Calder Bridge (also Calderbridge) is a small village in

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. ...

in England. It is located between the hamlets of

Gosforth Gosforth is a suburb of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne, England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish ...

and Beckermet and lies on the River Calder. It is around 1 mile northeast from the

Sellafield Sellafield is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning. Former activities included nu ...

nuclear plant— Calder Hall Nuclear Power Station was the world's first major nuclear power station when it opened in 1956. The village contains the Grade II listed St Bridget's Church, the Grade II listed Pelham House (formerly Ponsonby Hall) and the Stanley Arms inn.

Landmarks

The Stanley Arms, Calder Bridge (geograph 3129423)

The current St Bridget's Church, Calder Bridge was built in 1842. The church, listed as a Grade II listed building in 1989, is constructed in local red

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitr ...

with a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. The

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, Jame ...

stained glass, made by

Powell's Powell's Books is a chain of bookstores in Portland, Oregon, and its surrounding metropolitan area. Powell's headquarters, dubbed Powell's City of Books, claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. Powell's City of ...

date to 1879 and were designed by H. E. Wooldridge and H. J. Burrow.

Calder Abbey Calder Abbey in Cumbria was a Savigniac monastery founded in 1134 by Ranulph de Gernon, 2nd Earl of Chester, and moved to this site following a refoundation in 1142. It became Cistercian in 1148. It is near the village of Calderbridge. Hist ...

, which lies by the River Calder just northeast of Calder Bridge, was founded by Ranulph de Meschiens in 1134 for Cistercians who moved from

Furness Abbey Furness Abbey, or St. Mary of Furness, is a former Catholic monastery located to the north of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. The abbey dates back to 1123 and was once the second-wealthiest and most powerful Cistercian monastery in the coun ...

. It is a picturesque ruin adjoining Calder Abbey House, a largely 19th-century house which incorporates some remains of the abbey. On the south side of Calder Bridge lies the Grade II listed Pelham House (named after

Herbert Pelham Rt Rev Herbert Sidney Pelham (25 June 1881 – 11 March 1944) was the third Bishop of Barrow-in-Furness from 1926 until his death in 1944. Pelham was the third son of classical scholar Henry Francis Pelham and Laura Priscilla Buxton, daughter ...

, 3rd bishop of Barrow-in-Furness) but formerly known as Ponsonby Hall. It was built in 1774 and was designed by James Paine for Edward Stanley. This is currently used as offices for the

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, formed by the Energy Act 2004. It evolved from the Coal and Nuclear Liabilities Unit of the Department ...

(NDA), and before this was used as a School for Boys. There is woodland in the vicinity, known historically as the woods of Ponsonby. The Stanley Arms is a 13-room inn in the village. The village was also home to the Golden Fleece inn.

References

{{reflist Hamlets in Cumbria Borough of Copeland

Landmarks

See also

References