St Bees viewed from South Head.

St Bees is a village and civil parish in the Copeland district of Cumbria, England, about five miles south of Whitehaven and home to Matthew Stanley Bagshaw (aka. Baggy). The parish had a population of 1,717 according to the 2001 census. Within the parish is St. Bees Head, the most westerly point of Northern England. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2560x1920, 2407 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Coast to Coast Walk St Bees Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2560x1920, 2407 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Coast to Coast Walk St Bees Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera... A village is a human residential settlement commonly found in rural areas. ... A civil parish (usually just parish) in England is a subnational entity forming the lowest unit of local government, lower than districts or counties. ... Copeland is a local government district and borough in western Cumbria, England. ... Cumbria is a county in the North West region of England. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... Statistics Population: 25,500 Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: NX974181 Administration District: Copeland Shire county: Cumbria Region: North West England Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: Cumbria Historic county: Cumberland Services Police force: Cumbria Constabulary Ambulance service: North West Post office and telephone Post town: WHITEHAVEN... St. ...

St. Bees has a Norman Priory and an Elizabethan School and is the start of the famous Wainwright Coast to Coast Walk. St. Bees Head is the only major sea cliff between Wales and Scotland, and is the only Heritage Coastline in Cumbria. It is the spectaular location of one of England's most important seabird colonies. The Nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the nave anticipates the Gothic style. ... A priory is an ecclesiastical circumscription run by a prior. ... Elizabeth ushers in Peace and Plenty. ... Alfred Wainwright (1907 – 1991) was best known for his seven Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells. ... The Coast to Coast Walk is a long distance footpath in Northern England. ... Motto: (Welsh for Wales forever) Anthem: Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau Capital Cardiff Largest city Cardiff Official language(s) Welsh, English Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Rhodri Morgan AM Unification    - by Gruffudd ap Llywelyn 1056  Area    - Total 20,779... Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen of the UK Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification...

The name St. Bees is a corruption of the Norse name for the village "Kirki-Becoc", which can be translated as the "church of Bega", relating to the local saint, St. Bega. Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the North Germanic languages as their native language. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The Priory

The Normans did not get to Cumbria until 1092. When eventually they took over the local lordships, William le Meschin, Lord of Egremont, used the existing church site to build a grand monastic building to house a Prior and six monks from about 1130 onwards. It was subordinate to the great Benedictine monastery of St Mary at York. The magnificent Norman doorway of the Priory dates from this time. Mary may refer to: // Blessed Virgin Mary, the Catholic and Orthodox conception of the mother of Christ Gospel of Mary, Christian text Mary, mother of John Mark, one of the earliest of Jesus disciples Mary, sister of Lazarus, follower of Jesus Mary, the wife of Cleopas, one of various Marys... York is a city within the geographical boundaries of North Yorkshire, England, at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss. ...

The Priory had a great influence on the area. The monks worked the land, fished, and extended the Priory buildings. The ecclesiastical Parish of St Bees was huge and stretched to Ennerdale, Loweswater, Wasdale and Eskdale. The coffin routes from these outlying areas to the mother church in St Bees can still be followed in places.

The Priory was closed in the English Reformation on the orders of Henry VIII in 1539. The church building became a simple parish church and the extensive monastic buildings fell into decay.

Remarkably, the small West Cumbrian village of St. Bees produced two of the Archbishops of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I; Archbishop Edmund Grindal of Canterbury and Archbishop Edwin Sandys of York. In Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated bishop. ... Arms of the see of Canterbury The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior clergyman of the established Church of England and symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. ... Arms of the Archbishop of York The Archbishop of York, Primate of England, is the metropolitan bishop of the Province of York, and is the junior of the two archbishops of the Church of England, after the Archbishop of Canterbury. ...

