Over Staveley Township, 1848

STAVELEY, OVER, a township and chapelry, in the parish, union, and ward of Kendal, county of Westmorland, 5 miles (N.W. by N.) from the town of Kendal; the township containing 527 inhabitants. Over Staveley is a beautiful and picturesque township, adjoining Nether Staveley, and comprising 1,230 acres of arable, pasture, and woodland, and about 1,400 acres of uninclosed common. On Staveley-Head fell are veins of lead-ore, but so small is the lead in quantity that it cannot be obtained at a remunerating profit. The village of Staveley is chiefly in this township, and is an increasing and flourishing place, seated at the confluence of the Kent and the Gowen, on the ro'ad between Kendal and Ambleside. In the immediate neighbourhood are two woollen manufactories and three bobbin-mills, which give employment to a great number of the population. In the 2nd of Edward III. a charter was granted for a market on Friday, weekly, and a fair, annually, on the eve, day, and morrow of St. Luke; but the market has long been discontinued, and fairs on other days are now held in that part of the village which is in Nether Staveley. The chapelry includes the greater part of Nether Staveley and of Hugil: the living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £120; patron, the Vicar of Kendal; impropriators, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. The tithes of the township have been commuted for £53. 5. 11. The chapel is an ancient edifice with a plain tower. There are places of worship for Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists. George Jopson, in I696, assigned two tenements, now let for about £80 per annum, to the minister, provided he gave instruction to the children of the chapelry, as schoolmaster.