Burgh by Sands () is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the City of Carlisle district of

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

, England, situated near the

Solway Firth The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven ...

. The parish includes the village of Burgh by Sands along with Longburgh, Dykesfield,

Boustead Hill Boustead Hill is a hamlet in Cumbria, England. It has two separate equestrian centres. In 1831 the township had a population of 63. It is located close to the site where the famous Solway Firth Spaceman photograph was taken. See also *Listed bu ...

, Moorhouse and Thurstonfield. It is notable as the site of the first recorded North African (Moorish) military unit in Roman Britain, garrisoning the frontier fort of

Aballava Aballava or Aballaba (with the modern name of Burgh by Sands) was a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall, between Petriana (Stanwix) to the east and Coggabata (Drumburgh) to the west. It is about one and a half miles south of the Solway Firth, and its p ...

on Hadrian's Wall in the 3rd century AD. It is also where

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vas ...

died in 1307. According to the 2011 census the parish had a population of 1,176. The village is about seven miles (11 km) west of Carlisle city centre. The village has a primary school, a pub and a post office. It also has a statue of Edward I at some distance to the north. Burgh was on the Carlisle Navigation canal from 1823 to 1853, after which it was served by the Port Carlisle railway, which was built on the bed of the canal, until its closure in 1932. From 1856 to 1964, railway trains operating on the Carlisle to Silloth line once again stopped at Burgh-by-Sands station.

Etymology

Burgh is named from the 'burh' or fort on Hadrian's Wall, which passed through here and ended at Bowness-on-Solway to the west. ('Burh' is

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

for 'fortified place', 'town' or 'manor house').

History

The line of Hadrian's Wall runs through the village, and the site once was that of a major Roman fort,

. It is also the death-place of King

. In the 12th century, Burgh by Sands Castle and lands of Burgh by Sands belonged to members of the Feudal barony of Burgh by Sands, among them Ada de Engaine. Her granddaughter's second marriage founded a younger branch of the

Moulton Moulton may refer to: Places in the United Kingdom ;In England *Moulton, Cheshire * Moulton, Lincolnshire **Moulton Windmill * Moulton St Mary, Norfolk * Moulton, Northamptonshire ** Moulton College, agricultural college ** Moulton Park, indus ...

family, a branch of which held this castle in the 13th century. In the 14th century the Dacre family inherited it by marriage to the heiress. King Edward I, while on his way to war against the Scots, died of

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

on the marshes near Burgh, and his corpse lay in state at the village's 12th-century church until its eventual removal to

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

. There is an impressive monument on the marshes erected in 1685 to mark the place where he died. It is 1 miles NNW of the village, is signposted and can be reached on foot.

St Michael's Church

The Church of St Michael, is a

fortified church A fortified church is a church that is built to serve a defensive role in times of war. Such churches were specially designed to incorporate military features, such as thick walls, battlements, and embrasures. Others, such as the Ávila Cathedra ...

built with stone from the Roman wall on the site of a Norman church. It has a broad west tower with a base dating from the mid-14th century (first built in 1360) and apart from the 19th-century north aisle windows, the rest is Early English. The tower, which can only be accessed from within the church, is designed for defence and the ground floor is tunnel-vaulted. The top of the tower is probably 18th century. The internal door to the tower is a

yett A yett (from the Old English and Scots language word for "gate") is a gate or grille of latticed wrought iron bars used for defensive purposes in castles and tower houses. Unlike a portcullis, which is raised and lowered vertically using mecha ...

, a fortified iron door to repel invaders. The church is remarkable for having had two defensive towers, one at each end, a measure of the perceived threat from Scottish raiders. The east tower is now used as the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

, but to this day the church has no east window. More recently the east tower has been lowered to match the roof of the church, so from outside it is not immediately recognisable as a tower.

Governance

The parish falls in the electoral ward of Burgh. This wards stretches beyond the boundaries of Burgh by Sands with a total population taken at the 2011 Census of 2,117.

Transport

Public transport currently consists of a bus service from Carlisle. As of September 2018, it is run four times daily by Stagecoach.September 2018 bus timetable
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References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Burgh-by-Sands
(nb: provisional research only - see Talk page)
Burgh by Sands Parish Council
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burgh By Sands Villages in Cumbria Civil parishes in Cumbria City of Carlisle