Blencarn is a small village located in

Westmorland and Furness Westmorland and Furness is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Cumbria, England. The economy is mainly focused on tourism around both the Lake District and Cumbria Coast, shipbuilding and the Royal Port of Barrow, Royal ...

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 ...

, England. The village is situated at the foot of the Pennines. It has a small village hall that used to be a school. In Blencarn there is fly fishing at the Blencarn lake.

Geography

Blencarn is located in the Eden valley near the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of highland, uplands mainly located in Northern England. Commonly described as the "Vertebral column, backbone of England" because of its length and position, the ra ...

. Blencarn is situated 2.86 km west of Kirkland fell and

Cross Fell Cross Fell is the highest mountain in the Pennines of Northern England and the highest point in England outside the Lake District. It is located in the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It lies within the county of Cumbria and ...

. A number of streams run nearby: Blencarn Beck, Crowdundle Beck, Skirwith Beck, Kirkland Beck, Sunndgill Beck and Aigill Sike as well as Blencarn lake. The village of Kirkland is located 1.31 km northeast. The village of Milburn is located 2.26 km south and the village of Skirwith 2.05 km north.

History

There has been activity near Blencarn as early as the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

. An old Roman road known as Maiden Way once ran nearby and 1.27 km northeast near the farm of Ranbeck lies various ancient "cultivation terraces" known as "The Hanging Walls of

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman people, Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the Crisis of the Roman Republic, transformation of the Roman Republic ...

". Blencarn is marked as "Blenkerne" on

Christopher Saxton Christopher Saxton (c. 1540 – c. 1610) was an English cartographer who produced the first county maps of England and Wales. Life and family Saxton was probably born in Sowood, Ossett in the parish of Dewsbury, in the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

’s 1579 map of Westmorland and Cumberland, as "Blenkern" on a 1760 map of the area and as its current name on Carry's 1794 map of England, Scotland and Wales.

1988 crash

On Tuesday 9 August 1988 at 9.30pm two

Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multi-role combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany. There are three primary #Variants, Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS ...

aircraft collided from

RAF Cottesmore Royal Air Force Cottesmore or more simply RAF Cottesmore is a former Royal Air Force station in Rutland, England, situated between Cottesmore and Market Overton. On 15 December 2009, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth announced that the stati ...

TTTE and 617 Sqn at

RAF Marham Royal Air Force Marham, commonly abbreviated RAF Marham is a Royal Air Force station near the village of Marham in the county of Norfolk, East Anglia. It is home to No. 138 Expeditionary Air Wing (138 EAW) and, as such, is one of the RAF's ' ...

. All were killed. The Marham aircraft 'ZA593' had pilot Flt Lt Colin Douglas Oliver, aged 30, from Swaffham, originally from Bristol, and navigator Flt Lt Anthony Cook, aged 29, from Kings Lynn, and married with two children. The Cottesmore aircraft 'ZA329' had pilot Flt Lt John Watts, aged 32, from

Castle Bytham __NOTOC__ Castle Bytham is a village and civil parish of around 300 houses in South Kesteven, Lincolnshire, England. It is located north of Stamford and west of Bourne. The population was measured at 768 in 317 households at the 2011 censu ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, but originally from

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, an instructor who was married, with a German trainee navigator Lt Ulrich Sayer, aged 23.

Notable people

It is the home of the notable painter and printmaker Alan Stones.

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Kirkland and Blencarn
(provisional research only)
Kirkland & Blencarn Village Hall General Information
Villages in Cumbria Westmorland and Furness {{Cumbria-geo-stub