Eskdale with Wasdale (St Bees), 1848

ESKDALE, with Wasdale, a chapelry, in the parish of St. Bees, union of Bootle, Allerdale ward above Derwent, W. division of Cumberland, 7 miles (N.E. by E.) from Ravenglass; containing 375 inhabitants. This place, with Wasdale and Nether Wasdale, comprises 30,000 acres, of which 26,680 are common land or waste. It is remarkable for two waterfalls, Birker-Force and Stanley-Gill, about three-quarters of a mile distant from each other; the former dashes over a bare precipitous rock, and the latter, though somewhat inferior in height, is equal to it in beauty and grandeur. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £66; patron and impropriator, E. Stanley, Esq. The chapel, dedicated to St. Catherine, is a very ancient structure; in the east window is a painting of the saint, and above the eastern gable is a stone cross. A school was endowed by Edward Wilson in 1722, and by Edward Hartley in 1752.