Buttermere, Cumberland Family History Guide

Buttermere is an Ecclesiastical Parish in the county of Cumberland, created in 1748 from chapelry in Lorton Ecclesiastical Parish.

Other places in the parish include: Buttermere Haws, Hassness, and Brackenthwaite.

Alternative names:

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

• Parish registers: 1868
• Bishop’s Transcripts: 1801

Nonconformists include:

Adjacent Parishes

• Borrowdale
• Ennerdale
• Loweswater
• Newlands
• Lorton
• Crosthwaite

Historical Descriptions

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

BUTTERMERE, a village, a township-chapelry, and a lake, in Brigham parish, Cumberland. The village stands about midway between Buttermere lake and Crummock water, 8½ miles SW of Keswick r. station, and 10 SSE of Cockermouth; and consists of only a church two inns, and a few scattered houses. The church is new and neat, on the site of a previous one which was said to be the smallest in England; and one of the inns supplies boats for the neighbouring lakes, and is notable for the pathetic story of "Mary of Buttermere." The chapelry includes the village; and its Post Town is Loweswater, under Cockermouth. Acres, 4,398. Real property, £1,129. Pop., 101. Houses, 18. The property is divided among a few. Hassness, the seat of General Benson, is on the NE side of the lake. The general surface is a grand vale, engirt with mountains, and much occupied with the lakes. A steep mountain-pass, called Buttermere-Haws, goes from the village, to an elevation of about 1,600 feet, on the road to Keswick. Blue slate is quarried. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Carlisle. Value, £56. Patron, the Earl of Lonsdale. The lake extends from the head of the vale to within a mile of Crummock water; is 1¼ mile long, ¾ of a mile broad, and 90 feet deep; and has a surface elevation of 247 feet above the level of the sea. Its face looks gloomy; but its skirts are magnificent, being immediately overhung by Honister Crag, with a precipitous front, about 1,500 feet high, and by the Hay-Stacks, High-Crag, High-Stile, Red-Pike, Buttermere-Moss, and Great-Robinson mountains.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Maps

Vision of Britain historical maps

Administration

County: Cumberland
Civil Registration District: Cockermouth
Probate Court: Court of the Archdeaconry of Richmond Western Deaneries - Copeland
Diocese: Carlisle
Rural Deanery: Copeland
Poor Law Union: Cockermouth
Hundred: Allerdale above Derwent Ward
Province: York