England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Sebergham St Mary

The Parish

The parish of Sebergham lies in central Cumberland about 6 miles southeast of the market town of Wigton. Sebergham lies astride the B5305 road which links Wigton to Penrith. Sebergham has two main settlements, a grouping around the road crossing of the River Caldew and a further grouping at Churchtown appropriately enough grouped around Sebergham's church. Sebergham lies just north of the the Lake District's Northern Fells where the high ground of the fells give way to the lower and softer lands of the Solway Plain. The land is underlain with limestone and this led to one of the main employers namely quarrying otherwise most folk would have been employed on the land in pastoral farming. The portion of Sebergham at the River Caldew is set at about 100 metres above sea level with Churchtown a further 30 metres higher, all drainage is headed for the Caldew which eventually joins the River Eden at Carlisle and thence flows to the Solway Estuary. By northern standards Sebergham parish was quite small at almost 6,000 acres, but typical of Solway Plain parishes, but it supported in excess of 850 parishioners. In common with much of England this far north the Norman's made little penetration so consequently there is no mention of Sebergham in Domesday Book.

The Church

St Mary's church is found at the end of a dead-end lane to the north of the cluster of property in Churchtown. One of Britain's major hiking routes (The Cumbrian Way) passes its doors en route to Carlisle from the Lake District. Pevsner is rather coy about dating the church mentioning only the western tower of 1825 and the restoration of 1905. That the building possesses original lancet windows indicates an early date probably from the 13th century. The building sits at the end of an extremely narrow land in a very open and relatively treeless site. Access is through a distinguished lych gate at the western end of the site. The graveyard has a few spindly trees around the eastern end of the building and the enclosing stone wall restricts good pictures of the tower but otherwise photographic angles are good.