Watch Hill

Watch Hill is a small village situated halfway between Fletchertown and Aspatria. Nowadays Tolson’s has established a large local tarmacadam business, and the village has a small-holding that gives riding lessons locally. Watch Hill also is close to the All Saints Church on the Aspatria to Fletchertown road. It is surrounded by fields with views of the Lakeland hills to one side, and the Scottish hills on the other.

History

Traditionally the main income would have come from farming and coal mining. Several small mines existed in the 1700 and 1800s, but these were replaced by the Allhallows Colliery in 1870, which closed at the end of the 1920s. Several people would have worked as servants, both on farms and at Whitehall and Brayton Hall, large estates in the area with wealthy owners. It is thought that the name came into being during the raids from Scotland, when signals would be relayed to the Pele Tower at Harby Brow, White Hall and others during that time.