In about 1519 Edmund Grindal was born at Cross Hill House, and was probably educated by the monks. A devout Protestant, he made his mark in the reign of Edward VI, but had to flee to Strasbourg when the Catholic Mary I ascended the throne. On Mary's death the country once again became Protestant, and Grindal became Bishop of London, Archbishop of York, then Archbishop of Canterbury. His undoing was standing up to Queen Elizabeth I over liberal religious meetings and he was suspended. He died in 1583 still in disgrace, but virtually on his death bed he founded St Bees School. Edward VI King of England and Ireland Edward VI (12 October 1537–6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. ... There have been three monarchs named Mary I: Mary I of England a. ... Elizabeth I Queen of England and Ireland Queen of France, nominal title Elizabeth I (September 7, 1533–March 24, 1603) was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from November 17, 1558 until her death. ... St Bees School,private boarding school in Cumbria,England St Bees School in the village of St Bees, Cumbria, England, is an independent day and boarding school for ages 11-18. ...

In the 1970s an excavation at the priory revealed a lead coffin containing an astonishingly well preserved body - now known as the St. Bees Man. The male occupant is though to have been a Knight, and may have died in the Crusades. Although he was over 600 years old, his nails, skin and stomach contents were preserved in near perfect condition!

Expansion

The 1800s saw the start of great changes. In 1816 St Bees Theological College was founded. It was the first theological College outside Oxbridge for the training of Church of England Clergy. The monastic chancel was re-roofed, and additional lecture rooms were built. At one time the College had 100 students, and over 2,600 clergy were trained here before it closed in 1895. The Church of England is the officially established Christian church[1] in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ...

St. Bees School started its era of expansion with the building of the quadrangle in 1846 with compensation from the mine-owning Lowther family, who had illegally obtained the lucrative mineral rights for Whitehaven from the school at a derisory sum. This was the first step in St. Bees School's rise from a local institution to becoming one of the new “Public Schools” on the fashionable model of Dr Arnold’s Rugby. By 1916 numbers had reached 350, many new buildings had been erected and the school had become known nationally. The school still exists today. Thomas Arnold, 1840 Thomas Arnold (June 13, 1795 – June 12, 1842) was a famous schoolmaster and historian, head of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841. ... A view of Rugby School from The Close, the playing field where according to legend Rugby was invented Rugby School, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, is one of the oldest public schools in England and is perhaps one of the top co-educational boarding schools in the country. ...

Perhaps some of the greatest change was after 1849 when the Furness Railway reached the village. St. Bees attracted the professional classes who commuted to businesses in Whitehaven or Workington. This led to the building of many of the larger houses and Lonsdale Terrace.

The railway brought tourists, and as early as 1851 the Lord Mayor of London stayed at the Seacote Hotel. This long history of attracting tourists for “Bucket and spade” holidays has continued to this day. ΚĀṇθΔ Look up bucket in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The railway made possible the export of the fine red St. Bees sandstone, which is an excellent and durable building material. Huge amounts of stone were exported, much of it for building the boom town of Barrow-in-Furness. This industry died out in the 1970’s, but has since been revived, and there are now two working quarries in the parish. Red sandstone interior of Lower Antelope Canyon, Arizona, worn smooth due to erosion by flash flooding over millions of years Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock grains. ... Barrow-in-Furness is a town in Cumbria, England. ...

Agriculture was originally the mainstay of the village economy. Gradually during the 1800s, service employment for the School and lodgings for the College gave additional income, and with the advent of commuters, the Village’s social mix was becoming more middle class. Tourism and quarries also provided employment, and many village men found work in the iron ore mines at Cleator. Thus the 1800s saw the change from a rural backwater based on agriculture, to a more diversified base of dormitory village for professional and industrial worker alike, and it grew into a minor academic centre.

The start of the 20th Century saw yet another decline in agriculture, and this has continued to today, when there are only a few farms left. Industrial decline also hit West Cumbria, particularly after the boom years of both wars. However, following the Second World War, two major industries were established which have had a profound effect on the community. Marchon Chemical Company at Kells, and UKAEA/BNFL at Sellafield both soaked up village labour released by the declining heavy iron and mining industries, and brought a large influx of the technical and scientific university-educated middle class into the village; rather like the first arrival of the professional classes a century earlier. An old mill at Kells Folio 34r of the Book of Kells contains the Chi Rho monogram. ... The Sellafield facility on the Cumbrian coast, United Kingdom Sellafield is the name of a nuclear site, close to the village and railway station of Seascale, operated by the British Nuclear Group, but owned since 1 April 2005 by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. ...

External links

• Village web site