Blencogo

Human settlement in England

Bromfield

Unitary authority

Cumberland

Cumbria

Region

North West

CountryEnglandSovereign stateUnited KingdomPost townWIGTONPostcode districtCA7Dialling code01697PoliceCumbriaFire Cumbria Ambulance North West UK Parliament

Workington

List of places: UK; England; Cumbria

54°49′08″N 3°15′07″W / 54.819°N 3.252°W / 54.819; -3.252

Blencogo is a small farming village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Bromfield, in the Cumberland district, in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, England. It is situated near Wigton, on the Solway Plain, off the B3502 Wigton to Silloth road. The village is a centre for growing osier willow for basketmaking and related crafts. In 1931 the parish had a population of 139.^[1]

Etymology

Armstrong, et al. cite Ekwall,^[2] who "derives this name from Welsh 'blaen' 'top'...and 'cog' 'cuckoo' to which was later added ON 'haugr' 'hill' ". However, they say that it is more probable that the final element "is the British plural inflexion (Welsh '-au', Cornish '-ow', Breton '-ou')." ^[3] So, ' hill of the cuckoo or cuckoos'.('ON' is Old Norse; 'British' is Common Brittonic).

History

Blencogo first appears in literature around 1100 CE when the Lord Waltheof of Allerdale gives the barony of Blencogo to Odard de Logis.^[4] Numerous land transfers are made to Holme Cultram Abbey in over the next 150 years.^[5] Land transfers and grants for Blencogo also appear in the patent and charter rolls for Edward III (1342), Richard II (1388), Henry IV (1399), Henry VI (1426), Edward IV (1474), and Henry VII (1543).

Blencogo was formerly a township in Bromfield parish,^[6] from 1866 Blencogo was a civil parish in its own right until it was abolished on 1 April 1934 and merged with Bromfield.^[7]

Notable residents

Jonathan Boucher (1738-1804), born here

References

^ "Population statistics Blencogo Tn/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
^ Ekwall, Eilert (1922). The place-names of Lancashire. Manchester: Chetham Society.
^ Armstrong, A. M.; Mawer, A.; Stenton, F. M.; Dickens, B. (1950). The place-names of Cumberland. English Place-Name Society, vol.xx. Vol. Part 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 122.
^ Ritson, Joseph. Annals of the Caledonians, Picts, and Scots; and of Strathclyde, Cumberland, Galloway, and Murray, Volume the Second. Edinburgh: Ballantyne and Company, 1828. 235.
^ Grainger, Francis & William Gershom Collingwood. The Register and Records of Holm Cultram. London: T. Wilson & Sons, 1929.
^ "History of Blencogo, in Allerdale and Cumberland". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
^ "Relationships and changes Blencogo Tn/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 30 December 2021.