Bridekirk
| Bridekirk | |
|---|---|
 St. Bridget's Church, Bridekirk |
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 Bridekirk
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| Bridekirk shown within Cumbria | |
| Population | 735 (2011) |
| OS grid reference | NY117335 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | COCKERMOUTH |
| Postcode district | CA13 |
| Dialling code | 01900 |
| Police | Cumbria |
| Fire | Cumbria |
| Ambulance | North West |
| EU Parliament | North West England |
| UK Parliament | |
Bridekirk is a township and a parish in the Allerdale district in the county of Cumbria, England. It is around 3.2 kilometres (2 mi) north of the Derwent river and about the same distance from the nearest large town of Cockermouth just south of the river. Bridekirk is just outside the Lake District National Park (1 mile (1.6 km) by road) and is not far from the Maryport and Carlisle Railway.
Bridekirk ecclesiastical parish had in 1811 a population of 1552 persons. It has since been altered in area by the formation of separate parishes:
The Civil Parish of Bridekirk comprises only Bridekirk, Tallentire and Dovenby villages.
According to the United Kingdom Census 2001, the Civil Parish of Bridekirk (which covers a larger area than Bridekirk village) has a population of 636 and 246 households in total.
There are 335 economically active people in Bridekirk Parish (between the ages of 16 and 74) and 125 economically inactive people in the same age bracket.
There are two main categories of employment in Bridekirk Parish:
Other categories of employment are:
Bridekirk is "the church of St.Bride" (St. Bridget). Kirkja is Old Norse for "church".
The earliest meaasure of Bridekirk's population is after the 1800 Census Act when the government of Great Britain wanted to find the overall population of England, Wales and Scotland. The 1801 census found the total population to be 1400. The first records of housing numbers were in 1831, when there were 424 houses in Bridekirk. From 1851 to 1881, there was a sharp decrease in the amount of housing, with over 500 in 1851 and only 26 houses in 1881.
Bridekirk has had three major boundary changes in its history. The first was in 1887 when the town of Dovenby was added to the parish. The second and third changes were in 1934 when Bridekirk's boundaries were made smaller by two towns being excluded from Bridekirk parish.
The reason for the appearance of a sudden decline in the total population from 1851 to 1881 is because the census area for Bridekirk changed from including other townships in the area to smaller civil parish sub-districts. Rather than the townships that were included under Bridekirk's parish, the recorded population for Bridekirk was just the township of Bridekirk.
The pie chart on the right shows the earliest available information on the proportion of Bridekirk's workforce in each of four broad categories. The Agricultural bracket, being the largest group, included both large-scale and small-scale farmers and agricultural labourers. Retail and handicrafts included workers employed in small businesses producing and selling goods. The manufacturing category is small because the category mainly includes large-scale production and although 1831 was in the period of the industrial revolution, Bridekirk, being a small town, did not have a high number of factories or a large workforce for large-scale production.
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Wikipedia