Abbeytown

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Abbeytown
Holme Cultram Abbey, Abbeytown (NY1750).jpg
Location map United Kingdom Allerdale.svg
Red pog.svg
Abbeytown
Location in former Allerdale borough
Cumbria UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Abbeytown
Location within Cumbria
Population819 (2011)
OS grid reference NY173507
Civil parish
  • Holme Abbey [1]
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town WIGTON
Postcode district CA7
Dialling code 016973
Police Cumbria
Fire Cumbria
Ambulance North West
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Cumbria
54°50′41″N3°17′16″W / 54.8447°N 3.2877°W / 54.8447; -3.2877

Abbeytown, also known as Holme Abbey, is a village and civil parish in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England.

Contents

The name Abbeytown dates to the mid-17th century (The Towne of the Abbey, Abbey Towne; Abbeytown from mid-18th century) and is named after the Holmcultram Abbey founded in the 12th century. [2]

The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 819. [3] It is located five-and-a-half miles south-east of Silloth, and six-and-a-half miles north-west of Wigton. The civil parish borders Holme Low to the north, Holme East Waver and Dundraw to the east, Bromfield to the south, and Holme St Cuthbert to the west. [4] The county town of Carlisle is eighteen miles to the north-east. Other nearby settlements include Foulsyke, Highlaws, Kelsick, Mawbray, Pelutho, and Wheyrigg. The B5302 road runs through the village.

Historically a part of Cumberland, Abbeytown was built around the former Cistercian Holmcultram Abbey, the nave of the church of which now serves the parish as St Mary's Church. On 9 June 2006 the church was set alight in an arson attack which devastated its roof parts of which had been in situ since it was erected 900 years ago. [5] The church has since been restored, and fully reopened in September 2015. [6]

The Village also has a recreational field, which regularly hosts football matches from around the Allerdale district. The recreational field was constructed in 2012, with the demolition of the former standing structural foundation making way for a new field. A designated area within this field houses the children's play park. As of 2015 Abbeytown Archers have set up their club at the recreational field, and outdoor shooting takes place on Monday evenings, with indoor shooting held in the Holm Cultram C of E school, also on Mondays. The village is located on the main Wigton to Silloth road and has a pub and a shop.

Many buildings in the village date from the medieval period, especially those associated with the former abbey. Others are Victorian, when much of the village was concerned with the railway line to Silloth, and, more recently, a large number of houses were built at "Friars Garth".

The village is located on the edge of the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Cumbria Coastal Way passes through the village.

Governance

Abbeytown is part of the parliamentary constituency of Penrith and Solway, and has been represented by Markus Campbell-Savours of the Labour Party since the 2024 general election. Prior to 2024, the village was in the constituency of Workington. In the December 2019 general election, the Tory candidate for Workington, Mark Jenkinson, was elected the MP, overturning a 9.4 per cent Labour majority from the 2017 election to eject shadow environment secretary Sue Hayman by a margin of 4,136 votes. [7] Until the December 2019 general election The Labour Party has won the seat in the constituency in every general election since 1979.The Conservative Party has only been elected once in Workington since World War II, at the 1976 by-election. [8]

Before Brexit, it was in the North West England European Parliamentary Constituency.

Nuclear disposal site

In June 2012, it became clear that the Solway Plain between Silloth, Abbeytown and Westnewton has been identified as a potential site for a Geological Disposal Facility for the UK's high level nuclear waste. Two other sites have also been identified – Eskdale and Ennerdale – both of these are within the Lake District National Park. The Solway Plain was not named by the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership, rather they referred to the 'Low permeability sedimentary rocks associated with the Mercia Mudstone Group (MMG)'. [9] This was in (publicly available) document 285 [10] of the West Cumbria MRWS in a report written by Dr Dearlove, the consultant geologist recruited by MRWS. In 2013, Cumbria County Council withdrew from the MRWS process. Though Allerdale Borough Council and Copeland Borough Council wished to proceed, the Department of Energy and Climate Change closed the site selection process in west Cumbria. [11] [12]

See also

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Holme East Waver is a civil parish in Cumbria, United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north by the civil parish of Bowness-on-Solway, to the east by the civil parishes of Kirkbride, Woodside, and Waverton, and to the south by the civil parishes of Dundraw and Holme Abbey, lands common to Holme St. Cuthbert, Holme Low, and Holme Abbey, and the town of Silloth-on-Solway. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 306 in 121 households, increasing slightly at the 2011 Census to a population of 318 in 130 households. It is named for the River Waver, and the rivers Waver and Wampool enter the Solway Firth at the western end of the parish. Part of the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is within the parish of Holme East Waver. The largest village is Newton Arlosh.

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Kelsick is a hamlet in the civil parish of Dundraw in Cumbria, United Kingdom. It is located approximately 1.8 miles (2.9 km) southeast of Abbeytown, 0.9 miles (1.4 km) northwest of Dundraw, and 14.5 miles (23.3 km) west of Carlisle, Cumbria's county town. Kelsick is accessed by two side-roads off the B5302 road, which runs between Silloth and Wigton.

References

  1. ↑ "Holme Abbey Parish Council". holmeabbeypc.org.uk.
  2. ↑ Watts, Victor (2007). The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names. Cambridge University Press. p. 1. ISBN   978-0521168557.
  3. ↑ "Civil Parish population 2011" . Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  4. ↑ "Cumbria Geography Atlas - parish boundaries". Archived from the original on 23 September 2015.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ "BBC News: Holme Cultram St Mary Abbey open nine years after arson attack". BBC News. 26 September 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  7. ↑ "Workington parliamentary constituency – Election 2019".
  8. ↑ "A vision of Britain website – general elections section" . Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  9. ↑ "Home - West Cumbria MRWS Partnership - Advisory body for higher activity nuclear wastes - Advice on long-term solution for nuclear waste". www.westcumbriamrws.org.uk.
  10. ↑ "West Cumbria MRWS - document 285" (PDF). Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  11. ↑ "West Cumbria MRWS - homepage" . Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  12. ↑ "Uk government: Written ministerial statement by Edward Davey on the management of radioactive waste" . Retrieved 4 September 2015.
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