Within the parish is St Bees Head which is the only Heritage Coast between Wales and Scotland and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The Headland is also an RSPB bird reserve which is the only cliff-nesting seabird colony in north-west England. St Bees Lighthouse stands on the North Head which is the most westerly point of Northern England.
Evidence of Mesolithic and Bronze Age habitation has been found in St Bees,[4] but nothing of the Roman occupation, even though St Bees Head would have been a prominent observation point. The name St Bees is a corruption of the Norse name for the village, which is given in the earliest charter of the Priory as "Kyrkeby becok", which can be translated as the "Church town of Bega",[5] relating to the local Saint Bega.[6] She was said to be an Irish princess who fled across the Irish Sea in the ninth century to St Bees to avoid an enforced marriage. Carved stones at the priory show that Irish-Norse Vikings settled here in the tenth century.
The Normans did not reach Cumberland until 1092, and when they took over the local lordships, William Meschin, Lord of Egremont, used the existing religious site[7] to found a Benedictine priory for a prior and six monks sometime between 1120 and 1135. The priory was subordinate to the great Benedictine monastery of St Mary at York. The magnificent Norman doorway of the priory dates from just after this time; probably about 1150.
The priory was closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries on the orders of Henry VIII in 1539. The nave and transepts of the monastic church have continued in use as the parish church to the present day, but much of the extensive monastic buildings were plundered or fell into decay.
In about 1519 Edmund Grindal was born in Cross Hill House, St Bees, which still exists, and is marked with a plaque.[10] He was probably educated at the priory across the valley. A devout Protestant, he made his mark in the reign of Edward VI, but had to flee to Strasbourg when the Catholic Mary I ascended the throne. On Mary's death the country once again became Protestant, and Grindal became Bishop of London, Archbishop of York and then Archbishop of Canterbury. His undoing was opposing Queen Elizabeth I on liberal religious meetings and he was suspended. He died in 1583 still in disgrace, but, virtually on his death bed, he founded St Bees School. The primary school in the village was established in the 1870s.
The site of the priory is an area of firm ground higher than the peat beds that fill the valley, and due to the absence of level ground it is logical that the original settlement would grow up there. However the area was constricted, and as the village expanded it grew up on the opposite side of the valley. The oldest existing house dates from the early 16th century and the present Main Street was based on a string of farms and farmworkers' dwellings.
The 19th century saw the start of great changes. In 1816 St Bees Theological College was founded, and proved popular as it was first for the training of Church of England clergy outside Oxford and Cambridge. To house the college, the monastic chancel of the Priory was re-roofed and served as the main lecture room, and additional lecture rooms were built in the 1860s. At one time the college had 100 students, and over 2,600 clergy were trained before it closed in 1895.[11]
St Bees School embarked on an era of rapid expansion starting with the construction of the quadrangle in 1846 using compensation from the rich mine-owning Lowther family. They had illegally obtained the lucrative mineral rights for Whitehaven from the School in 1742 at a derisory sum.[12] This was the first step in St. Bees School's rise from a local institution to becoming one of the new "public schools" on the fashionable model of Dr Arnold's Rugby School. By 1916 numbers had reached 350, many new buildings had been erected, and the school had become known nationally. The school was forced to close in 2015 because of financial struggles but re-opened a couple of years later. The closure of the school made many teachers and members of the community to leave the village, such as Reverend Clifford Swartz, the former Vicar of the local Protestant church and chaplain of St Bees School.
Perhaps some of the greatest changes were after 1849 when the Furness Railway reached the village. St Bees attracted the professional classes which commuted to Whitehaven or Workington. This led to the building of many of the larger houses and Lonsdale Terrace. The railway brought tourists, and as early as 1851 the Lord Mayor of London stayed at the Seacote Hotel. This long history of attracting tourists for "bucket and spade" holidays has continued to this day.
The railway made possible the export of St Bees sandstone. Huge amounts of stone were quarried, much of it for building the boom town of Barrow-in-Furness. This industry died out in the 1970s, but has since been revived, and there are now two working quarries in the parish.
Agriculture was originally the mainstay of the village economy. Gradually, during the 19th century, service employment for the school and lodgings for the college gave additional income, and with the advent of commuters, the village's social mix was becoming more middle class. Tourism and quarries also provided employment, and many village men found work in the iron ore mines at Cleator. Thus the 19th century saw the change from a rural backwater based on agriculture, to the more diversified role of a dormitory village for professional and industrial worker alike, and its growth into a minor academic centre.
The start of the 20th century saw yet another decline in agriculture, and this has continued to today, when there are only a few farms left. Industrial decline also hit West Cumbria as a whole, particularly after the boom years of both world wars. However, following the Second World War, two major industries were established which have had a profound effect on the community.[13] The former Marchon Chemical Company at Whitehaven, and UKAEA/BNFL at Sellafield both soaked up village labour released by the declining heavy iron and mining industries, and brought a large influx of the technical and scientific university-educated middle class into the village; rather like the first arrival of the professional classes a century earlier. There is now an extensive science park – Westlakes, on the northern fringe of the parish, at which the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has its national headquarters.
