Bootle (''oo'' as in ''boot'') 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

district in

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. The parish had a population of 745 in the 2001 census, decreasing slightly to 742 at the 2011 census.

Historically History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

, the village is in the

Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

National Park, and is close to the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...

coast. Near to Bootle is the Eskmeals Firing Range, which was a large employer but in the mid to late 1990s reduced the workforce. Also within the parish is Hycemoor, a hamlet situated north-west of Bootle, where Bootle railway station is located.

Origin of name

Bootle is recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

as "Bodele" from the Old English word which means a building. Variations of this spelling (e.g. Botle, Bowtle, Butehill, Bowtle, Botil) persist from about 1135 till 1580 when the spelling "Bootle" becomes common.

History

Bootle is listed in the

as one of the townships forming the

Manor of Hougun The Manor of Hougun is the historic name for an area which now forms part of the county of Cumbria in North West England. Only the southern band of land in the south of Cumbria was surveyed in the Domesday Book. The westernmost entries for Cumbria ...

held by Earl Tostig. – part of the Manor of Hougun and was assessed for

geld Geld may refer to: * Gelding, equine castration * Danegeld, a tax paid to Viking raiders * Geld (surname) See also * Gel (disambiguation) * Gelt (disambiguation) Gelt may refer to: * Gelt, also known as Hanukkah gelt, chocolate coins given to Je ...

purposes at 4

carucates The carucate or carrucate ( or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could tillage, till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms of tax asse ...

(about ). Bootle was the furthest point to which the Normans penetrated Cumberland. They made no attempt to infiltrate further north into land held by British Celts or those places already settled by the Norse from Ireland, Isle of Man or Scotland. Instead they satisfied themselves, for the moment, with taking those lands on the southern coastal strip of West Cumberland that had been settled by the Angles of Northumbria and had belonged to Earl Tostig prior to the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

. A charter for a market and a fair for the 'exaltation of the cross' was granted in 1347 by

King Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...

to John de Huddleston, Lord of

Millom Millom is a town and civil parish on the north shore of the estuary of the River Duddon in southernmost Cumberland, Cumbria, England. It is situated just outside the Lake District National Park, about north of Barrow-in-Furness ( by road) and ...

Governance

Bootle is within the Barrow and Furness UK parliamentary constituency. An

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

of the same name exists. This ward stretches north along the coast as far as Muncaster with a total population of 1,300.

Transport

* Bootle railway station, from Bootle

Education

* The village has a

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

which was founded in 1830 by Captain Isaac Shaw RN with an endowment of £290 and still bears his name Captain Shaw's School.

Religious sites

* St Michael's Church * Independent

Chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

- Formerly a Congregational Church built in 1780. It became part of the

United Reformed Church The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. The URC is a Trinitarian church whose theolog ...

when the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches united in 1972 but became independent in the 1990s. The building is now owned by Rural Ministries and is still in use as an evangelical church.Rural Ministries
Accessed 24 January 2010 * Seaton Priory There are some remains of the Benedictine nunnery to the north of the parish.

Notable residents

* Trudy Harrison, former Conservative Member of Parliament * Morgan Feeney, English professional footballer

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Bootle
(nb: provisional research only - see Talk page)
Bootle Evangelical ChurchLocal community websiteThe Cumbria DirectoryDuddon & Furness Mountain Rescue Team

External links

{{authority control Villages in Cumbria Civil parishes in Cumbria Cumberland (unitary authority)