Dufton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dufton village in 1968, the hills behind invisible in the mist

Dufton is a village in Cumbria. It lies in the Eden Valley and below Great Dun Fell.^[1] It is mostly around 180m above sea level. The permanent resident population of the village is around 300 and a number of houses are used as holiday cottages or second homes. There are around another 100 people living in farms and outlying properties near to the village.

The centre of the village is built around a green, on the north side of which is the Stag Inn.^[2] The village green is oblong in shape and is bisected by an avenue of lime trees that crosses it diagonally. Houses in the village were built from the 1600s onwards and the village has changed little over the last 100 years.

[edit] History

Dufton is an ancient settlement and the earliest written records of the village are from the 1320s. The Rolls of Appointment report the “living” of the parish of Dufton in 1323. The current church of St Cuthbert in the village mainly dates from the nineteenth century.

Dufton was a centre for lead mining in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The London Lead Company (Quaker owned) developed the village through the construction of housing, a school, a library and the installation of piped water. A fountain and circular water trough built by the Company forms a centrepiece on the green. The inscription on the fountain reads (translated from the Latin) :

There is a clear pool, whose waters gleam like silver. It is not tainted by shepherds, or by their she-goats grazing on the mountain. Nor is it muddied by cattle, or by birds or wild animals, or by a branch fallen from a tree

[edit] Dufton today

Dufton village in 1996, Dufton Pike in the background

The main activities in the village nowadays are linked to tourism and farming. Dufton was badly affected by the foot and mouth disease outbreak of 2001. Local farms were in the area which became known as "the Penrith spur" where the disease proved very hard to eradicate and where the final cases of the outbreak occurred. The practice of grazing sheep on communal pastureland above the village may have contributed to this.

The village has an active Parish council and a single general shop.

Dufton lies on the Pennine Way and both the Stag Inn and Dufton Youth Hostel ^[3] are favourite stopping off points for walkers. The Hostel was opened in 1978 following the closure of nearby Knock YHA which was located in an old RAF station. There are several B&Bs and camp sites in and around the village.^[4]

The advent of the internet has allowed some small service businesses to locate in the village. These include at least one IT company.

Local geographic features include Dufton Pike, Knock Pike, Cross Fell and High Cup Gill. The locality is also known for the Helm Wind and Helm Bar. The latter are wind and cloud effects induced by the topography of the area.