Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BEES (St.)

BEES (St.), a small town, a township, and a subdistrict, in the district of Whitehaven, and a parish in the districts of Whitehaven and Bootle, Cumberland. The town stands on the coast, adjacent to the Whitehaven and Furness railway, 4 miles S of Whitehaven. Its site is a narrow vale, watered by a streamlet, near the shore. It has a station on the railway, a post office‡ under Whitehaven, and two hotels. It sprang from a religious house, founded about the year 650 by St. Bega, an Irish female Culdee. Her institution was destroyed by the Danes; and a Benedictine abbey was erected on the site of it, in the time of Henry I., by William des Meschines. The abbey property was given, at the dissolution, to Sir Thomas Chaloner; passed to the Wybergs and the Lowthers; and now belongs to the Earl of Lonsdale. The church, retaining much of its original masonry, in combination with reconstructions at various periods till 1810, still stands. It is a cruciform pile of red freestone, mixedly late Saxon, Norman, early and late English, with a low square central tower; and has some fine carvings. The nave and transept are used as the parish church; and the choir was fitted up as a lecture-hall for the clerical college, established in 1817, for students not going to Oxford or Cambridge. A new lecture-room was built in 1863. A grammar school, near the church, was founded in 1587 by Archbishop Grindal; and has an endowed income of £125, and a fellowship and scholarships at Oxford and Cambridge. Other charities, £46. The poet Wordsworth, pointing to the origin of the town, and alluding doubtless more to the present than to the prior character of its church, says,-

When Bega's voice, that instrument of love,
Was glorified, and took its place above
The silent stars, among the angelic quire,
Her chantry blazed with sacrilegious fire,
And perished utterly; but her good deeds
Had sown the spot that witnessed them with seeds
Which lay in earth expectant, till a breeze
With quickening impulse answered their mute pleas,
And lo! a statelier pile,-the Abbey of St. Bees!

The township includes the town; and comprises 1,758 acres of land and 187 of water. Real property, £4,829. Pop., 1,031. Houses, 206.-The subdistrict includes also the townships of Preston-Quarter, Sandwith, Rottington, and Lowside-Quarter, and the chapelry of Hensingham. Acres, 10,407. Pop., 8,681. Houses, 1,659.—The parish includes likewise the town, township, or subdistrict of Whitehaven, the townships of Ennerdale, Kinniside, Weddicar, and Wasdale-Head, and the chapelries of Nether Wasdale and Eskdale. Acres, 71,332; of which 2,072 are water. Real property, £151,370,-of which £25,015 are in mines, and £22,358 are in railways. Pop. in 1841, 19,687; in 1861, 23,901. Houses, 4,660. The surface is very diversified; and contains much of the admired scenery of the Lake country. Gill-Foot and Linethwaite mansions are in the vicinity of the town; and a number of other fine residences are in other parts. St. Bees' Head, a large bold promontory, overhangs the Irish sea, 2½ miles NW of the town; forms the most westerly ground of Cumberland; and is surmounted by a lighthouse, showing a fixed light 333 feet high, visible at the distance of 23 miles. Coal, lime, and freestone are extensively worked; and lead and iron ores are found. Several vestiges of ancient works occur along the coast, appearing to be remains of fortifications raised by the Romans against incursions of the Irish and the Scotch. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Carlisle. Value, £103.* Patron, the Earl of Lonsdale. The chapelries of Ennerdale, Hensingham, Lowes-water, Eskdale, Wasdale-Head, and Nether Wasdale, and the four vicarages of Whitehaven, are separate benefices. There are dissenting chapels of ten denominations. See Whitehaven.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a township, and a subdistrict"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Cumberland AncC
Place names: BEES ST     |     ST BEES
Place: St Bees

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