Great & Little Urswick are one community. Urswick is in a valley and to the east above the village is Birkrigg Common and over which the road leads to the sea. Traditionally persons born and brought up in the village are known as 'Ossick Coots'
The church of St Mary and St Michael dates from the early 12th century. A traditional stone still give entry to the churchyard.
The village school will be found in Little Urswick. It was built in 1585 by order of Queen Elizabeth I with a charter which still exists today. When first built it was for the education of boys alone ...now it is a primary scholl for all. In the old days the schoolroom on the ground floor would probably have been a large, heavily beamed, dimly lit area, with a fire-place at one end. Spartan by todays standards, with only hard wooden forms set around the perimeter of the room for the scholars and a chair of throne-like proportions at the centre for the Master of the day.
Writing lessons often depended upon itinerant masters, who moved from school to school spending about six weeks at a time in each. Equipment was limited, sand boxes or quills and paper were used for writing, the ink being kept in ink horns complete with stopper, while reading equipment consisted of 'horn' books and soft backed printed volumes which quickly wore out. Discipline, as shown in many pictures of sixteenth and seventeenth century schoolmasters was maintained with a birch rod. The school day was a long one, in summer beginning as early as 6am and continiuing until 5pm with a two hour break at midday, in winter running from 7am until 4pm, with a one and a half hour break.
In front of the school is the village green, on a rise.It is on record that cock-fighting took place here. many of the older houses here still have cock lofts.
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