Calder Bridge, Cumberland
Historical Description
Calder-Bridge, a village in St Bridget's parish, Cumberland. The village stands on the Calder river, 2½ miles NNE of Sellafield railway station, and 4 SE by S of Egremont, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Carnforth, and two inns. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Carlisle; gross value, £176 including residence. The church was built in 1842, and is a cruciform structure in the Early English style with a pinnacled tower. Calder Abbey, the seat of the Rymer family, adjoins the abbey ruins on the left bank of the river, about a mile above. The abbey was founded in 1131 by Ranulph, son of William Meschines of Egremont Castle, for Cistercian monks brought from the abbey of Furness, and was given at the dissolution to Thomas Leigh. A large portion of its church, in mingled Norman and Early English, with the central tower, and richly robed in parasitic plants, still stands. Vestiges of a Roman or British camp are on the opposite side of the river.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Cumberland | |
| Civil parish | Beckermet | |
| Poor Law union | Whitehaven | |
| Ward | Allerdale above Derwent |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1687.
Churches
Church of England
St. Bridget (parish church)
The church of St. Bridget, erected in 1842, at the sole expense of the late Captain Thomas Irwin, at a cost of £2,000, and serving as the parish church of Beckermet St. Bridget, is a cruciform building of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, transepts, south porch and an embattled western tower with pinnacles, containing a clock and one bell: the stained east window, erected by subscription in 1879, is a memorial to Captain Irwin: the organ, provided in £1902, at a cost of £300, as a memorial to the late Thomas Rymer esq. was the gift of the late T. H. Rymer esq. of Calder Abbey: there are 272 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Calder Bridge from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Calder-Bridge)
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Cumberland is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Calder Bridge 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)
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Cumberland, 1615 is available on the Heraldry page.