Hesket Newmarket
OS Grid ref:- NY 340385
The unspoilt north Cumbrian village of Hesket Newmarket nestles in the Caldbeck Fells,
on the west side of the river Caldew, in a popular walking area.
The villages name, like so many place names in Cumbria, derives from an Old Norse Word, eski, meaning a place overgrown with ash trees, in this case it is combined with the Anglo-Saxon heafod, meaning hill, the Newmarket having been added on later.
A market cross stands on the huge and pleasant swarth of the village green, on which is kept a relic set of stocks. The green is surrounded by neatly kept cottages, mainly dating from the eighteenth century. a weekly market was once held on Fridays, the village was granted its charter in the eighteenth century, but the market had closed by the end of the nineteenth century.
Hesket Newmarket has a shop come post office, which has tearooms and a pub, the Old Crown, which dates to the eighteenth century and was Britain's first co-operatively owned pub. The Old Crown's microbrewery, located at the top of the pubs garden, make it a popular place with real ale enthusiasts. The beers are CAMRA award winners. The pub also serves meals.
Heskett Green holds an agricultural in September which features wrestling, horses, ponies, hounds and terriers.
Charles Dickens once visited the village, in company with Wilkie Collins, Dickens stayed there in 1857 to gather material for an article, The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, which Dickens planned to publish in his magazine, Household Words. Dickens later wrote an account of the village inn, relating how Joseph Porter "with his ruddy cheek, a bright eye, a well knit frame, an immense hand, a cheery voice and a straight bright look" showed them to his best room upstairs. A building named 'Dickens House' stands behind the market cross.
Heskett Hall, dates from around 1630 and was built by by Sir Wilfrid Lawson of Isel Hall, who was M.P. for Cockermouth, the hall is an interesting building, which boasts gabled wings, mullioned bays, swagged urns and finials. Its central chimney protrudes from a pyramidal roof.
Wild ponies can be seen grazing on nearby Caldeck Common.
Standing at Gillfoot, about three quarters of a mile from Hesket Newmarket, is Druid's Grove, a relic of ancient Britons. The grove consists of two parallel rows of large oak trees, beneath which the ancient druids performed their mystical religious ceremonies.