Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ADDINGHAM

ADDINGHAM, a parish in Penrith district, Cumberland; on the river Eden, 6 miles E of Plumpton r. station, and 6½ NE of Penrith. It contains the townships of Hunsonby and Winskel, Little Salkeld, Glassonby, and Gamblesby. Post Town, Kirkoswald under Penrith. Acres, 9,520. Real property, £6,778. Pop., 754. Houses, 148. The property is much sub-divided. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Carlisle. Value, £280.* Patron, the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle. The church is good; and there are chapels for Independents and Wesleyans. Two schools have £85 and £80 from en dowment, and other charities £69. Dr. Paley was vicar from 1792 till 1795. The Roman Maiden way runs through the parish; and a remarkable Druidical monument, called Long Meg and her Daughters, with a splen did view from the Crossfell mountains to Helvellyn, occurs on an eminence about a mile ENE of the church. The monument comprises seventy-two large stones, most of them in a circle of 250 feet in diameter, and a predominant upright block 15 feet in girth and 18 feet high. Wordsworth pronounces this "family" of Druid stones unrivalled in singularity and dignity of appearance, and says,-

A weight of awe not easy to be borne
Fell suddenly upon my spirit-cast
From the dread bosom of the unknown past,
When first I saw that at family forlorn.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Addingham AP       Penrith RegD/PLU       Cumberland AncC
Place: Addingham

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