In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Heversham like this:
HEVERSHAM, a village, a township, and a parish, in Kendal district, Westmoreland. The village stands about midway between the river Kent and the Lancaster and Carlisle railway, 1¾ mile N of Milnthorpe. The township includes Milnthorpe, with its head post office and railway station, and three hamlets; and contains a workhouse which, at the census of 1861, had 122 inmates. ...
Acres, 2, 880; of which 290 are water. Real property, £5, 895. Pop., 1, 433. Houses, 274. The parish contains also the townships of Hincaster, Stainton Sedgwick, Levens, Preston-Richard, and Crosthwaite and Lyth. Acres, 19, 749. Real property, £26, 395. Pop., 4, 300. Houses, 813. The property is much subdivided. Levens Hall, Sedgwick House, Summerlands, Heaves, and Eversley are chief residences; and Lower Levens Hall, Heversham Hall, Hincaster Hall, and Cowmire Hall are old mansions converted into farmhouses. 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; is traversed, for about 4 miles, by the Lancaster and Kendal canal, and nearly as far by the Lancaster and Carlisle railway, which has superseded the canal; and contains a Roman camp on Helm hill, a Danish camp at Hincaster, and barrows near Sedgwick. Limestone is worked, and building stone is quarried. A foundry and iron works were formerly in Stainton; and gunpowder works were recently established in Preston-Richard. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Carlisle. Value, £625. * Patron, Trinity College, Cambridge. The church is variously Norman, early English, and perpendicular; comprises nave, aisles, and chancel, with porch and tower; and has recently been much improved. The p. curacies of Milnthorpe, Levens, Crosscrake, and Crosthwaite are separate benefices. A grammar school was founded at Heversham, in 1613, by the Wilsons of Dallam Tower; has an endowed income of £42, with four exhibitions at Oxford and Cambridge; and was restored partly by Bishops Watson and Preston, and subsequently much improved. Bishop Watson's father was master of it; Bishop Watson was a native of the village; and Bishops Watson and Preston attended the school. Charities, £104.
Heversham through time
Heversham is now part of South Lakeland district. Click here for graphs and data of how South Lakeland has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Heversham itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Heversham, in South Lakeland and Westmorland | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/4384
Date accessed: 25th April 2024
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