Glasson is a village 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, just inland from the Solway coast, northwest of

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

on the course of

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall (, also known as the ''Roman Wall'', Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Aelium'' in Latin) is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Roman Britain, Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Ru ...

near

Drumburgh Drumburgh ( ) is a small settlement in Cumbria, England. It is northwest of the city of Carlisle and is on the course of Hadrian's Wall, near to Burgh by Sands. The village is sited on a gentle hill with a good view in all directions over the s ...

. The place name derives from the Anglo-Scandinavian ''glaise'', meaning "a small stream".Archaeological Data Service
Retrieved : 2012-08-18

History

The line of the

Vallum Vallum is either the whole or a portion of the fortifications of a Roman camp. The vallum usually comprised an earthen or turf rampart ( Agger) with a wooden palisade on top, with a deep outer ditch (fossa). The name is derived from '' vallus'' (a ...

(National Monument number 26122) of Hadrians Wall, dating from 128AD-130AD runs through the village. No trace of the vallum is now visible within the village itself, however its earthworks are clearly visible in the fields to the east. A sandstone building stone inscribed "''Legions II Aug Coh III''" was found in the vicinity of Glasson in the 18th century. The earliest map from the mid-eighteenth century shows a rural village aligned along the course of the old vallum and made up of 21 dwellings. The 1838 tithe map shows 32 dwelling in Glasson with the same alignment. Between 1864 and 1926 the OS maps show that the village experienced a gradual expansion up to approximately 68 dwellings, aided by the establishment of the railway station on the line to

Port Carlisle Port Carlisle is a coastal village in Cumberland, Cumbria, England. It is in the civil parish of Bowness-on-Solway. Its original name was Fisher's Cross, but when it became the terminus of the Carlisle Canal it was renamed Port Carlisle. Duri ...

and to

via

. The village lies in the old Barony of Burgh, dating from 1092, the baron now being the

Earl of Lonsdale Earl of Lonsdale is a title that has been created twice in British history, firstly in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1784 (becoming extinct in 1802), and then in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1807, both times for members of the Lowth ...

. The barony was a bulwark against Scottish invasion across the Solway

Transport

Canals

The Carlisle Navigation Canal (1821–1853) ran slightly to the east of the village, reaching the Solway at

. The Port Carlisle Railway Company filled in the canal and rail passenger services commenced in 1854. The old overbridge, with a cast-iron parapet, built in 1819-23 at NY254606 is a listed structurePort Carlisle Railway
Retrieved : 2012-08-01 and was originally built as a bridge over canal. The plinth with rounded corners was originally the supporting structure for the canal drawbridge, increased in height to convert it to a railway bridge. An old canal lock keepers cottage also survives.

Railways

Glasson railway station was the intermediate station on the old

branch line from Carlisle, diverging at the junction near

. It had a single platform and a shelter. A horse-drawn passenger service was provided between Drumburgh and

through Glasson from 1856, replaced in 1914 by steam propulsion until a steam railmotor 'Flower of Yarrow' was introduced, running until the branch closed in 1932.Cumbria Railways
Retrieved : 2012-08-17

Natural history

Glasson Moss NNR lies near the village. Much of the area was worked for peat in the past, however it is the best preserved of the Solway Mosses with a typical moss carpet and flora and notable bryophytes and invertebrates.
Retrieved : 2012-08-18

References

;Notes ;Sources # Lee, Joan (1998). ''The Place Names of Cumbria''. Cumbria County Council. . # Ramshaw, David (1997). ''The Carlisle Navigation Railway''. Carlisle : P3 Publications. .

External links

{{Commons category, Glasson, Bowness, Glasson Villages in Cumbria Cumberland (unitary authority)