England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Castle Sowerby St Kentigern

The Parish

The parish of Castle Sowerby lies almost centrally within northern Cumberland and roughly 11 miles northwest of the town of Penrith. Castle Sowerby is located about 2 miles west of the B5305 road which connects Wigton through to the M6 Motorway north of Penrith. There is no place marked as "Castle Sowerby" on today's Ordnance Survey maps, the site of the church lies adjacent to Sowerby Hall amidst pastoral fields to the northeast of Lakeland's Northern Fells with most of the parish population distributed across a wide area of hamlets and discrete farmsteads, today this is a lonely area with no real villages of any size. Across an upland area with a challenging climate only pastoral farming can survive to be remotely profitable and the iconic sheep of the area, the Herdwick, are the main economic lifeline other than that provided by tourism. Castle Sowerby is, however, away from the mainstream of Lakeland's fells and receives fewer visitors than honeypots such as nearby Caldbeck. The parish is drained northwards by the Gillcambon Beck which soon joins the Caldew to pass through Carlisle and meet the Eden just short of its emergence into the Solway Firth and the Irish Sea. Alongside the Beck the church is sited at around 230 metres above the sea but land rises steeply into the mountains of the northern fells where it reaches 661 metres on nearby Carrock Fell and higher still further west. Castle Sowerby parish, like many upland northern parishes was extensive and also contained the chapelry of Raughton Head (which will have its own page within this project being licensed for marriages), the total acreage is around 7,900 within which a population of close to 1,000 parishioners would have been supported across its numerous scattered communities. Castle Sowerby is not mentioned in Domesday Book which has little coverage of modern day Cumbria, other than in Furness, thus being beyond that book's area of covergae

The Church

St Kentigern's church sits adjacent to Sowerby Hall and on the banks of the Gillcambon Beck in an otherwise lonely and isolated position surrounded by pastures and loomed over by the adjacent fells. A lane heads northwestwards from Greystoke and where this lane bends west to head for Hutton Roof narrower lanes continue to the church. Like many isolated churches St kentigern has ancient origins with Pevsner dating the chancel to the 13th century, the Early English Gothic style shown by its lancet style windows. The southern doorway is contemporaneous with the chancel with an estimated date of c1250 being indicated, whilst the western respond also dates from this early period. The remainder of the basic structure carries elements of both 14th and 15th centuries whilst the double bellcote is late of the 16th or possibly 17th century, Pevsner hedges his bets on this dating. Despite the church's remoteness it did receive more modern attention, the chancel arch was removed in the 18th century whilst the typical Victorian restoration fell in the 1880s. Thankfully the narrow lane approaching the church ends with a small, rather rough parking area allowing an extended visit. Wooden gate breach the rough stone walls that surround the churchyard, a few trees are dotted around, a rare sight in this stark landscape, but they do not unduly create problems for the photographer.