WETHERAL, Cumberland - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"WETHERAL, a parish and village chiefly in Cumberland ward, but partly in Eskdale ward, county Cumberland, 5 miles S.E. of Carlisle. It is a station on the Newcastle and Carlisle railway, which is here carried across the river Eden by a bridge of five arches, 80 feet span, and about 100 feet above the surface of the water. There is also another bridge across the valley of the Corby Beck, 480 feet in length, which consists of seven arches of 40 feet span. The parish includes the townships and villages of Great Corby, with Warwick Bridge, Cumwhinton, with Coathill, Scotby, and the hamlet of Holme Park. The village is situated on the steep banks of the Eden. There are quarries of red freestone and alabaster. The living is a perpetual curacy* in the diocese of Carlisle, value with that of Warwick Bridge annexed, £150, in the patronage of the dean and chapter. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was built in the reign of Henry VIII., with a mortuary chapel attached of the Howards of Corby, built in 1791. There are besides several district churches and chapels in the townships above named. The National schools at Wetheral were founded in 1760 and rebuilt in 1854. A little to the S. of the village, on the bank of the Eden, are the ruins of Wetheral Priory, founded by Ranulph de Meschines in 1088, as a cell to the abbey of St. Mary at York. At the Dissolution its revenues were returned at £128 5s. 3d. Of the conventual building the tower or gatehouse is all that remains, but near the site are three ancient cells called the Safeguards, excavated in the steep face of the rock at the height of 40 feet above the river, and on the opposite side is a full-length stone statue of St. Constantine. Corby Castle is the seat of the Howards, which stands on the site of a more ancient castle purchased by Lord William Howard, third son of the Duke of Norfolk, in 1624, and still remains in the hands of his descendants. The principal landowners are the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the Duke of Devonshire, and John Ramsay, M.D." "COATHILL, a township in the parish of Wetheral, in the ward and county of Cumberland, 5 miles S.E. of Carlisle. It has quarries of gypsum." "CUMWHINTON, a township in the parish of Wetheral, ward of Cumberland, in the county of Cumberland, 3 miles S.E. of Carlisle." "GREAT CORBY, a township and village in the parish of Wetheral, Eskdale ward, in the county of Cumberland, 6 miles from Brampton, and the same distance from Carlisle, its post town. The Newcastle and Carlisle section of the North-Eastern railway has a station at Wetheral for Corby. In this township is Corby Castle, a seat of the Howards. It is situated on a loft cliff above the river Eden, which, with its wood and rocky banks, forms a picturesque feature in the landscape. The castle is irregularly built; and, although several centuries old, has been so much altered at various times, that it now seems a comparatively modern erection. The grounds were beautifully laid out a century ago under the direction of Thomas Howard, an ancestor of the present owner of the manor, and a descendant of the factious "Belted Will" of border history, the dread of the moss-troopers, and the civiliser of the Scottish borders. In these grounds there are temples and grottos, the latter excavated beneath the surface, with steps cut in the solid rock leading to them. One of these caves is said to have been hewn out by a Scottish prince named Constantine as a hermitage, in which he lived for some years, and it still goes by the name of St. Constantine's Cell." "SCOTBY, a township in the parish of Wetheral, ward and county of Cumberland, 3 miles S.E. of Carlisle, its post town. It is a station on the Newcastle and Carlisle section of the North-Eastern railway. The village, which is of small extent, is situated near the river Eden, and is chiefly agricultural. A portion of the inhabitants are engaged in tanning. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Carlisle, value £67. The church has a square embattled tower containing one bell. There is a village school, with a small endowment. The Society of Friends have a meeting-house, with a burial ground attached." "WARWICK-BRIDGE, a township in the parish of Wetheral, Eskdale ward, county Cumberland. It adjoins the parish of Warwick, and includes the hamlet of Burnriggs. The river Eden is here crossed by the new bridge to the opposite village of Warwick. A party of royalists were routed here by General Lambert in 1648. Many of the inhabitants are employed in the cotton mills and bleaching-grounds. There is a Roman Catholic chapel."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]