Thursby (St. Andrew)

THURSBY (St. Andrew), a parish, in the union of Wigton, ward, and E. division of the county, of Cumberland, containing, with the townships of Crofton, and Parton with Micklethwaite, 574 inhabitants, of whom 390 are in the township of High Thursby, 6 miles (S. W.) from Carlisle. This parish is supposed to have derived its name from Thor, the Saxon deity, to whose honour a temple is said to have been erected at Woodrigs, in the neighbourhood. High Thursby comprises 1071a. 1r. 6p., of which 861 acres are arable, 176 meadow, and 21 mere. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £11. 10. 5.; net income, £160; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle. The great tithes of High Thursby have been commuted for £150, and the small for £84: the vicar has a glebe of 23 acres. Here is a school, founded in 1740, and endowed in 1798 by Thomas Tomlinson, Esq., with the interest of £354. A pillar of coarse stone, inscribed to Philip the Emperor and his son, A.D. 248, dug up near the military way at Wigton, is carefully preserved here.