BURGH-upon-the-SANDS, a parish in the ward and
county of CUMBERLAND, comprising the townships of
Boustead Hill, Burgh upon the Sands, or Burgh-Head,
Longburgh,Moorhouse, and Westend, and containing 987
inhabitants, of which number, 304 are in the township
of Burgh upon the Sands, 5 miles (W. N. W.) from Carlisle.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Carlisle, rated in the king's books
at £5. 1. 10g., endowed with £200 private benefaction,
£400 royal bounty, and £800 parliamentary grant, and
in the patronage of the Crown. The church, dedicated
to St. Michael, exhibits evident marks of having been
constructed, like some others on the border, as a place
of occasional retreat and defence. Close to the village,
on the northern side, and on a site now called the Old
Castle, stood the Roman station Axelodunum, the sixteenth
on the line of Severus' Wall, and the spot where
Adrian's vallum terminated: the lines of the ramparts,
which are still visible, include an area about one hundred
and thirty-six yards square, in which and in the
vicinity, urns, altars,. and inscribed stones have been
dug up. A castle, built soon after the Conquest, but
of which there are no remains, is stated to have been
seized in 1174, by William, King of Scotland. Several
encounters between the English and the Scotch have
occurred in this parish; the most sanguinary were those
in 1216 and 1520. Burgh is the head of a barony including
this and several other parishes,.and is now the
property of the Earl of Lonsdale, on whom it confers
the title of baron, and who holds annually a customary
court. The village, which extends into the township of
Westend, is nearly three'quarters of a mile in length;
there were various branches of manufacture formerly
carried on, but these have been chiefly removed to
Carlisle. Edward I. died here, on the 7th of July, 1307,
whilst on an expedition against Scotland: this event
has been commemorated by the erection of an obelisk,
in 1685, by Henry, Duke of Norfolk, which fell down
on the 4th of March, 1795, and was rebuilt by the Earl
of Lonsdale in 1803. It stands about a mile north of
the village, on the marsh, a tract of ground belonging
to several proprietors, each of whom pays to the baron
a yearly fee rent of twopence for every stint, and which
has been greatly encroached upon by the sea, so as to
have rendered embankments necessary for its protection.
A school-room has been erected by the parishioners,
and the master receives £5 per annum from property
bequeathed by Thomas Pattinson, in 1785, and Richard
Hodgson previously. Such of the inhabitants as are
not possessed of a real estate worth £12 per annum,
are entitled to send children for instruction to the
school at Wiggonby, in the parish of Aikton, founded
by Mrs. Hodgson; but, owing to the distance, few avail
themselves of this privilege.