London Lead Company was an 18th and 19th century British lead mining company. It was incorporated by royal charter. Strictly, it was The Company for Smelting Down Lead with Pitcoal.
Origins
The company was chartered in 1692 to investors who i ...
, it was later worked under different owners for
barium minerals,
barytes and
witherite
Witherite is a barium carbonate mineral, Ba C O3, in the aragonite group. Witherite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system and virtually always is twinned. The mineral is colorless, milky-white, grey, pale-yellow, green, to pale-brown. The spec ...
in the early twentieth century. It also was a rare source of yellow coloured
fluorite
Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon.
The Mohs sca ...
in the UK.
The Pennines and Shap
, section "Hilton Mine" , ''www.rock-site.co.uk''
See also
* Listed buildings in Murton, Cumbria
References
{{authority control
Villages in Cumbria
Murton, Cumbria