Sedbergh

Historic county of Yorkshire

Sedbergh is a town in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria.

The small town was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire before local government changes in 1974.

Today the area is still part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park which has been extended beyond the historic Yorkshire boundary in recent years to encompass a larger area around Sedbergh.

Sedbergh is about 5 miles north-west of the village of Dent, around 16 miles by road west of Hawes and a similar drive north from of Ingleton. Sedbergh is 11 miles by road east of the Cumbrian town of Kendal.

St Andrew's Church, SedberghThe town and its several surrounding hamlets are full of characterful old premises. There are an astonishing 165 listed buildings and historic structures among them.

St Andrew's Parish Church in the town is a Grade I listed building and mostly dates from around 1500. Today the church is used for both Anglican and Roman Catholic services.

Cricket field, Sedbergh SchoolThe town is well-known for its independent Sedbergh School, which in 2025 reaches 500 years since it was founded. The boarding school caters for boys and girls between the ages of 3 and 19. The Old Grammar School building, near to the parish church, dates from 1716. It later became the school library.

Until the 1950s, boarders at the school would have been among passengers arriving at the town's railway station, but this closed in 1954 and while the line continued to be used for goods traffic and diverted trains, the tracks were finally removed in the late 1960s. The line might, in its early days in the late 1800s, have fulfilled ambitions of a direct mainline between Yorkshire and Scotland, but it remained a branch line as rival railway companies clashed as they met at Ingleton and the massive engineering of the Settle and Carlisle Railway was completed instead across wild moorland 9 miles to the east of Sedbergh.

Sedbergh's growth centred on farming and home-spun woollen textiles which ultimately led to the establishment of a number of small mills in the hamlets around the town during the Victorian era. Its rural remoteness and distance from the large industrial towns of the West Riding, however, meant there was nowhere near the scale of production that existed there. Today the textile heritage is remembered at Farfield Mill, about a mile to the east of the town. Here some of its industrial machinery is still in operation, artists and craft workers have studios, exhibitions are held and refreshments can be enjoyed in a tea room.

The area is an attraction to walkers exploring the remote surrounding fells or passing along the riverside on The Dales Way walking route. National Cycle Network Route 68, stretching from Derby to Berwick-upon-Tweed, also passes through the town.


 Town features


Sedbergh was formerly in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Sedbergh is in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
The town is on the River Rawthey.
Sedbergh is on The Dales Way, a signposted 80-mile walking route with Ilkley in West Yorkshire and Bowness-on-Windermere at its end points.
Sedbergh has pubs.
The town has shops.
Sedbergh has part-time Post Office services.
The town has a pharmacy.
Inn and restaurant dining can be found in Sedbergh.
A choice of cafes can be found in Sedbergh.
Takeaway food outlets in the town include fish and chips, chinese.
Places to stay in Sedbergh include guest house, inn accommodation.
Sedbergh has a community hall.
The town has a library.
There are public toilets in the town.
Sedbergh has schools.
Sedbergh has an old parish church.
Places of worship: Anglican, Catholic, Methodist, Quaker, other - Anglican and Catholic services take place at St Andrew's Parish Church

Travel

Bus travel

The town has buses to neighbouring towns and villages.

Road travel

Sedbergh can be reached via the A683 A684



Places to visit

Dent Village Museum and Heritage Centre

Dent Village Museum & Heritage Centre

The small museum, in a building which was once a filling station for the village, explores the lives of people who have lived and worked in Dentdale over the centuries through a rich variety of exhibits. Marble quarrying, agriculture and the cottage industry of knitting are among the themes covered along with a more curious story of 'The Dent Vampire'. The museum is open daily.


Dentdale

Yorkshire Dales National Park

The part of South Lakeland district which is historically in Yorkshire remains within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. This area has some of the remotest parts of the park including the Rawthey Valley, Garsdale and Dentdale. England's highest cascade waterfall above ground, Cautley Spout, is near to the head of the Rawthey Valley. Find out more about the park on our Yorkshire Dales National Park page.


Emergency services

Cumbria Constabulary  Cumbria Constabulary website.

Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service  Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service website.

North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust  North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust website.


Local government


Civil parish council

Sedbergh Parish Council
Provides some local services in the area.
Link to council website:  Sedbergh Parish Council


District authority

South Lakeland District Council
The council is one of five large district authorities in the county of Cumbria. It covers a large area of the southern part of the Lake District National Park and in the west a portion of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, together with areas between the two parks and along the southern Cumbrian coast facing Morcambe Bay.

The area of interest to Yorkshire is that which was transferred from the West Riding to Cumbria in local government reorganisation in 1974, including the town of Sedburgh and village of Dent in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The council is made up of 51 councillors representing 18 wards. Around one-third of council seats are elected each year except in the fourth year when there is a Cumbria County Council election and no district elections. An election of one-third of the council due to be held in 2020 has been postponed to 2021.

There are also 57 Parish or Town Councils and 13 Parish Meetings within the South Lakeland district.


Link to  South Lakeland District Council website.

The political composition of the council as at May 2020 is:

321531
51 members

• On 1 April 2023, South Lakeland District Council, including its parts of the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, will be merged with two other large district councils, Barrow Borough and Eden District, to form a new unitary authority called Westmorland and Furness Council. The County of Cumbria will be scrapped under the Government's changes. Although parts of historic Yorkshire and also parts of historic Lancashire are included in the new unitary authority, some parts of the pre-1974 County of Westmorland are not.
Link to  Westmorland and Furness Council website.

County authority

Cumbria County Council
Includes South Lakeland and four other non-unitary districts of Cumbria.
 Cumbria County Council website.

Police and Crime Commissioner

Police and Crime Commissioner Cumbria
Oversees policing the county of Cumbria.
 Police and Crime Commissioner Cumbria website

Fire authority

Cumbria County Council

National government region

North West England

Ceremonial county

Cumbria

Historic

-1974: The area around Sedburgh and Dent was within the West Riding of Yorkshire.




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