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St. Bees village south of Whitehaven CumbriaSt. Bees
The Romans established fortifications here to guard against the Irish and the Scots. Early documents called the village Kirkby Beagoth or Kirkby Begock. St. Bega means the saint's house.
It is a real hodgepodge of styles that includes a central tower with a ring of eight bells (cast in 1857), an Early English chancel, a clerestory in the Perpendicular style, Early English arcades, an Early Gothic presbytery, and the Norman west door. A carving of St George and the dragon, thought to date from the 8th century, forms the lintel of an alcove and attests to the Scandinavian heritage in this part of Cumbria.
Wordsworth wrote a poem about the monks of St Bees: "Who with the ploughshare clove the barren moors,
The village's long main street has a number of interesting old houses. A 1585 bridge over the rivulet Pow, or Poe, was decorated with the arms of Archbishop Grindal. The village sat on one side of the Pow and the church, the college, and the school on the other.
A short distance from the village is St Bees Head, with its cliff-top path. Far-reaching coastal views to the Isle of Man are possible in clear weather. The ledges, nooks, and crannies of the twin, red sandstone headlands are a sanctuary for nesting sea birds. In 1973, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds took over ownership of most of the cliffs.
The shingle banks of the cove at Fleswick, between the twin headlands, are well known for their pebbles and stones, sought by collectors. St Bees, with its beach promenade, bird sanctuary, and church is a perfect beginning or ending for the Coast to Coast walk.
W. Wainwright's Coast to Coast walk, from St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay stretches 190 miles across the north of England. It passes through three National Parks: the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales, and the North York Moors Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Photos courtesy of Barbara Ballard , AnnBowker and Ian W McAndrews © 1997-2009 by The Cumbria Directory. Reproduction of this work in whole or in part, including images, and reproduction in electronic media, without documented permission from The Cumbria Directory is prohibited. |
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Four miles south of Whitehaven, in a deep
valley, sits the village of St. Bees with its long sandy beach. Nearby, the rocky promontory of
St Bees Head, the westernmost point of Cumbria, is the start of the Coast to Coast walk that ends
in Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire.
A legend states that an
Irish nun, St Bega, founded a small nunnery here c650 (date disputed), after escaping from
Ireland, when a forced marriage to a Norse chieftain was planned. The land, on a 3-mile stretch
around the headland, was granted to her by Lord Egremont after he told her, in midsummer, that
she could have as much land as was covered by snow. The next day it snowed, and she was granted
the land.
It is thought the
nunnery was destroyed by the Danes. In the reign of Henry I, around 1120, a small priory of
Benedictine monks was founded on the site of the former nunnery, but it fell into ruin after the
dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. Although the domestic buildings of the priory no
longer exist, part of the red sandstone church (built in the shape of a cross) was spared and
allowed to serve as the parish church.
A wooden figure, the effigy of the
last lord Lucy of Egremont, outfitted in armour, once lay on the south side of the nave. Part of
an ancient cross remains on the north side of the church. Other 12th century stones
and coffin stones are here. The church has a famous organ, the Henry Willis Church Organ,
completed in 1899 and considered a masterpiece of Victorian building. The organ was built with
several inventions that were new at the time. These included a bellows and a pneumatic switching
device with special features.
A college to instruct candidates
for holy orders within the province of York was established in 1817 in the choir of the priory
church and closed in 1895. Outside of Cambridge and Oxford universities, it was the first
established in England to train clergy. In the 1980's when excavations took place near the
Priory, a lead coffin, containing mummified remains, was unearthed.
Before the nineteenth century, the
inhabitants of St. Bees depended upon fishing and farming for income. St. Bees School, founded in
1583 by the archbishop of Canterbury, grew in the late 1800's into a large boarding school. The
original Elizabethan wing of the school still serves its original purpose. The railway came to
the village in 1850 bringing holidayers. A large hotel was built to accommodate the visitors and
the students at the school. The nearby mines provided additional employment.
During the summer, the area is a bird
watcher's paradise, with one of the largest colonies of seabirds on England's western shore.
Thousands of birds scream and wheel on the wind during the nesting season. The varieties include
kittiwakes, herring gulls, razorbills, puffins, ravens, stonechats, and red-legged
guillemots.
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