•  Ennerdale, Cumberland

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In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Ennerdale like this:

ENNERDALE, a township, a chapelry, a vale, and a lake, in Cumberland. The township and the chapelry are in St. Bees parish; and they lie around Ennerdale-Bridge village, situated on the river Eden, 1½ mile W of Ennerdale Lake, 2¾ NE of Cleator r. station, and 6 z ESE of Whitehaven. ...

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Post town, Cleator, under Whitehaven. Acres of the township, 17, 782; of which 784 are water. Real property, £1, 666. Pop., 254. Houses, 47. The chapelry is larger than the township. Rated property, £1, 915. Pop., 499. The property is much subdivided. The surface is largely moorish and mountainous. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Carlisle. Value, £75.* Patron, Henry Curwen, Esq. The church is neat and good; and the churchyard contains monuments. But, at the date of the scene of Wordsworth's Pastoral of The Brothers that scene being laid here.

The parish chapel stood alone,
Girt round with a bare ring of mossy wall;

And . . . .

in the churchyard
Was neither epitaph nor monument,
Tombstone nor name-only the turf they trod,
And a few natural graves.

Ennerdale vale is the vale of Liza river, Ennerdale lake, and the upper part of Ehen river. Ennerdale lake, or Ennerdale water, extends west-north-westward from a point geographically 2¾ miles WSW of the foot of Buttermere; is 2¾ miles long; varies in breadth from about a furlong to ½ a mile; and has a maximum depth of 80 feet. It receives, at its head, the river Liza; and discharges, at its foot, the river Eden. Its basin is closely flanked by wild craggy heights, passing up into moor and mountain; and is continuous with the alpine glen of Liza, leading up to the magnificent mountains called the Pillar, the Steeple, and the Great Gable. Access to a carriage exists only by the foot, and along the north side, to Gillerthwaite, about a mile above the lake's head. An inn stands about ¾ of a mile from the foot; and How Hall, or Castle How, anciently the seat of the Patricksons, now the property of the Senhouses, situated near the inn, commands a full view of nearly all the lake, and of the best portion of the heights around and above it.

Ennerdale through time

Ennerdale is now part of Copeland district. Click here for graphs and data of how Copeland has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Ennerdale itself, go to Units and Statistics.

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