Jurby

Jurby (Manx: Jourbee) is a parish in Michael Sheading in the Isle of Man and had 797 residents at the 2011 census (up from 659 in 2006). The parish is one of three administrative divisions of the sheading of Michael. The other two are Ballaugh and Michael.

It is largely an agricultural district on the north-western coast of the island but also has an industrial park on the old RAF Jurby Airfield.

Jurby borders the parishes of Andreas to the east, Lezayre to the south-east, and Ballaugh to the south.

Apart from the Jurby airfield buildings, there are no significant settlements in the parish.

The parish is low-lying: the highest elevations are some coastal dunes at up to 39 metres.

Jurby Airfield was originally used as a Royal Air Force training base in World War II. During the 1950s it was used as a training camp for Officer cadets on short term commissions in the RAF. The course lasted 3 months. Part is now used as an industrial and retail estate. The old runways and taxiways now form the Jurby motorcycle race track.

The grassland surrounding the airfield harbours a fine range of wildflowers, as the land has never been ploughed. Skylarks can be heard in summer when there are no races on. A large part of the airfield therefore has statutory protection under the Wildlife Act 1990 as an Area of Special Scientific Importance.

A museum dedicated to transport in the Island, the Jurby Transport Museum, is housed in an old aircraft hangar.

Another museum nearby, the Isle of Man Motor Museum, was officially opened by the Lieutenant Governor on 22 May, 2015.

A tiny 8th century chapel dedicated to St Cecilia (the patron saint of music), was Jurby's first recorded church. St Cecilia's Day on 22 November was the parish festival day. There are several Viking carved crosses and gravestones within the church. Medieval objects have occasionally been excavated when new graves were prepared in the church grounds.

In medieval times the church was part of the Whithorn diocese in SW Scotland. This caused some political trouble when the English and Scots were at war; the Bishop invited the Scottish clergy of Jurby to visit him and was criticised by English authorities for fraternising with the enemy.

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Wikipedia