Embleton is a scattered parish east of Cockermouth in one of the Lakeland's most attractive hamlets.
It was a Norman manor, but a community existed here in Brigantian times. There is no centre to the village as such.
The church of St Cuthbert is built on the spot of a further site where the saint's body rested. It was in Embleton that an iron sword was discovered in the 19th century, thought to have belonged to a Brigantian of the first century AD. In the churchyard a tombstone will be found that reads' Sacred to the memory of Ann Sewell whose life was terminated by the hand of an assassin whilst in the discharge of her humble duties on the 26th March 1860 aged 26 years. She had worked at Beckhouse Farm and had been stabbed to death by a farmworker named Cass, for Ann's purse. Cass was hanged at Carlisle.
Embleton is closely linked with the small hamlet of Wythop. It has its one church, St Margaret's. Branching off the Embleton valley is the lovely Wythop valley...or the secret valley as referred to in one of Wainwright's guide books.
In this valley lies the ruins of an early church dating back to the 16th century. Also here is the ancient Wythop Hall and beyond that the ruins of the silica works.
Wythop Mill here was originally owned by the Wythop Estate. It was used originally to provide timber for the repair of estate property. It has been fully renovated, and today is back in full working order.
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