Dufton 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 ...

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. Historically part of

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland''R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref>) is an area of North West England which was Historic counties of England, historically a county. People of the area ...

, it lies in the Eden Valley and below Great Dun Fell. It is mostly around 180m above sea level. At the 2011 census the parish had a population of 201 , increasing to 204 at the 2011 Census The centre of the village is built around a green, on the north side of which is the Stag Inn. The

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

is oblong in shape and is bisected by an avenue of lime trees that crosses it diagonally. Houses in the village were built from the 17th century onwards and the village has changed little over the last 100 years.

History

Dufton is an ancient settlement and some of the earliest written records of the village are from the 1320s. The place-name ''Dufton'' is first attested in 1289 and means 'dove town or farmstead'. The Rolls of Appointment report the "living" of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Dufton in 1323. St Cuthbert's Church just outside the village mainly dates from the 19th century. Dufton was a centre for lead mining in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Quaker-owned London Lead Company developed the village through the construction of housing, a school, a library and the installation of piped water. A fountain and circular water trough built by the Company forms a centrepiece on the green. The inscription on the fountain reads (translated from the Latin): ''There is a clear pool, whose waters gleam like silver. It is not tainted by shepherds, or by their she-goats grazing on the mountain. Nor is it muddied by cattle, or by birds or wild animals, or by a branch fallen from a tree.''

Dufton today

The main activities in the village nowadays are linked to tourism and farming. Dufton was badly affected by the foot and mouth disease outbreak of 2001. Local farms were in the area which became known as "the Penrith spur" where the disease proved very hard to eradicate and where the final cases of the outbreak occurred. The practice of grazing sheep on communal pastureland above the village may have contributed to this. Dufton lies on the

Pennine Way The Pennine Way is a National Trail in England, with a small section in Scotland. The trail stretches for from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park and ends at Kir ...

and both the Stag Inn and Dufton Youth HostelYHA
Dufton Hostel
are favourite stopping-off points for walkers. The Hostel was opened in 1978 following the closure of nearby Knock YHA which was located in an old RAF station. There are several B&Bs and campsites in and around the village. ''Dufton Ghyll Wood'' is an area of semi-natural

ancient woodland In the United Kingdom, ancient woodland is that which has existed continuously since 1600 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). The practice of planting woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 1600 i ...

that contains significant outcrops of St Bees

Sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

. Other local geographic features include Dufton Pike, Knock Pike, Cross Fell and High Cup Gill. The locality is also known for the Helm Wind and Helm Bar. The latter are wind and cloud effects induced by the topography of the area.

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Dufton
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page)
Dufton Village website
{{authority control Villages in Cumbria Civil parishes in Cumbria Westmorland and Furness

History

Dufton today

See also

References

External links