England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Lorton St Cuthbert

The Parish

The chapelry of Lorton, the mother parish being Brigham, lies in western Cumberland roughly 4 miles southeast of the market town of Cockermouth. Lorton actually consists of two small settlements, Low Lorton and High Lorton, the former sitting on the B5289 road which connects Cockermouth with Buttermere, the latter on the B5292 road which heads over a pass towards Keswick. Both settlements reside within the broad glacial valley of the River Cocker and both are upland farming settlements. Lorton sits amongst the foothills of some of The Lake District's highest fells, the local economy thus being dominated by the Herdwick breed of sheep, a hardy beast well adapted to fell-side living, which roam the high fells whilst the lush valley pastures were grazed by beef cattle. The area has a rich geological history and some extractive industries were also present, copper, tin & lead all being mined within the vicinity. Today Lorton shares Lakeland's tourism boom, a popular hiking, fishing and sight-seeing area attracting thousands of visitors to its narrow and steep roads. The River Cocker drains the parish north and then west, meeting the Derwent at Cockermouth and the Irish Sea through the port of Workington. Low Lorton, wherein sits the church, is sited at around 70 metres above the sea with High Lorton some 50 metres higher, land, however, rises rather steeply to some mighty heights with Hopegill Head the highest at 786 metres above the sea. Like most upland areas Lorton chapelry covered at extensive area of Brigham parish, covering just over 5,300 acres it would have supported a population of around 650 parishioners. This far north the Norman book of Domesday has very little coverage and Lorton is thus not alone in not being mentioned in that tome.

The Church

St Cuthbert's church sits in the valley bottom on the western side of Church Lane, a narrow lane lying in the shallow fork formed by the twin B roads. Sadly this is not some medieval masterpiece and most of the marriages in this transcript would have not taken place in this structure, it having been built in the late 1800s between 1807 & 1809. Its rather flat use of render gives, to my eye, a rather unattractive finish which is added to by the use of wooden tracery in most of the windows. Many of such windows are in the lancet style of the Early English Gothic period. Pevsner was also not overly impressed with the church's decoration describing the German-made stained glass as "vulgar". Whilst Church Lane is narrow the verge is sufficient to carefully get a car out of the traffic allowing a visit. Sadly the churchyard is a rather narrow oblong with mature trees taking the favoured southeastern aspect and making for a challenge to photograph adequately especially on a sunny day.