Kirkby Stephen

Kirkby Stephen is a civil parish and market town in Cumbria, in North West England which historically, is part of Westmorland (whose name is preserved by the neighbouring town, Appleby-in-Westmorland which is 12 miles (19 km) to the north west).

The town is located on the A685, surrounded by sparsely populated hill country, and about 30 miles (50 km) from the two nearest large towns, Kendal and Penrith. The River Eden rises 6 miles (10 km) away in the peat bogs below Hugh Seat and passes by, almost unobserved, on the eastern edge of the town.

Kirkby Stephen has its own town council and also provides a centre for several smaller villages and parishes in the surrounding area, including Nateby, Ravenstonedale and Mallerstang.
A community and council centre, on the premises of the library, provides information and services on behalf of all the local councils (county, district and town), as well as general and local information and facilities.

There are two main websites: the official town website,^[1] and one giving news and events^[2]

St. Stephen's parish church is often called the "Cathedral of the Dales" and, in Cumbria, only the church in Kendal is larger. There have been three churches on this spot. The first was built in Saxon times; it was followed in 1170 by a Norman church. This was then replaced by the present building in 1240. But it has been considerably altered in the centuries since then, being partly rebuilt in 1847 and further restored in the 1870s. The church is approached from the market square, where it is almost hidden from view by the picturesque cloisters, built in 1810.

There are monuments to the Musgrave and Wharton families, but the most important of several other ancient monuments in the church is a relief of the Norse god Loki, who is shown bound and chained.^[3] Like the name of the town, this is a reminder of the Vikings, who were early settlers here around the end of the first millennium.
(Norse: Kirk [kirkja], a church; by, a settlement).

There are primary schools in Kirkby Stephen itself and in the two neighbouring parishes of Brough and Ravenstonedale.

Secondary education for the town and surrounding area is provided by Kirkby Stephen Grammar School. This was founded in 1566 by Thomas Wharton, 1st Baron Wharton, under letters patent granted by Queen Elizabeth I. Although it has retained the old name "grammar school" its old buildings were replaced long ago, and it is now a comprehensive school (and Sports College), with approximately 410 pupils.

Within the grounds of the grammar school there is an open-air swimming pool built in the 1960s for the school and the local community which is open from May to August to members of the Kirkby Stephen and District Swimming Club, and to visitors to the area.^[4]

In 1530 Roger de Clifford, Baron of Westmorland, obtained a charter from King Edward III, for a market and two yearly fairs to be held in the town. This was reaffirmed by a charter granted in 1606 to George, Earl of Cumberland, by King James I, for: "one market on Monday and two fairs yearly; one on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday after Whitsuntide and the other on the two days next before the feast of St. Luke".

The Monday market, with livestock sales at the Mart in Faraday Road and stalls on Market Square, is still an important event in the town and surrounding countryside. There were special celebrations to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James charter; but St Luke’s Fair, or “Charter Day”, is celebrated every year at the end of October, beginning with the Charter being read at the “Charter Stone” in High Street. The special "Tup sales", very important in this sheep rearing area, still take place at around this time each year.

There is a good range of shops, also several antique shops, restaurants, cafés, pubs and a Tourist Information Office.^[5] In recent years there has been an annual music festival and the town has won several awards from Britain in Bloom.

Kirkby Stephen serves as a base for tourism in the Eden Valley area and for walking tours of the Dales. It is on the line of the Coast to Coast Walk, devised by Alfred Wainwright,^[6] Each June there is the " Mallerstang Horseshoe and Nine Standards Yomp" which takes a strenuous route along the high ground along both sides of the neighbouring dale of Mallerstang, including Wild Boar Fell and the summit of nearby Nine Standards Rigg.

The quiet, beautiful surrounding countryside is a joy for walkers, but the Kirkby Stephen Mountain Rescue Team sometimes has to assist those who are not fully prepared for the occasionally harsh conditions on the fell tops.

It is sometimes said that Faraday Road (parallel with High Street and Market Street) is named in honour of the great scientist, Michael Faraday (1791–1867). But, in fact, it is named after his uncle, Richard Faraday, who was a respected local tradesman. Richard's younger brother, James, was for some time the blacksmith in Outhgill, nearby - but his third child, Michael, was born soon after they had moved to London. The Faraday brothers had been prompted to move from Clapham, Yorkshire to the Kirkby Stephen area because the family were all staunch members of the Sandemanian sect and at that time there was one of the few Sandemanian communities here, with a chapel which was in the courtyard behind what is now the HSBC bank.

Stenkrith Park is south of the town on the B6259 road to Nateby. The river scenery here marks the change from the limestone of the head of the Eden Valley in Mallerstang, to the red Sandstone which is characteristic further along the Eden Valley. The main rock here (from which most of the houses in Kirkby Stephen are built), is brockram, composed of fragments of limestone in a cement of red sandstone. The river at Stenkrith has carved this rock into many fantastic shapes, collectively known as the Devil's Grinding Mill or Devil's Hole. This spectacular natural scenery has been supplemented, in recent years, by three (human) additions.
The ‘Poetry Path’ has 12 stones which were carved by the artist Pip Hall, with poems by Meg Peacock, depicting a year in the life of a hill farmer.
Eden Benchmarks: Beside the river there is a sculpture by Laura White, entitled ‘Passage’, one of the ten "Eden Benchmarks", a series of sculptures that have been placed at intervals along the River Eden from its source in Mallerstang to the Solway Firth.
The Millennium Bridge was opened in 2002, and provides pedestrian access from the park to a walk along the old south Durham railway track.

Among many other scenic features in the surrounding area are: Nine Standards Rigg, to the northeast, Pendragon Castle and Wild Boar Fell, to the south.

Unlike neighbouring Brough, there is no evidence of any Roman settlement here, but there are many traces of even more ancient settlements in the area, including the remains of a large Iron Age earthwork or hill fort, "Croglam Castle", on the southeastern edge of the town.

Kirkby Stephen railway station, on the Settle-Carlisle Line, is located over a mile to the southwest of the town. (This railway line kept to the high ground and avoided dropping down into the valleys wherever possible; so, for example, Dent railway station is over 4 miles (6 km) from that village). Until the 1960s there was another, and older, railway station in the town. This was Kirkby Stephen East railway station which was situated at the southern edge of the town; this was on the Stainmore line and Eden Valley lines. Work is in progress to restore parts of these defunct lines by the Stainmore Railway Company and Eden Valley Railway Societies respectively.

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  Frank's Bridge
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  Kirkby Stephen from the path to Hartley
• The cloisters, Kirkby Stephen
  The cloisters, Kirkby Stephen
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  River Eden through Kirkby Stephen.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kirkby Stephen.

• The Northern Viaducts - Upper Eden Valley