The last two decades have seen a significant revival in tourism, boosted by the Coast to Coast walk and increasing recognition of the unique landscape of the St Bees Heritage Coast.
In 2014, it was rated one of the most attractive postcode areas to live in England.[14]
In 1981 an archaeological excavation at the priory revealed a vault with a lead coffin containing an astonishingly well preserved body – now known as the St Bees Man. He has been identified as Anthony de Lucy,[15] a knight, who died in 1368 in the Teutonic Crusades in Lithuania. Although the body was over six hundred years old, his nails, skin and stomach contents were found to be in near-perfect condition.[16] After his death the vault was enlarged to take the body of his sister, Maud de Lucy, who died in 1398. Effigies of Maud and Anthony can be seen in an extensive history display which includes the shroud in which he was wrapped.[citation needed]
The village is on the B5345 from Whitehaven to Iron Bridge junction near Beckermet.
Sport and recreation
The village has a football team which competes in the Cumbria County league.
There are facilities for rugby, football and cricket at the Adams recreation ground adjacent to the Seacote beach. This playing field was created in memory of Baron Adams of Ennerdale. The sports facilities of St Bees School are also available, which include a sports hall, squash, tennis and fives courts, and an indoor swimming pool.
St Bees beach from the South Head
Coast-based recreational activities at St Bees are: windsurfing, kite-surfing, rock climbing, bouldering, swimming, jet-skiing, water-skiing, canoeing and para-gliding. These are undertaken on St Bees Head and off the large sandy surf beach.
The circular walk to St Bees Head and Birkhams quarry featured in the May 2012 booklet of the best coastal walks in UK published by the Daily Telegraph newspaper; it being one of only two walks covered in the north west of England.
As planned by Alfred Wainwright, it passes through three contrasting National Parks: the Lake District National Park, the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and the North York Moors National Park. Wainwright recommended that walkers dip their booted feet in the Irish Sea at St Bees and, at the end of the walk, in the North Sea at Robin Hood's Bay. At St Bees, the start is marked by the "Wainwright Wall" which explains the walk and its history. A new interpretation board and the steel banner were installed in summer 2013 by St Bees Parish Council and the Wainwright Society.[citation needed]
Gallery
St Bees promenade and bay looking south
St Bees: 19th-century railway station and 16th-century road bridge
Mid Main Street
St George and the Dragon war memorial
Archbishop Edmund Grindal's birthplace, Cross Hill
Main Street looking north from Cross Hill
St Bees South Head at sunset
Village history display at the priory
St Bees Beach
Panorama: St Bees Head in the north to Black Combe in the south. Above the moraine cliffs in the centre is the golf course
Cumbria is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's county town is Carlisle, in the north of the county. Other major settlements include Barrow-in-Furness, Kendal, Whitehaven and Workington.
Edmund Grindal was Bishop of London, Archbishop of York, and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Elizabeth I. Though born far from the centres of political and religious power, he had risen rapidly in the church during the reign of Edward VI, culminating in his nomination as Bishop of London. However, the death of the King prevented his taking up the post, and along with other Marian exiles, he was a supporter of Calvinist Puritanism. Grindal sought refuge in continental Europe during the reign of Mary I. Upon Elizabeth's accession, Grindal returned and resumed his rise in the church, culminating in his appointment to the highest office.
Cumberland is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 1974 until 2023, Cumberland lay within Cumbria, a larger administrative area which also covered Westmorland and parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. In April 2023, Cumberland will be revived as an administrative entity when Cumbria County Council is abolished and replaced by two unitary authorities; one of these is to be named Cumberland and will include most of the historic county, with the exception of Penrith and the surrounding area.
Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road 38 miles (61 km) south-west of Carlisle and 45 miles (72 km) to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It is the administrative seat of the Borough of Copeland, and has a town council for the parish of Whitehaven. The population of the town was 23,986 at the 2011 census.
Clifton is a small linear village and civil parish in Cumbria, England. Historically part of Westmorland, it lies 3 miles (4.8 km) south east of Penrith.
Gosforth is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Lake District, in the Borough of Copeland in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it is situated on the A595 road between Whitehaven and Barrow-in-Furness. It had a population of 1,230 at the 2001 Census. At the 2011 census Gosforth was grouped with Ponsonby and Wasdale giving a total population of 1,396.
Seascale is a village and civil parish on the Irish Sea coast of Cumbria, England, historically within Cumberland. The parish had a population of 1,747 in 2001, barely increasing by 0.4% in 2011.
