Blencow
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Blencow or Blencowe is a small village near Penrith,
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. It is divided by the
River Petteril The River Petteril is a river running through the English county of Cumbria. The source of the Petteril is near Penruddock and Motherby, from where the young river runs southeast through Greystoke, Blencow and Newton Reigny, before passing ...
into Great Blencow to the south and Little Blencow to the north. Great Blencow is in the
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 ...
of Dacre while Little Blencow is within Greystoke parish.


History

The village shares its name with the Blencowe family. The "cow" part of the name is compared with the "gow" in
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
. Adam de Blencowe was awarded land by Edward III in 1358 and the original family home was built in Great Blencow. Now little remains. Subsequently, in the 15th or 16th century the family built a new home, the current Blencowe Hall, just to the west of Little Blencow. It consists of two fortified pele towers joined by connecting buildings. It sustained substantial damage during the
English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
, now evident externally as a deep gash on the front of the western tower. This was imaginatively restored in the late 20th century. The family continued to own the hall until 1802, when it was sold to the
Duke of Norfolk Duke of Norfolk is a title in the peerage of England. The premier non-royal peer, the Duke of Norfolk is additionally the premier duke and earl in the English peerage. The seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle in Sussex, although the t ...
. There is an active Blencowe Families Association who celebrate their connections with this village. Blencow at one time had a very well known
grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...
founded by Thomas Burbank in 1577. It was the first free grammar school in the north of England. Among its pupils were Lord Ellenborough, Lord Chief Justice and George Whitehead, a prominent Quaker. The original school was rebuilt in 1795 and continued to provide an education for boys (although no longer free) until 1911, when it closed. For a time it was used as a meeting place for the village, but was converted to a private residence, Burbank House, in 1917.


Modern times

The post office and village pub were situated in Little Blencow, but both are now closed. Another pub called the Clickham Inn to the south of the village towards Newbiggin. Also at Newbiggin is the
Hanson plc Heidelberg Materials UK is a British-based building materials company, headquartered in Maidenhead. Previously known as Hanson UK, the company has been a subsidiary of the German company HeidelbergCement since August 2007, and was formerly lis ...
Blencowe Limestone Quarry and Blockworks, and the former
Blencow railway station Blencow railway station was situated on the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway between Penrith and Cockermouth in Cumberland (now in Cumbria), England. The station served the villages of Blencow Blencow or Blencowe is a small village ...
on the
Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway The Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway (CK&PR) was an English railway company incorporated by act of Parliament (UK), act of Parliament on 1 August 1861, to build a line connecting the town of Cockermouth with the London and North Western ...
. The mansion of Ennim just south of the village was the home for many years of the Blencow family. From 1956,
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
politician and cabinet minister William (Willie) later Viscount Whitelaw lived at Ennim until his death in 1999. During his residence, a substantial
police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...
presence was maintained at the house even after Whitelaw's retirement, owing to his time as
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland The secretary of state for Northern Ireland (; ), also referred to as Northern Ireland Secretary or SoSNI, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the Northern Ireland Office. The offi ...
.


Notable residents

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Arthur Wannop Arthur Robson Wannop OBE FRSE (1900–1972) was a 20th-century British agriculturalist and authority on hill-farming. He was the first director of the Hill Farming Research Organisation and was a principle deviser of the Hill Farming Act 1946. ...
FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...
(1900–1972) Director of Hill Farming Research Organisation and government advisor including on sheep farming in the Falkland Islands; born and raised at Little Blencow Farm.


See also

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Listed buildings in Dacre, Cumbria Dacre is a civil parish ink Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. It contains 68 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, three are listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, five ...
*
Listed buildings in Greystoke, Cumbria Greystoke, Cumbria, Greystoke is a civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. It contains 49 Listed building#England and Wales, listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed ...
*
List of English and Welsh endowed schools (19th century) This is a list of some of the endowed schools in England and Wales existing in the early part of the 19th century. It is based on the antiquarian Nicholas Carlisle's survey of "Endowed Grammar Schools" published in 1818 with descriptions of 475 sc ...


References


External links


Cumbria County History Trust: Dacre
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page)
Cumbria County History Trust: Greystoke
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page) {{authority control Villages in Cumbria Westmorland and Furness Inglewood Forest