England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Westward St Hilda

The Parish

The parish of Westward lies in western central Cumberland roughly 3 miles southeast of the market town of Wigton. Westward is a very dispersed community which covers a broad area and encompasses the townships of Brocklebank, Stoneraise, Rosley, and Woodside. Westward, itself, sits just over a mile southeast of the A595 road which links Cockermouth with Carlisle and contains the church. The area has ancient origins, a Roman fort named as "Old Carlisle" lies in the northwestern extremity of the parish. At the time of this transcript the ancient forest of Inglewood had been largely cleared leaving almost 25% of the parish remaining as woodland, the remainder was largely arable growing the hardier grains. There was some extractive industry too with the local limestone and slate exploited as well as rather poor quality coal in places. The parish is drained westwards by the Wiza Beck which soon becomes the River Waver eventually reaching the Irish Sea at the mouth of the Solway Firth. Westward is sited at around 90 metres above the sea but Brocklebank sits on the fore-slopes of Lakeland's Northern Fells at 230 metres and lane continues rising southwards into the Fells proper peaking at 373 metres at the transmitter station to the south. Various measures of Westward's acreage are found but mapping indicates that the largest at over 13,000 acres i the most accurate, within that broad acreage over 1,300 parishioners would have been supported. Westward is not specifically mentioned in Domesday Book which has scant coverage of modern day Cumbria.

The Church

St Hilda's church stands just a few hundred metres north of the broad but minor lane linking Wigton with Caldbeck, it stands almost on the banks of the Wiza Beck on its western side and together with substantial tracts of remaining forest. The medieval church was removed during the period of this transcript to be replaced by today's church in 1786, the previous church is belived to have been one of the late Perpendicular period of the 16th century. The replacement choose the style of the 13th century Early English Gothic to display in its lancet-styled windows ranged in triplicates around the facings. All is set off by the needle-thin western tower and spire which makes the church distinctive. As was usual a Victorian restoration was made despite the recent build and was completed in 1878. The lane passing the church is narrow so one must be grateful for the triangular parking area outside the gates. The churchyard is mostly free of obstacles but for a collection of trees close to the southwestern corner, even these fail to prevent the photographer from gaining adequate views.