Eskdale, Cumbria
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Eskdale is a
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 west of 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 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 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. It is named after the ''Eskdale'' valley which the River Esk flows through on its way from the fells of 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 ...
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 ...
at
Ravenglass Ravenglass is an English coastal village in west Cumbria that lies between Barrow-in-Furness and Whitehaven, on the estuary of three rivers: the Esk, Mite and Irt. It is the only coastal village in the Lake District National Park. Formerly in ...
. The civil parish is not coterminous with the valley, as the parish also includes the upper valley of the
River Mite The River Mite is a river in the county of Cumbria in northern England. The valley through which the river Mite runs is called Miterdale. The name Mite is thought to be of British origin and related to a root such as 'meigh': to urinate or dr ...
(''Miterdale''), whilst the lower reaches of the River Esk are in the civil parish of
Muncaster Muncaster is a civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The parish is south west of the city of Carlisle. The settlement of Muncaster itself consists of a small number of houses around Muncas ...
. Most of the parish's population is concentrated in the two villages of
Eskdale Green Eskdale Green is a village in Cumbria, England, 10 miles west of Coniston. Historically in Cumberland, it lies off the A595 road and is one of the few settlements in Eskdale. Main sights The village is centred on the small St. Bega's Church ...
and
Boot A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearl ...
. One of the Lake District's most popular tourist attractions, the
Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway is a minimum-gauge railway, minimum-gauge heritage railway in Cumbria, England. The line runs from Ravenglass to Dalegarth for Boot railway station, Dalegarth Station near Boot, Cumbria, Boot in the valley o ...
, runs through the parish, though along with other western parts of the Lake District, Eskdale is notably quieter during the high summer season than the more accessible eastern areas.


History

The
Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
built a road which ran along Eskdale, linking the port at
Ravenglass Ravenglass is an English coastal village in west Cumbria that lies between Barrow-in-Furness and Whitehaven, on the estuary of three rivers: the Esk, Mite and Irt. It is the only coastal village in the Lake District National Park. Formerly in ...
to the west with their fort at
Ambleside Ambleside is a town in the civil parish of Lakes and the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Westmorland and located in the Lake District National Park, the town sits at the ...
to the east. At the eastern end of the Eskdale valley, the road crossed
Hardknott Pass Hardknott Pass is a hill pass between Eskdale and the Duddon Valley in the Lake District National Park, Cumbria, England. The tarmac-surfaced road, which is the most direct route from the central Lake District to West Cumbria, shares the ti ...
. Around 117AD, they built a fort called ''Mediobogdum'' part way up the pass, on a prominent vantage point for views west along the valley. The fort had been abandoned by the end of the 2nd century, and its remains are now known as
Hardknott Roman Fort Hardknott Roman Fort is an archeological site, the remains of the Roman fort ''Mediobogdum'', located on the western side of the challenging Hardknott Pass in the English Lake District. The fort was built between 120 and 138 on a rocky spur, ...
. The valley has been relatively sparsely populated for most of its history. The River Esk formed the boundary between the
ancient 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 ...
es of
St Bees St Bees is a coastal village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England, on the Irish Sea. Within the parish is St Bees Head which is the only Heritage Coast between Wales and Scotland and a Site of Spec ...
to the north and
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 ...
to the south. St Catherine's Church was built in the 14th century on the north bank of the Esk near Boot, to serve as a
chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...
to the parish church at St Bees, some away. In the 19th century, there were a number of
hematite Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...
quarries in the valley, mostly in the area around Boot. The
Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway is a minimum-gauge railway, minimum-gauge heritage railway in Cumbria, England. The line runs from Ravenglass to Dalegarth for Boot railway station, Dalegarth Station near Boot, Cumbria, Boot in the valley o ...
was opened in 1875 as a 3 ft
narrow-gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter cur ...
to transport iron ore quarried in Eskdale to the main line of the
Furness Railway The Furness Railway (FR) was a railway company operating in the Furness area of Lancashire in North West England. History Formation In the early 1840s, the owners of iron ore mines in the Furness district of Lancashire became interested in a ...
at
Ravenglass Ravenglass is an English coastal village in west Cumbria that lies between Barrow-in-Furness and Whitehaven, on the estuary of three rivers: the Esk, Mite and Irt. It is the only coastal village in the Lake District National Park. Formerly in ...
. It also started carrying passengers the following year. As quarrying in the valley declined, the line became uneconomic and closed in 1913. It was bought in 1915 by model-makers and the track re-laid to a fifteen-inch gauge. From the 1920s to the 1950s the line's main commercial function was carrying granite from quarries around
Beckfoot Beckfoot is a hamlet in the civil parish of Holme St Cuthbert in Cumbria, England. It is located on the B5300 coast road, three miles south of Silloth-on-Solway and two miles north of the village of Mawbray. The county town of Carlisle is ...
. After the granite quarries closed in 1953, the line again became unviable as a commercial enterprise. In 1960 it was bought by a preservation society, since when it has been run as a
heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...
. On 2 June 2010, the area was the scene of some of the
Cumbria shootings The Cumbria shootings was a shooting spree that occurred on 2 June 2010 when a lone gunman, taxi driver Derrick Bird, killed twelve people and injured eleven others in Cumbria, England. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre and the 1996 D ...
perpetrated by 52-year-old taxi driver Derrick Bird, who shot and killed twelve people and wounded eleven others. Several of the wounded victims were shot in Eskdale and the surrounding area.


