BEETHAM, a parish in KENDAL ward, county of
WESTMORLAND, comprising the chapelry of Witherslack, .
and the townships of Beetham, Farleton, Haverbrack,
and Methop with Ulpha, and containing 1618 inhabitants,
of which number, 830 are in the township of
Beetham, 3 miles (N.W. by W.) from Burton in Kendal.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry
of Richmond, and diocese of Chester, rated
in the king's books at £13. 7. 4., endowed with £400
private benefaction, and £400 royal bounty, and in the
patronage of the King, as Duke of Lancaster. The
church is dedicated to St. Michael. This mountainous
parish is situated at the south-western extremity of
the county, on both sides of the aestuary of the river
Kent, which is navigable for small craft as far as the
hamlet of Storth, and on the shore of which are two
wharfs, where slate and other articles are shipped for
various ports on the western coast: there is also a
ferry across the river. The Kendal and Lancaster
canal, the river Belo, and some smaller streams, also
intersect .the parish, through which a new road was
formed between Lancaster and Ulverstone, about 1820.
The sands are well adapted for bathing, though the
place is not much resorted to for that purpose. There
is a manufactory for paper and pasteboard _at the
village, and limestone abounds within the parish. A
grammar school, built about 1663, and rebuilt in 1827,
has an endowment of about £40 per annum, arising
from land, for the instruction of about fifty boys. Near
the school-house stood an ancient chapel, dedicated
to St. John, where human bones have frequently been
dug up: the site has been converted into a garden.
A court leet and baron, with view of frankpledge, are
held annually by the lord of the manor. Beetham
Hall, formerly a fortified mansion, situated withm »
spacious park, is now in ruins;' and at a short distance
to the south are the ruins of Helslack and Arnside
towers, which were probably erected to guard the bay
of Morecambe, there being remains of similar towers
on the opposite shore. At Beetham Mill is a waterfall
on the river Belo, near where the new road crosses that
river by means of a bridge.