Chapter 26

Early Christian Sites

Christianity probably first came to Cumberland through members of the Roman army, but it is not until the 7th century that references to the faith occur. At the end of this century the Derwent was adopted as the northern boundary of the great Archdeaconry of Richmond in the Diocese of York and when in 1133 Henry I made Carlisle a see, it became the division between Carlisle and York; then in the 16th century between Carlisle and Chester until Carlisle was extended southwards in 1856. Thus for a long time Bridekirk with Papcastle was in one diocese and Brigham and its chapelry of Cockermouth in another, with little Setmurthv claiming the distinction of being the most northerly chapel in the Chester diocese.

By the early 1200s there were at least 11 monasteries and nunneries in Cumbria, whose story must be sought elsewhere. In 1233 the Dominican or Black Friars settled in Carlisle and there is a tradition that they founded in Cockermouth the hospice of St. Leonard about 1285, hence the reference “add caput ville versus capeUa sancti Leonardi.” [1]. A hospice was a rest house and place of prayer for travellers, especially before undertaking a dangerous part of a journey. The small building in Spittal Ings referred to as ‘the hospice’ was in fact an early 19th century industrial building, but it may indicate that the hospice was close by, especially as just south of this site a beck was once crossed by ‘Black Friars Bridge’ (Fig. 63). A hospice here would be near the crossing of the Derwent or, if the Derwent did once flow through the site of Walker’s factory, would be between crossings of the Derwent and Cocker. The old station site was called St. Leonard’s and the name is perpetuated in St. Leonard’s Close east of the Gote.

At the other end of the town was St. Helen’s chapeL This chapel may have been in an early isolated settlement judging from a reference in 1437 to ”unius grangie & j claus iuxta calellam see Elene”. [2]

There were a number of holy wells in the district, including one at St. Helen’s St. Anthony’s well by the Derwent upstream from the town and the Nun’s Well referred to by Wordsworth, on the A66 side of Brigham vicarage. St Ringan’s (Ninian’s) Well on Fangs Brow, now a drinking trough, was a medicinal spring.

Cockermouth has nothing to show in ancient crosses or grave slabs, but the mother church at Brigham has several examples, as have the churches at Bridekirk, Clifton, Dean, Dearham, Lamplugh etc. The Brigham remains show that there was a church there long before the “Chaunterie of Seynte Michell within the parische churche of Brigham” was founded by Thomas de Burgh in the early 14th century. The parish extended from the Marron to Bassenthwaite Lake and from the Derwent to Honister; in the 12th and 13 th centuries chapels of ease were built in Cockermouth, Buttermere, Embleton, Lorton, Mosser, Setmurthy and Wythop. Lord Lonsdale eventually became patron of Brigham and of all the chapels in the parish. Just outside the mother parish, Isel Church possessed the famous triskele stone, dating from before, possibly well before 900AD. This unique stone, relating to the beginning of Christianity in West Cumbria, was stolen from the church in 1986. The Percy papers mention in 1508 a settlement at Rannerdale, with a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Mary Magdalene, but settlement and chapel have disappeared. [3] Even after the new chapels were erected, burials had to be at the mother church – hence the ‘corpse roads’ skirting the fells.