Governance

There are two tiers of local government covering Eskdale, at
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
and
unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...
level: Eskdale Parish Council and
Cumberland Council Cumberland Council is the local authority for Cumberland, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, England. It is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council. The ...
. The parish council generally meets at the village hall at Eskdale Green, which forms part of the same building as St Bega's Church. The parish is wholly within the Lake District National Park, and so some functions are administered by the Lake District National Park Authority, notably
planning Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. Some researchers regard the evolution of forethought - the cap ...
. At a national level, the parish is within the Barrow and Furness UK parliamentary constituency.


Administrative history

The area of the modern parish historically straddled the
township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...
of 'Eskdale and Wasdale' in the parish of St Bees (north of the Esk), and the township of 'Birker and Austhwaite' in the parish of Millom (south of the Esk). The Eskdale and Wasdale township also included the
Wasdale Head Wasdale Head (; traditionally ) is a scattered agricultural hamlet in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Wasdale Head claims to be home of the highest mountain (Scafell Pike), deepest lake (Wastwater), smallest church an ...
area to the north of Eskdale itself. Both parishes formed part of the historic county of
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 ...
. Each township took on civil functions under the
poor laws The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief in England and Wales that developed out of the codification of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws in 1587–1598. The system continued until the modern welfare state emerged in the late 1940s. E ...
from the 17th century onwards, and as such both townships also became civil parishes in 1866, when the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws. In 1934, Eskdale and Wasdale ceded the Wasdale Head area to the parish of
Nether Wasdale Nether Wasdale is a village in Cumbria, England, located in the valley and civil parish of Wasdale, near the River Irt and just over a mile to the west of the Wastwater lake. Notable features The main church in Nether Wasdale is St Michael & ...
(renamed
Wasdale Wasdale (; traditionally ) is a valley and civil parish in the western part of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. The River Irt flows through the valley to its estuary at Ravenglass. A large part of the main valley floor is ...
in 2000) and the remainder was merged with Birker and Austhwaite to become a new civil parish called Eskdale. From 1934 to 1974, the parish of Eskdale formed part of the Millom Rural District. In 1974, Eskdale became part of the
Borough of Copeland The Borough of Copeland was a local government district with borough status in western Cumbria, England. Its council was based in Whitehaven. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the Borough of Whitehaven, Ennerdale Rural Distri ...
in the new county of Cumbria. Copeland was abolished in 2023 when the new Cumberland Council was created, also taking over the functions of the abolished Cumbria County Council in the area. Between 1934 and 2009, the northern boundary of Eskdale parish ran along the southern banks of
Wast Water Wast Water or Wastwater () is a lake located in Wasdale, a valley in the western part of the Lake District National Park, England. The lake is almost long and more than wide. It is a glacial lake, formed in a glacially 'over-deepened' valley ...
and over
Lingmell Lingmell is a fell in the English Lake District, standing above the village of Wasdale Head. It is an outlier on the north-west flank of Scafell Pike, England’s highest mountain. Topography Although standing in the shadow of its taller parent ...
. The parish boundary between Eskdale and Wasdale was adjusted in 2009 to follow the
watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...
between Wasdale to the north and Eskdale and Miterdale to the south. As such, the parish boundary now passes over the summits of
Illgill Head Illgill Head is a fell in the English Lake District. It is known more commonly as the northern portion of the Wastwater Screes. The fell is high and stands along the south-east shore of Wastwater, the deepest lake in England. Topography The p ...
,
Scafell Scafell ( or ; also spelled Sca Fell, previously Scawfell) is a mountain in the Lake District region of Cumbria, England. It has a height of , making it the second-highest mountain in England after its neighbour, Scafell Pike, from which i ...
and
Scafell Pike Scafell Pike () is a mountain in the Lake District region of Cumbria, England. It has an elevation of above sea level, making it the highest and the most prominent mountain in England. The mountain is part of the Scafell massif, an extinct v ...
, the latter being the highest mountain in England.


Literature

In a note to her poetical illustration (Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836) to a painting by G. Pickering,
Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. Landon's writings are emblematic of the transition from Romanticism to Victorian literature. Her first major b ...
remarks on the hospitality of the 'estatesmen' of this district. Eskdale and Rafnglass (modern
Ravenglass Ravenglass is an English coastal village in west Cumbria that lies between Barrow-in-Furness and Whitehaven, on the estuary of three rivers: the Esk, Mite and Irt. It is the only coastal village in the Lake District National Park. Formerly in ...
) feature in
Rosemary Sutcliff Rosemary Sutcliff (14 December 1920 – 23 July 1992) was an English novelist best known for children's books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Although she was primarily a children's author, some of her novel ...
's final novel Sword Song, set in the 9th century and published posthumously in 1997.


Demography

At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 249. The population had been 264 in 2001, and 304 in 2011.


See also

*
Listed buildings in Eskdale, Cumbria Eskdale, Cumbria, Eskdale is a civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. It contains 29 Listed building#England and Wales, listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for En ...


References


External links


Cumbria County History Trust: Eskdale and Wasdale
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page)
Eskdale website

The Cumbria Directory - Eskdale
{{Authority control Cumberland (unitary authority) Civil parishes in Cumbria Lake District