Middleton, Westmorland, 1848

MIDDLETON, a chapelry, in the parish of Kirkby Lonsdale, union of Kendal, Lonsdale ward, county of Westmorland, 3½ miles (N. by E.) from Kirkby Lonsdale; containing 275 inhabitants. It comprises 7,503 acres, of which about 4,000 are common or waste. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £100; patron, the Vicar of Kirkby-Lonsdale. The impropriate tithes have been commuted for £300, payable to Trinity College, Cambridge, and the vicarial for £55. The chapel, dedicated to the Holy Ghost, was built at the expense of the inhabitants, in the year 1634, on ground given by Dr. Christopher Bainbridge, a native of the place. A battle is said to have been fought here between the English and the Scots: many human bones have been discovered near the old bridge. A Roman millstone was ploughed up in the township a few years since, on what may be a Roman road between Overborough and Borrow Bridge.