Sebergham Parish, 1848

SEBERGHAM (Virgin Mary), a parish, in the union of Wigton, ward, and E. division of the county, of Cumberland; containing 853 inhabitants, of whom 495 are in the division of High bound, and 358 in that of Low bound, the former 8¾ miles, and the latter 6¼ miles, (S.E. by E.) from Wigton. The parish is situated on the river Caldew, of which the south branch becomes subterraneous at Haltcliffe bridge, disappears under the high land for nearly three miles, and re-issues at Hives-Hill mill. Near the church the river is crossed by a bridge erected in 1689, by Alexander Denton, one of the justices of the court of common pleas; and about a mile below is another bridge of one arch, built in 1772, near the site of a structure destroyed by a great flood the year before. A considerable quantity of limestone is quarried, and burnt into lime; there are extensive mines of coal, and a powerful mineral spring. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £139; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle. The church, a very neat structure, occupying the site of an ancient hermitage, was repaired in 1774, and in 1785.