Renwick, Cumbria
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Renwick, formerly known as ''Ravenwick'', is a small village and former
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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
, now in the parish of Kirkoswald, in the
Westmorland and Furness Westmorland and Furness is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Cumbria, England. The economy is mainly focused on tourism around both the Lake District and Cumbria Coast, shipbuilding and the Royal Port of Barrow, Royal ...
district, in the county of
Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...
, England. Renwick is located north east of Penrith between the A686 and B6413 roads. In 1931 the parish had a population of 174. One mile south-east of the village in the hamlet of Haresceugh are the fragmentary remains of Haresceugh Castle, the site of which is now occupied by a farmhouse. Two sections of walling remain from the castle.


Etymology

"Renwick lies on Raven Beck..., but the probabilities are that the river-name is a back-formation from the place-name, and that Renwick is really 'Hrafn's wīc' ". ('Wīc' is
Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
for 'farmstead' or 'settlement').


History

According to local legend, the village was terrorized by a
cockatrice A cockatrice is a mythical beast, essentially a two-legged dragon, wyvern, or snake, serpent-like creature with a rooster's head. Described by Laurence Breiner as "an ornament in the drama and poetry of the Elizabethans", it was featured promine ...
around the year 1610 until it was killed by a local man of the Tallentire family, for which he and his heirs were exempted from
tithes A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques or via onli ...
. This has grown into the story that when the locals were demolishing the old church in 1733 a cockatrice emerged from the ruins, and John Tallentire killed it with a
rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus'' of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the Himalaya ...
branch. On 1 April 1934 the parish was abolished and merged into Kirkoswald.


See also

* Listed buildings in Kirkoswald, Cumbria


References


External links

*
Cumbria County History Trust: Renwick
(nb: provisional research only - see Talk page)

Villages in Cumbria Former civil parishes in Cumbria Kirkoswald, Cumbria {{Cumbria-geo-stub