Bowness, Cumberland
Historical Description
Bowness, a village, a township, and a parish in Cumberland. The village stands on the Solway Firth, adjacent to the Port-Carlisle terminus of the Carlisle and Silloth railway, 11½ miles WNW of Carlisle, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Burgh-by-Sands (R.S.O.), and a station on the Caledonian (Solway) railway. Its site was occupied by the Roman station Tunnocelum at the western termination of Severus' wall. Many of the houses are believed to have been built of materials of the wall and the station. Some vestiges of the wall can still be traced, and a Roman road went hence to Maryport. There is a fine viaduct, more than a mile long, crossing the Solway near here in connection with the Solway Junction railway. This place is a favourite summer resort on account of its good bathing. The inhabitants are chiefly engaged in the salmon fishery. The township includes Port-Carlisle. Acreage, 11,177; population, 1322. The parish contains also Easton, Fingland, Cardumock, Drumburgh, and Glasson. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Carlisle; net value, £311 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Lonsdale. The church is an ancient building dating back to about the llth century, and has been recently restored. There is also a Wesleyan chapel.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Cumberland | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Bowness St. Michael | |
Poor Law union | Wigton | |
Ward | Cumberland |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1642.
Churches
Church of England
St. Michael (parish church)
The church of St. Michael is an ancient structure in the Early Norman and Early English Transitional styles, consisting of chancel, nave, north transept, south porch, and a western turret containing 2 bells, presented by Mrs. Peter J. Irving, in memory of the late Capt. Peter John Irving: the two old bells, one of which is said to have been carried off from Scotland by a marauding party during a border raid, are now in the porch; the font, a Norman work, was dug up in a garden adjoining the church in 1848: the carved pulpit and reading desk, and the rails enclosing the sacrarium, were made from the oak timbers of the old room: the stained east window, presented in 1891 by Thomas George Wilson esq. J.P. of Thistlewood, is a memorial to his parents, John Wilson esq. of Longcroft, in this parish, d. 1833, and Mary his wife; the church was restored in 1891, and an organ erected, at a cost of about £2,562. In 1909 three stained lights were inserted in the south window of the chancel, in memory of the Rev. Samuel Lindow M.A. rector 1889-1908, to whose memory there is also a brass tablet near the pulpit, which was placed there by his sister, Mrs. Calderwood: there is another brass tablet, in memory of the Rev. Samuel Meddlicott M.A. rector 1877-1889. There are 300 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Bowness from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bowness (St. Michael))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Cumberland is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Bowness are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Villages, Hamlets, &c
AnthornDrumburgh
Fingland
Whitrigg (Bowness)
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Cumberland, 1615 is available on the Heraldry page.