Waberthwaite is a small, former rural civil parish on the south bank of the estuary of the River Esk, in Copeland, Cumbria, England. Since 1934 it has been part of the combined parish of Waberthwaite and Corney, which covers 10 square miles and has a population of 246. It is located opposite Muncaster Castle and the village of Ravenglass which lie on the north bank of the Esk. It is well known for its Cumberland sausages, and lists among its other assets a granite quarry that is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI); the Esk estuary, which forms part of the Drigg Coast Special Area of Conservation (SAC) - a designation for areas of European importance; the 800-year-old St. John's Church, and the remains of two Anglian/Norse crosses of an earlier period. Archeological finds within 3 kilometres of Waberthwaite indicate that the area has been continuously inhabited since Mesolithic times.
Saint Bega was reputedly a saint of the Early Middle Ages; an Irish princess who became an anchoress and valued her virginity. Promised in marriage to a Viking prince who, according to a medieval manuscript The Life of St Bega, was "son of the king of Norway", Bega "fled across the Irish sea to land at St. Bees on the Cumbrian coast. There she settled for a time, leading a life of exemplary piety, then, fearing the raids of pirates which were starting along the coast, she moved over to Northumbria". The most likely time for this would have been after AD 850, when the Vikings were settling in Ireland.
Hensingham is a suburb of Whitehaven and former civil parish, now in the parish of Whitehaven, in the Copeland district, in the county of Cumbria, England. The ward population taken at the 2011 census was 4,145. In 1931 the parish had a population of 2116.
Sir John Lowther, 2nd Baronet FRS was an English gentleman and landowner at Whitehaven.
The History of St. Bees School encompasses more than four hundred years of British history.
Cartmel Fell is a hamlet and a civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 309, increasing at the 2011 census to 329. The village of Cartmel and Cartmel Priory are not in this parish but in Lower Allithwaite, to the south: Cartmel Fell church is about 7 miles north of Cartmel Priory.
St Bees School is a co-educational independent school in the English public school tradition, located in the West Cumbrian village of St Bees, England. It was founded in 1583 by Edmund Grindal, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as a boys' free grammar school. The school remained small, with fewer than 40 pupils, until the expansions of the Victorian era, paid for by mineral revenues, and helped by the arrival of the railway, until by the First World War there were 300 pupils.
St Bees Priory is the parish church of St Bees, Cumbria, England. There is evidence for a pre-Norman religious site, and on this a Benedictine priory was founded by the first Norman Lord of Egremont William Meschin, and was dedicated by Archbishop Thurstan of York, sometime between 1120 and 1135.
The history of medieval Cumbria has several points of interest. The region's status as a borderland coping with 400 years of warfare is one. The attitude of the English central government, at once uninterested and deeply interested, is another. As a border region, of geopolitical importance, Cumbria changed hands between the Angles, Norse, Strathclyde Brythons, Picts, Normans, Scots and English; and the emergence of the modern county is also worthy of study.
The Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, founded in 1866, is a local historical, antiquarian, archaeological and text publication society and registered charity covering the modern county of Cumbria.
Whicham is a hamlet and civil parish in Copeland, Cumbria, England. At the 2011 census the parish had a population of 382. The parish includes the villages of Silecroft and Kirksanton and the hamlets of Whicham and Whitbeck. Whicham was recorded in the Domesday Book as Witingham.
Ranulf de Vaux, also known as Randolph or Ranulf de Vallibus, Lord of Triermain and later Lord of Gilsland, was a prominent 12th-century English noble.
↑ Prehistoric habitation sites in West Cumbria Part 1 -, The St Bees area and north to the Solway- J and PJ Cherry, Transactions of Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Vol LXXXIII 1983.
↑ Liber 1, para i, The Register of the Priory of St Bees, Rev J Wilson, 1915, Published by the Surtees Society.
↑ "St Bega – Cult, Fact and Legend", John M Todd, Transactions of Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society 1980 – Volume LXXX.
↑ "The pre-Conquest Church in St Bees, Cumbria: a possible minster?", John M Todd, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and archaeological Society, 2003
↑ Archbishop Grindal's birthplace; Cross Hill, St Bees, Cumbria. By John M Todd and Mary Todd. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, Vol XCIX, 1999.
↑ "St Bees College – Pioneering Higher Education in 19th Century Cumbria" Rev Dr Trevor Park, 2008, ISBN0-9508325-1-0
↑ "The Headmaster, The Provost, and the Earl; The affair of the St Bees School mineral lease, 1812–1817, John M Todd. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, Vol LXXXIII, 1983
↑ C J Knusel et al – The identity of the St Bees lady, Cumbria: An osteobiographical approach. Medieval Archaeology vol 54, 2010.
↑ Text of lecture given by John M Todd at the Post Graduate Seminar on Medieval history, Lancaster University, Sept 1987, and later at Oxford, Copenhagen and St Andrews universities
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