Setmurthy is a

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 ...

in the

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 ...

district of

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 lies 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 ...

. The main settlement in the parish is Dubwath, on the shore 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 ...

History

The spelling "Satmurthawe" is seen in 1473. The parish church of St Barnabas, built in 1794, is grade II listed; it is in the

Diocese of Carlisle In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

and the Binsey Mission Community.

Geography

There is no built up area of Setmurthy as such; instead it comprises a loose-knit community around the parish church and a former school (built 1896) now used as a village hall. The River Derwent forms the northern and eastern boundary of the parish, separating it from Blindcrake.

forms the eastern boundary, and the parish is then bordered by

Above Derwent Above Derwent is a civil parish in Cumbria, England, to the west of Derwentwater and Keswick, Cumbria, Keswick. It lies entirely within the Lake District National Park. At the 2011 Census the parish had a population of 1,198 in 514 households, ...

to the south east, Embleton to the west and south, and

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 ...

and

Bridekirk Bridekirk is a village and civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district in the county of Cumbria, England. It is around north of the Derwent river and about the same distance from the nearest large town of Cockermout ...

to the west. The main settlement is the hamlet of Dubwath. Watch Hill, also known as Setmurthy Common, reaches and because of its relative isolation qualifies as a marilyn, a hill with 150 m of

topographic prominence In topography, prominence or relative height (also referred to as autonomous height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contour line encircling ...

Alfred Wainwright Alfred Wainwright Order of the British Empire, MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalking, fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial ...

includes it in his ''

The Outlying Fells of Lakeland ''The Outlying Fells of Lakeland'' is a 1974 book written by Alfred Wainwright dealing with hills in and around the Lake District of England. It differs from Wainwright's ''Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, Pictorial Guides'' in that each ...

'', recommending an ascent from the west and a return on the same route. He comments that "It is easily attained with a minimum of effort: a stroll on grass so simple that boots are incongruous footwear for it and bare feet appropriate".

Governance

There are two tiers of local government covering Setmurthy, at parish and

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, 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 ...

level: Embleton and District Parish Council and

Cumberland Council Cumberland Council is the local authority for Cumberland, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, England. It is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council. The ...

. The parish council is a

grouped parish council A parish council is a civil local authority found in England, which is the lowest tier of local government. Parish councils are elected corporate bodies, with variable tax raising powers, and they carry out beneficial public activities in geogr ...

, covering the three civil parishes of Embleton, Setmurthy, and Wythop. The parish is wholly within the Lake District National Park, and so some functions are administered by the Lake District National Park Authority, notably

planning Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. Some researchers regard the evolution of forethought - the cap ...

. Setmurthy is within the Penrith and Solway UK Parliamentary constituency.

Administrative history

Setmurthy was historically a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in the

ancient 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 Brigham, which formed part of the historic county of

. The township took on civil functions under the

poor laws The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief in England and Wales that developed out of the codification of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws in 1587–1598. The system continued until the modern welfare state emerged in the late 1940s. E ...

from the 17th century onwards. As such, Setmurthy also became a

in 1866, when the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws. St Barnabas' Church was 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 ...

St Bridget's Church, Brigham St Bridget's Church is in the village of Brigham, Cumbria, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Solway, the archdeaconry of West Cumberland, and the diocese of Carlisle. The church is recorded in the National Herita ...

until 1835, when Setmurthy was made a separate

ecclesiastical 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 ...

from Brigham. When elected parish and district councils were established in 1894, Setmurthy was included in the

Cockermouth Rural District Cockermouth was a rural district in Cumberland, England, from 1894 to 1974. It was created by the Local Government Act 1894 based on Cockermouth rural sanitary district. It entirely surrounded but did not include the towns of Cockermouth and ...

. Cockermouth Rural District was abolished in 1974, becoming part of the borough of

Allerdale Allerdale was a non-metropolitan district of Cumbria, England, with Borough status in England and Wales, borough status. Its council – Allerdale Borough Council – was based in Workington, and the borough had a population of 96,422 at the ...

in the new county of Cumbria. Allerdale was in turn abolished in 2023 when the new Cumberland Council was created, also taking over the functions of the abolished Cumbria County Council in the area.

Population

At the 2021 census, the population was 98. In the 2011 census the population had been 110.Parish Profiles
– Parish to Ward Population Lookup Table – Census 2011. (englisch)

Listed buildings

there are nine

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 ...

s in the parish; Hewthwaite Hall, dating from 1581, is grade II* and the others are grade II.

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Setmurthy
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page) * Villages in Cumbria Cumberland (unitary authority) Civil parishes in Cumbria {{Cumbria-geo-stub