KIRK-BRIDE, a parish in the ward and county
of CUMBERLAND, 5 miles (N.N.W.) from Wigton, con-
taining 308 inhabitants. The living is a discharged rectory,
in the archdeaconry and diocese of Carlisle, rated
in the king's books at £5, and in the patronage of the
Rev. Francis Metcalfe. The church, dedicated to St.
Bride, or Brydoch, an Irish woman of great sanctity, was
built before the Conquest. The Society of Friends have
a meeting-house here. The parish is watered by the
Wampool, which bounds it on the east and north; the
village being situated on the south side of the aestuary of
that river, in which the sand-banks are so often shifted
by the violent meeting of the tides and freshes, that
no bridge hitherto erected has been found to withstand
their united force.