Abbeytown

Abbeytown
Abbeytown  Abbeytown shown within Cumbria
Shire county	Cumbria
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Dialling code	016973
Police	Cumbria
Fire	Cumbria
Ambulance	North West
EU Parliament	North West England
List of places UK England Cumbria

Abbeytown bridge

Abbeytown, also known as Holme Abbey, is a village in Cumbria, England. It was built around the former Cistercian Holmcultram Abbey, the nave of the church of which now serves the parish as St. Mary's Church. On 9 June 2006 the church was set alight in an arson attack which totally devastated the roof of the building, parts of which had been in situ since it was erected 900 years ago, [1] the building has subsequently been fully restored.

The village is located on the main Wigton to Silloth road and has a small range of local amenities including a pub, post office and two small shops.

The buildings in the village mostly date from either the medieval period, especially those associated with the former abbey, the Victorian era, where much of the village was concerned with the railway line to Silloth or more recently when a large number of houses were built at "Friars Garth".

The village is located on the edge of the Solway Coast area of outstanding natural beauty and the Cumbria Coastal Way passes through the village.

In June 2012, it became clear that the Solway Plain between Silloth, Abbeytown and Westnewton has been identified as a potential site for a Geological Disposal Facility for the UK's high level nuclear waste. Two other sites have also been identified - Eskdale and the Ennerdale - both of these are within the Lake District National Park. The Solway Plain wasn't named by the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership, rather they referred to the 'Low permeability sedimentary rocks associated with the Mercia Mudstone Group(MMG)'. This was in (publicly available) document 285 of the West Cumbria MRWS in a report written by Dr Dearlove, the consultant geologist recruited by MRWS.

Sources and external links

• Holme Cultram Abbey pictures (before and after the fire)
• British History Online: The Register and Records of Holm Cultram: the full text of the cartulary and other records of the abbey.