Eaglesfield, Cumbria

Eaglesfield
Village
Village green, Eaglesfield
Eaglesfield is located in Cumbria
Eaglesfield
Eaglesfield
Location within Cumbria
OS grid referenceNY094281
Civil parish
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townCOCKERMOUTH
Postcode districtCA13
Dialling code01900
PoliceCumbria
FireCumbria
AmbulanceNorth West
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Cumbria
54°38′24″N 3°24′11″W / 54.640°N 3.403°W / 54.640; -3.403

Eaglesfield is a village in the parish of Dean in Cumberland in Cumbria, England. It is near the A5086 road, 2.5 miles (4 km) southwest of Cockermouth and is located just outside the Lake District National Park.

Etymology

[edit]

Eaglesfield lay in the early Middle Ages within the British kingdom of Rheged, and the first element of the name is perhaps derived from the Brythonic 'eccles' "church" (cognate with Welsh 'eglwys' 'church'). The meaning would be 'open land near a British church' - something that the Anglian settlers would have seen as they "arrived and settled some two miles away down below at Brigham."[1] (The second element, 'Feld', is Old English for 'open country').

Alternatively, it means 'Ecgel's open land' ('Ecgel's feld'). 'Ecgel' is a personal name and possibly "a normal diminutive of compound names such as 'Ecglaf', or Ecgwulf' ".[2]

Governance

[edit]

Eaglesfield forms part of the civil parish of Dean, which also covers Dean, Deanscales, Branthwaite, Pardshaw and Ullock. There are two tiers of local government covering Dean, at parish and unitary authority level: Dean Parish Council and Cumberland Council.[3] The parish forms part of the parliamentary constituency of Whitehaven and Workington.[4]

Administrative history

[edit]

Eaglesfield was historically a township in the ancient parish of Brigham, which formed part of the historic county of Cumberland.[5][6] The township of Eaglesfield took on civil functions under the poor laws from the 17th century onwards. As such, the township also became a civil parish in 1866, when the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws.[7]

St Philip's Church

An ecclesiastical parish called Mosser was created in 1883, covering four townships from the old Brigham parish, including Eaglesfield.[8] An old chapel of ease at Mosser initially served as the parish church. In 1891, a new church dedicated to St Philip was built in the Eaglesfield township, a short distance east of the village. The church is called St Philip, Mosser, by reference to the ecclesiastical parish it serves, despite not being in the old Mosser township.[9][10]

In 1934, the civil parish of Eaglesfield was abolished and its area added to the neighbouring parish of Dean.[6] At the 1931 census (the last before the abolition of the parish), Eaglesfield had a population of 233.[11]

Notable people

[edit]

Eaglesfield was the birthplace of John Dalton (1766–1844), acclaimed chemist, meteorologist and physicist. He was the father of the modern atomic theory.

Eaglesfield was the probable birthplace of Robert de Eglesfield (c.1295–1349), founder of the Queen's College, Oxford. His father, John of Eglesfield, held lands in and near there.

Moorland Close, Eaglesfield, was the birthplace of Fletcher Christian, master's mate aboard HMS Bounty. He led the mutiny against the captain, William Bligh, during their voyage to Tahiti.

  • Historical plaque marking birthplace of John Dalton
    Historical plaque marking birthplace of John Dalton
  • Modern plaque marking birthplace of John Dalton
    Modern plaque marking birthplace of John Dalton

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eaglesfield, Cumbria.
  1. ^ Wilson, P. A. (1978). "Eaglesfield". Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. 2. LXXVIII: 47–54, p.47–48. doi:10.5284/1061926.
  2. ^ Armstrong, A. M.; Mawer, A.; Stenton, F. M.; Dickins, B. (1950). The Place-names of Cumberland. English Place-Name Society, vol. xxi. Vol. Part 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 378.
  3. ^ "Dean Parish Council". Retrieved 20 April 2025.
  4. ^ "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 20 April 2025.
  5. ^ Whellan, William (1860). The History and Topography of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland. p. 295. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  6. ^ a b "Eaglesfield Township / Civil Parish". A Vision of Britain through Time. GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 20 April 2025.
  7. ^ Youngs, Frederic (1991). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England: Volume II, Northern England. London: Royal Historical Society. p. xv. ISBN 0861931270.
  8. ^ Thirty-sixth Report from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England: Appendix Parts II to IV. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1884. pp. 161–162. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  9. ^ Kelly's Directory of Cumberland. 1906. p. 215. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  10. ^ "St Philip, Mosser". A Church near you. Church of England. Retrieved 21 April 2025.
  11. ^ "Population Statistics Eaglesfield Tn/CP through time". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
[edit]


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eaglesfield,_Cumbria&oldid=1286655499"