Beckfoot

---

title: "Beckfoot" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["hamlets-in-cumbria", "populated-coastal-places-in-cumbria", "roman-sites-in-cumbria", "holme-st-cuthbert"] description: "Hamlet in Cumbria, England" topic_path: "general/hamlets-in-cumbria" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beckfoot" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Hamlet in Cumbria, England ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox UK place"]

Field	Value
country	England
static_image_name	Beach-side house at Beckfoot in Cumbria - geograph.org.uk - 1945917.jpg
static_image_caption	North end of Beckfoot.
coordinates
official_name	Beckfoot
civil_parish	Holme St Cuthbert
unitary_england	Cumberland
lieutenancy_england	Cumbria
region	North West England
constituency_westminster	Penrith and Solway
post_town	WIGTON
postcode_district	CA7
postcode_area	CA
dial_code	016973
os_grid_reference	NY0949
pushpin_map	United Kingdom Allerdale
pushpin_map_caption	Location in Allerdale
::

| country = England | static_image_name = Beach-side house at Beckfoot in Cumbria - geograph.org.uk - 1945917.jpg | static_image_caption = North end of Beckfoot. | coordinates = | official_name = Beckfoot | civil_parish = Holme St Cuthbert | population = | unitary_england = Cumberland | lieutenancy_england = Cumbria | region = North West England | constituency_westminster = Penrith and Solway | post_town = WIGTON | postcode_district = CA7 | postcode_area = CA | dial_code = 016973 | os_grid_reference = NY0949 | pushpin_map = United Kingdom Allerdale | pushpin_map_caption = Location in Allerdale

Beckfoot is a hamlet in the civil parish of Holme St Cuthbert in Cumbria, England. It is located on the B5300 coast road, three miles south of Silloth-on-Solway and two miles north of the village of Mawbray. The county town of Carlisle is twenty-five miles away to the east.

History and toponymy

The name "Beckfoot" is derived from the Old Norse bekkr-futr, meaning "the mouth of a stream". Beck is a local word in Cumbrian dialect for a stream. Such a beck empties into the Solway Firth at the southern end of the hamlet, and it is this watercourse which gives the settlement its name. There are two known recorded variant spellings: Beck and Beckfoote.

The area around Beckfoot was fortified during Roman times, as a series of milefortlets were constructed to guard the coast beyond the western end of Hadrian's Wall. The remains of milefortlets 14 and 15 are located nearby. In 2010 a broken pottery vessel containing 308 Roman coins was discovered by a local archaeologist using a metal detector.

During the 14th century, a castle was built at Wolsty, approximately one-and-a-half miles to the north, to guard the vulnerable Holmcultram Abbey at Abbeytown from raids across the Solway Firth. The castle had been demolished by the year 1700, and not much remains today, but an archaeological survey was carried out in July 2013.

In the 16th century, shifting sands and severe storms on the Solway Firth saw many houses in the hamlet destroyed or severely damaged. Many people lost their homes, and it was this event which prompted the Lord and Steward of Holme Culterham to construct the town of New Mawbray, today known as Newtown, three-quarters of a mile inland from Beckfoot. Also during this era, Scots continued to raid this section of the Solway coast. A system called the "seawake" - a night watch along the coast - was created, and residents of coastal communities including Beckfoot would have participated in guarding against such raids.

A Quaker meeting house was built in Beckfoot in the year 1745, exactly 100 years before the parish church at Holme St. Cuthbert was built. A mill and dam were built at the end of the eighteenth century to aid in local wool production, but the mill was not a financial success and closed a few years later. In 1925, Beckfoot had two council houses constructed - the only council houses in the whole parish.

The hamlet today

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Barn_with_a_View_-geograph.org.uk-_91875.jpg" caption="A barn belonging to one of the farms in the hamlet, looking inland across the [[Solway Plain]] toward [[Skiddaw]]."] ::

There are two attractions in the vicinity - Bank Mill Nursery and Visitor Centre, which includes a garden, nature reserve, play area, and restaurant, and the Gincase near Newtown, a farm park with a gift shop and tea room.

A bus service runs between Silloth-on-Solway and Maryport and stops approximately once every two hours in either direction.

Beckfoot is within the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and its sand dunes, together with those at Mawbray and Wolsty, form a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

References

References

1. Holme St. Cuthbert History Group. (2004). "Plain People - Bygone Times on the Solway Plain".
2. "Google Maps - The beck at Beckfoot".
3. {{cite PastScape
4. "Holme Low Parish Council - Wolsty Castle".
5. "British History - Records of the Holme Under Elizabeth".
6. "Diocese of Carlisle - Holme St. Cuthbert".
7. "Holme St. Cuthbert History Group - Beckfoot".
8. "Bank Mill".
9. "The Gincase".
10. "Reays City Hopper - 60".
11. "Solway Coast AONB - Location".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::