Wetheral (Holy Trinity)

WETHERAL (Holy Trinity), a parish, in the union of Carlisle, chiefly in Cumberland ward, but partly in Eskdale ward, E. division of the county of Cumberland; containing, with the townships of Great Corby, Coathill, Cumwhinton, Scotby, and Warwick-Bridge, 2806 inhabitants, of whom 586 are in Wetheral township, 5 miles (E. by S.) from Carlisle. The Newcastle and Carlisle railway passes through the parish, and is here carried across the river Eden by a bridge, of five semicircular arches, each 80 feet in span; the height of the bridge, from the average summer level of the water, is 99½ feet, the breadth 25, and the whole length 564 feet. There are quarries of freestone and alabaster. The living is a perpetual curacy, with that of Warwick annexed; net income, £150; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle. The church, situated on an elevated piece of ground adjoining the river, was built in the reign of Henry VIII., and a handsome chapel was attached to it, as a burial-place, by Henry Howard, Esq., in 1791; it contains a beautiful monument to Mrs. Howard, executed by Nollekens. At Warwick-Bridge is a separate incumbency. A priory of Benedictine monks, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, St. Mary, and St. Constantine, was founded in the parish by Ranulph de Meschines, in 1088, as a cell to the abbey of St. Mary at York; at the Dissolution its revenue was estimated at £128. 5. 3. Of the conventual buildings, the gatehouse still remains; and near the site are three ancient cells, called Wetheral Safeguard, or Constantine's Hermitage, excavated in the rock, at the height of forty feet above the Eden, which flows at the base.