Watermillock

Chapelry and township in Greystoke parish, Leath ward, Cumberland. Absorbed into Matterdale CP 1934.

Acreage:

9,735 acres [3,940 ha], including detached part of Dacre parish (69 acres [28 ha]) at Wreay. Watermillock commons and stinted pasture (4,591 acres [1,858 ha]) enclosed 1835.

Population:

rising from 333 in 1801 to 598 in 1851; then drifting down to 448 by 1931 (last census year for which separate figure available).

Landownership:

part of barony of Greystoke (q.v.), with which it descended. Lyulph’s Tower built 1781 by duke of Norfolk as lakeside villa.

Economy:

farming; fishing with nets (recorded 1472). Pencil manufacture mid-19th century (recorded in name Pencil Mill Beck). Tourism significant from late 18th century: 19th-century villas on lake shore of Ullswater.

Places of worship:

medieval chapel of ease (chaplain recorded early 13th century), known as Old Church, beside Ullswater. Parochial chapel, ‘New Kirk’, built 1558 on higher ground near Priest’s Craggs; rebuilt 1749 and again 1884 (as All Saints church). Wesleyan Methodist chapels at Beauthorn (recorded 1861) and Ulcat Row (founded 1830s; closed c.1940).

Schools and other institutions:

grammar school recorded from 1550s; rebuilt on new site as boys’ elementary school 1860; closed 1954. Girls’ school built 1832; closed 1913. Rev. John Tinkler ran boarding academy 1829. Village hall built 1926.