HOLME-CULTRAM, a parish in ALLERDALE
ward below Darwent, county of CUMBERLAND, 6 miles
(W. N. W.) from Wigton, comprising Abbey Quarter,
East Waver Quarter, Low Quarter, and St. Cuthbert's
Quarter, and containing 2772 inhabitants. The living
is a perpetual curacy, with that of Newton-Arlosh,
in the archdeaconry and diocese of Carlisle, rated in
the king's books at £6. 13. 4., endowed with £600
private benefaction, and £1100 parliamentary grant,
and in the patronage of the Chancellor, Masters, and
Scholars of the University of Oxford. The church, dedicated
to the Virgin Mary, is principally in the early
style of English architecture, and was mostly rebuilt in
1606, after the greater part of the old edifice had been
destroyed by fire: it was once the conventual church
of an abbey of Cistercian monks, founded in 1150,
by- Prince Henry of Scotland, and so richly endowed,
that at the dissolution its revenue was estimated at
£535. 3. 7; in the church-yard are various remains of
the conventual buildings. The abbots were summoned
to several parliaments by Edward I. and II., and the
last abbot was instituted to the rectory. The Society
of Friends have a meeting-house at Beck-foot, erected
in 1745. The parish is bounded on the west by the
Irish sea, and on the north by the sestuaries of the
Wampool and the Waver, the latter river passing on the
eastern side of the village, where it is crossed by a substantial
bridge of three arches, erected in 1770, at the
expense of the parishioners. Freestone is obtained
here. At Newton-Arlosh are the ruins of an ancient
chapel, said to have been once the parochial church.
Walsey castle, formerly a very strong fort, has dwindled
into a small heap of ruins.