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Heversham, Westmorland

Historical Description

Heversham, an ancient parish in Westmorland, comprising the seven townships of Heversham-with-Milnthorpe, Levens, Hincaster, Sedgwick, Stainton, Preston Richard, and Crosthwaite and Lyth. The town of Milnthorpe stands on the river Bela, 1 mile W of Milnthorpe station on the L. & N.W.R. The township of Heversham-with-Milnthorpe includes Milnthorpe, with its post, money order, and telegraph office, railway station, and workhouse, as well as the village of Heversham, where the ancient parish church is situated. Acreage, 2291 of land, and 192 of water and foreshore; population of the township, 1455; of the ecclesiastical parish of Heversham, 619. Milnthorpe forms a separate ecclesiastical parish. Population, 1064. The surface exhibits much diversity of hill and dale, includes the mountain-mass of Whitbarrow, extends downward through peat mosses to the estuary of the Kent, and contains a Koman camp on Helm Hill, a Danish camp at Hincaster, and barrows near Sedgwick. There are comh mills. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Carlisle; net value, £540 with residence. Patrons, Trinity College, Cambridge. The church is variously Norman, Early English, and Perpendicular, comprises nave, aisles, and chancel, with porch and tower, was partially rebuilt in 1869-70, and contains several stained glass windows, a reredos of alabaster, and various monuments. There are also churches at Milnthorpe, Levens, Crosscrake (in Stainton), and Crosthwaite. There are Wesleyan chapels at Milnthorpe and Levens, and a small chapel at Stainton. A grammar school was founded at Heversham in 1613 by Edward Wilson of Nether Levens, has an endowed income of £39 with four exhibitions at Oxford and Cambridge, and was restored partly by Bishops Watson and Preston, and subsequently was removed to a different site with new and much larger buildings. Bishop Watson s father was master of it. Bishop Watson was a native of the village, and with Bishop Preston attended the school. The late Dr Whewell was also at the school for some time. Six almshouses were erected in 1875 by Mr Tattersall.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyWestmorland 
Ecclesiastical parishHeversham St. Mary 
Poor Law unionKendal 
WardKendal 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Heversham from the following:


Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Westmorland is available to browse.


Villages, Hamlets, &c

Beathwaite Green