in this strategic but sheltered location, with a good water supply and fertile fields surrounding it, made it ideal for an agricultural settlement. Yearn Gill also joins the valley at this point, offering a further good source of water in Sandwith Beck. The site of Westnewton Castle, at the western end of the village and close to the stream, may mark the baronial home of the de Neuton family and the start of the settlement which bears their name. However, the surviving ruins – now just limited to grassy mounds and faint ditches – are now thought to be those of a mediaeval manor house, fortified or ornamented by a moat and gatehouse. The natural meander in the stream and the flatness of the land would readily lend the site to being moated. Farmhouses were built in the valley, upstream of the manor house, presumably by tenants of the manor: the earliest and most notable survival is Yew Tree Farm, dated 1672, which was a house of some status. The village pinfold stood on the opposite side of the stream, near Burn View. The land to either side of the stream became more developed with ad hoc farmsteads, and under the Enclosure Acts the fields rising up to either side were divided into narrow strips which still survive to the present day, and which are particularly noticeable on the southern side of the valley High status farmhouses were built at the western end, closest to the manor house (Westnewton Hall of the early 19th century, followed by Westnewton Grange in the mid 19th century) with buildings of lesser status to the east. At the eastern end the Aspatria to Silloth Road was flanked on one side by the Swan Inn and on the other by the Queen’s Head inn at the ford (now Raeburn House). One or two houses of quality were built at this end (Bridge End Farm and Croft View). The status of the village increased in 1848 when it was provided with a school for 84 children, but this was replaced by a grander building in 1858. The benefactor was John Todd, a Manchester businessman of some wealth who was a native of the village. He also built St Matthews Church in 1856, together with a Vicarage at the western end of the village (1858) and a row of four imposing houses opposite the school (St Matthew’s