Bassenthwaite 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

to the east of

Bassenthwaite Lake Bassenthwaite Lake is a body of water in the Lake District in North West England, near the town of Keswick. It has an area of , making the fourth largest of the lakes in the region. The lake has a length of approximately long and maximum wid ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

historically History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

part of

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

, within the

Lake District National Park The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 412, increasing to 481 at the 2011 Census. There is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Church, St John's Bassenthwaite and a tiny

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

chapel. The village contains many elements of the archetypal English village including a green,

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

and a stream that runs through it. Bassenthwaite is at the foot of

Skiddaw Skiddaw is a mountain in the Lake District National Park in England. Its summit is traditionally considered to be the List of Wainwrights, fourth-highest peak but depending on what topographic prominence is thought to be significant is also ...

, one of the highest mountains in England at . Robin Hood, Skiddaw,

Ullock Pike Ullock Pike is a fell situated in northern part of the English Lake District. It is located seven kilometres north west of Keswick and achieves a height of . The fell sits on Skiddaw’s south western ridge along with two other fells ( Long Sid ...

, Longside Edge and Barf can be seen from the village. Part of the parish lies within the

Skiddaw Group SSSI Skiddaw Group SSSI is a site of special scientific interest in the Lake District High Fells, England. Its shape is approximately a rough circle centred near Great Calva, with an area of . The high ground creates a drainage divide, watershed betwe ...

(

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

Location

Bassenthwaite is approximately from

, east of

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Cumberland unitary authority area of Cumbria, England. The name refers to the town's position by the confluence of the River Cocker into the River Derwent. At the 2021 census, the built u ...

, north of Keswick, south of

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

and west of Penrith.

Toponymy

The name 'Bassenthwaite' is derived from an

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

name meaning ''Bastun's clearing''. The 1st element is usually taken to be the Anglo-French nickname or surname , originally meaning ''stick'', while the 2nd is the Old Norse meaning ''clearing''. The lake, in early times known as ''Bastun's water'', takes its name from the village.

Governance

Bassenthwaite is part of the

parliamentary constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

of Penrith and Solway. For

Local Government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

purposes it is in the

unitary authority area A unitary authority is a type of local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed ...

. Bassenthwaite has its own Parish Council; ''Bassenthwaite Parish Council''.

St Bega's Church

The Church of St Bega is the parish church of Bassenthwaite, it's in a field near the lake, some distance away from the village. It was built about 950 AD and is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, St John's Church was built later as a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

References

External links