Wigton

With tall Georgian houses lining its streets, a handsome 18th-century church and an attractive memorial fountain gracing the old marketplace, it’s clear that Wigton was once a busy town of some renown. It’s quieter today, but its jumble of streets, narrow lanes and alleyways that earned it the nickname ‘the Throstle’s Nest’ is well worth exploring – as is the surrounding countryside, a gorgeous combination of coastal and fell landscape.
 
Some well-known literary figures have passed through here, notably Charles Dickens who visited in 1857, but the town is better known as being the birthplace of author and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, who is now Lord Bragg of Wigton (but we can still call him Melvyn).
 
Surrounding Wigton is a pastoral landscape of neat fields and hedges, dotted with the rural villages of Great Orton, Wiggonby, Aikton, Oulton, Waverton, Bolton Low Houses, Rosley and Thursby.

Culture & Heritage

In the 7th century, Anglian settlers were spreading across the Solway Plain. The name Wigton is derived from ‘Wicga’s tun’ or the settlement of Wicga (in all likelihood an Anglo-Saxon chieftain). The Normans established a Barony of Wigton and created one of the largest hunting reserves in England – Inglewood Forest – which stretched from the edge of Wigton to Penrith. Wigton’s position in the centre of the Solway Plain together with the commercial influence of Holm Cultram Abbey fostered a thriving trade in commerce. In 1262, the town was granted the right to hold a weekly market and annual fair. Fish, vegetables, butter and poultry were sold in the Market Place, livestock at Market Hill, meat from the shambles beside the Market Cross and grain from outside St Mary’s Church.
 
Look out for the letters ‘O’, ‘B’ and ‘W’ marked out in white cobblestones – they indicate where oats, barley and wheat could be sold. Wigton still honours its ancient charter by hosting weekly indoor and outdoor markets.
 
Wigton’s early industries included cotton and linen manufacture, dyeing, printing and tanning. The cloth manufacturers employed hundreds of hand-loom weavers who carried out their trade in small weavers’ cottages mainly located to the east of the town centre. The area known as Tenters is named after the tenterhooks on which the finished cloth was stretched to be bleached by the sun. Wigton’s two becks supplied enough water and power to operate three corn mills, two breweries, a dye works, tannery and saw mill.
 
Industrial prosperity was accompanied by the building of several grand houses, the most famous of which was Highmoor House, built in 1810 by Joseph Hodge, a cotton and linen manufacturer. On his death the house passed to his business partner, William Banks, who enlarged the house and landscaped its grounds. In the 1870s, a huge tower was added in the style of an Italian campanile. It was fitted with a large bell (called ‘Big Joe’ with a range of 12 miles) and a carillon of smaller bells that played from a repertoire of ’36 tunes every three hours … and sacred music on Sundays.’ The lilting tunes could be heard for miles, even as far as Carlisle. Sadly, the tower is now silent and surrounded by a large housing estate.

Surrounding Areas

Caldbeck - Caldbeck is one of the most beautiful and peaceful of all the Lakeland villages and is ideally situated for exploring the Lake District, the Scottish Borders, the Eden Valley and the North Pennines. The village and the surrounding area have so much to offer everyone. Many of the village buildings were built in the 17th Century and are now housing new enterprises catering for visitors and locals alike. Superb walking exists within easy reach of the village catering for all levels. This together with excellent places to stay including Bed & Breakfast (B&B) and Holiday Cottage accommodation, and with numerous places to eat and drink, this really is a great place to spend some time.

Allonby & Aspatria - The ancient township of Aspatria (pronounced ‘Spi-atry' by locals) is now described as ‘milk town’. It has one of the most modern creameries in England on its doorstep, with several local outlaying farms supplying milk on a daily basis. A few miles west it the former fishing village Allonby. Allonby enjoys some beautiful far-reaching views over to Scotland and the Isle of Man. Its sand and shingle beach follows the edge of a wide crescent-shaped bay that is ideal for windsurfing and kite surfing. Behind the dunes and the ‘greens' is an assortment of grand Georgian architecture and humble fishermen's cottages, linked by narrow cobbled lanes and passageways.