Dean Parish, Allerdale, 1848

DEAN (St. Oswald), a parish, in the union of Cockermouth, Allerdale ward above Derwent, W. division of Cumberland; containing, with the townships of Branthwaite and Ullock, 876 inhabitants, of whom 226 are in the township of Dean, 5 miles (S.W.) from Cockermouth. This parish comprises about 6,500 acres. The soil of nearly one-half is a wet clay, and the remaining half contains every variety, from the lightest sand and gravel to the richest loam; the surface is pleasingly undulated, and the lower grounds are watered by the small river Marron, which abounds with trout. The substrata are coal, limestone, and iron-ore, and many of the population are employed in mines, and in quarries of a red and white freestone, and a black stone, here called cat-scalp. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £19. 3. 1½.; net income, £318; patron and incumbent, the Rev. Samuel Sherwin. The tithes were commuted for land in 1809; the glebe lands comprise altogether 650 acres, of which the greater portion is of very inferior quality. A free grammar school was founded in 1596, by John Fox, with an endowment of £10 per annum, paid by the Goldsmith's Company, London; the schoolroom was rebuilt in the year 1615, at the expense of his son.