ESKDALE, Cumberland - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"ESKDALE, a chapelry and township with Wastdale Head, in the parish of St. Bees, ward of Allerdale-above-Derwent, county Cumberland, 5 miles N.W. of Ravenglass. Holmrook is its post town. The Drigg station on the Whitehaven and Furness Junction railway is about 4½ miles to the S.W. of the village. It is situated on the river Esk, and includes the hamlets of Boot, Gatehouse Green, and Mitredale. Iron ore is found here. In the neighbourhood are the waterfalls of Stanley Ghyll and Birker Force. Nearly half the land is in common and waste, with a large patch of coppice-wood. The living is a perpetual curacy* in the diocese of Carlisle, value £66. The church is a plain stone structure, dedicated to St. Catherine. In the E. window is a painting of the patron saint, and above the eastern gable a stone cross. The parochial charities produce about £10 per annum, £6 of which is an endowment for one of the two schools here. General Wyndham is lord of the manor."

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