Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ASPATRIA

ASPATRIA, a small town and a township in the district of Wigton, and a parish in the districts of Wigton and Cockermouth, Cumberland. The town stands on the right side of the river Ellen, adjacent to the Carlisle and Maryport railway, 7¾ miles NE of Maryport. It has a station on the railway, a post office‡ under Carlisle, and a weekly market on Thursday; and is a polling-place. Its site is the side of a hill; and its appearance that of a long straggling village. Its name is a corruption of Aspatrick or Cospatrick; and was derived from one of the Cospatricks, Earls of Dunbar.-The township bears the name of Aspatria and Brayton. Acres, 4,511. Real property, £13,551,-of which £7,598 are in mines. Pop., 1,210. Houses, 254. The parish includes also the townships of Hayton and Mealo, and Oughterside and Allerby. Acres, 9,048; of which 438 are water. Real property, £25,368,-of which £12,570 are in mines. Pop., 2,305. Houses, 475. The property is much subdivided. The surface is hilly. Coal and red sandstone are worked. A human skeleton, 7 feet long, supposed to have been that of some great chief, buried about the 2nd century, together with a broad sword 5 feet long, and some fine ornaments of a warrior, was found, in 1790, beneath a barrow on Beacon hill, an eminence about 200 yards N of the town. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Carlisle. Value, £249.* Patron, the Bishop of Carlisle. The church was rebuilt in 1848. Hayton was made a separate charge in 1867, and is a rectory. There are an Independent chapel, and charities £10.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town and a township"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Cumberland AncC
Place: Aspatria

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