ASPATRIA, a parish in ALLERDALE ward below
Darwent, county of CUMBERLAND, comprising the
townships of Aspatria with Brayton, Hayton with
Melay, and Outerside with Allerby, and containing
1220 inhabitants, of which number, 632 are in the
township of Aspatria with Brayton, 8 miles (N. by E.)
from Cockermouth. The living is a vicarage, in the
archdeaconry and diocese of Carlisle, rated in the
king's books at £ 10. 4. 2., and in the patronage of the
Bishop of Carlisle. The church, dedicated to St. Keatigern,
is a finely ornamented structure, in the Normaa
style of architecture. A place of worship for Independents
was built in 1827. Aspatria derived its name
from Gospatrick, father of the first lord of Allerdale \
the parish is bounded on the west by the Solway Firth;
and on the south-east and south by the river Ellen,
and contains a vein of red freestone at Hayton, and
coal at Outerside: the village, which is long, strag"
gling, and well built, extends along the ridge of a hill
facing the south. In 1790, a barrow was opened about
two hundred yards to the north of it, when the skeleton
of a man, with the corroded remains of some military
weapons, gold ornaments, &c., were discovered
in a vault constructed of large stones, on two of which
various emblematical figures were sculptured: it i&
supposed to have been the tomb of a warrior, interred
about the close of the sixth century.