Edderside

Edderside is a hamlet in the civil parish of Holme St. Cuthbert in Cumbria, United Kingdom. It is located approximately one mile as the crow files to the south-east of Mawbray, or two-and-a-half miles by road, and a similar distance east of Salta, and north-east of Allonby. The small hamlet of Jericho is located less than a mile to the north-east. Approximately 23 miles to the north-east is the city of Carlisle. Allonby Bay, an inlet of the Solway Firth, is one-and-a-half miles to the south-west, as is the B5300 coast road which runs between Silloth-on-Solway, six-and-a-half miles to the north, and Maryport, six miles to the south. Notable landmarks in the area include Edderside Hall and the church at Holme St. Cuthbert. Excavations of a cropmark enclosure at Edderside were conducted in 1989–1990 by Robert H. Bewley. The name Edderside is derived perhaps from the Old English ædre-sīde, meaning "beside the water-course". Another possibility for the first part of the name is *ador, an ancient Brittonic river-name element, meaning "a channel", from the name for a stream that flows into the Black Dub. Recorded variant spellings include Eddersyde, Edarside, Eddysid, Etherside, Ederside, and Adderside. The area around Edderside has a very long history. On nearby Salta Moss, a Bronze Age rapier was discovered in the 1980s, and may have been crafted as early as 1100BC, proving the area was inhabited at least by that time. The rapier currently resides in the Tullie House museum in Carlisle. The site of the present hamlet was inhabited by the second century AD, and there are Roman remains in the vicinity. This section of the west Cumbrian coastline was fortified by the Romans during this period, as a series of milefortlets were constructed to guard the Solway coast beyond the western end of Hadrian's Wall. The remains of Milefortlet 17 are located at nearby Dubmill Point. Following the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, records from Holmcultram Abbey in Abbeytown showed Edderside paid an annual tithe of six large baskets of meal.