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Seathwaite (Borrowdale)
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Seathwaite is a hamlet in the Borrowdale valley in the Lake District of Cumbria, North West England. It is located southwest of Keswick at the end of a minor road that heads south from the portion of the B5289 road that runs between Borrowdale parish and Seatoller over the Honister Pass. The nearby Seathwaite Fell takes its name from the hamlet and lies about to the south–southwest of it. The name derives from a combination of the Old Norse words
sef (sedges) and thveit (clearing) and may be taken to mean "Sedges clearing".
The name, then spelled Seuthwayt, first appeared in written records dating from 1340.
Along the nearby Newhouse Gill that descends from Grey Knotts is a graphite mine that
was started after the discovery of graphite there in 1555.
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Encyclopedia
Seathwaite is a hamlet in the Borrowdale valley in the Lake District of Cumbria, North West England. It is located southwest of Keswick at the end of a minor road that heads south from the portion of the B5289 road that runs between Borrowdale parish and Seatoller over the Honister Pass. The nearby Seathwaite Fell takes its name from the hamlet and lies about to the south–southwest of it. The name derives from a combination of the Old Norse words
sef (sedges) and thveit (clearing) and may be taken to mean "Sedges clearing".
The name, then spelled Seuthwayt, first appeared in written records dating from 1340.
Along the nearby Newhouse Gill that descends from Grey Knotts is a graphite mine that
was started after the discovery of graphite there in 1555. The extracted graphite was eventually used to supply the Cumberland Pencil factory in Keswick.
The commercial mining of the unusual solid form of graphite found near Seathwaite hamlet was stopped by about 1891 when veins of the solid graphite became harder to find. Also, around that time the Keswick pencil factories had switched to making pencil pigments out of the familiar combination of clay powder and graphite powder. Graphite powder could be mined and imported from elsewhere. The mine entrance is north–northwest of the hamlet at .
Seathwaite is the wettest inhabited place in England and receives around of rain per year. In September 1966, five inches of rain fell on Seathwaite and the surrounding fells in a hour, the resulting flood severely damaging the nearby Stockley Bridge, which lies 1200 metres south of the hamlet. Stockley Bridge is an ancient packhorse bridge which lies on the old route between Borrowdale and the Cumbrian coast. The bridge was widened in 1887 and had to be repaired after the 1966 storm.
For many years Seathwaite was a secluded spot being connected to the main road at Seatoller by a rough track. However the emergence of fellwalking as an outdoor activity at the end of the 19th century led to the hamlet becoming a popular starting point for walkers bound for the surrounding mountains. The road was eventually surfaced which led to motorists parking their cars along the verges on the approach to the farm. Seathwaite has become one of the most popular starting points for walking in the UK giving access to well known mountains such as Scafell Pike, Great Gable and Glaramara. Famed Lakeland walker Alfred Wainwright made this comment:
See also
- Cumbrian placename etymology
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