DUFTON, ENGLAND

Dufton is a village and civil parish in Cumbria, England. Historically part of Westmorland, it lies in the Eden Valley and below Great Dun Fell, the second-highest mountain in England's Pennines, lying two miles south along the watershed from Cross Fell, its higher neighbour. The village lies mostly around 600 feet above sea level. At the 2001 census the parish had a population of 169, increasing to 204 at the 2011 Census. Dufton is an ancient settlement and some of the earliest written records of the village are from the 1320s. The place-name Dufton is first attested in 1289 and means 'dove town or farmstead'.

Dufton Green

The center of the village is built around a green, which is oblong in shape and is bisected by an avenue of lime trees that crosses it diagonally. Houses in the village were built from the 17th century onwards and the village has changed little over the last 100 years.

Stag Inn

On the north side of the green is the Stag Inn, built in 1703 with solid oak beams. Behind the Inn looms the Great Dun Fell, the second-highest mountain in England's Pennines.

St Cuthbert's Church just outside the village mainly dates from the 19th century.

Dufton Green

Dufton was a center for lead mining in the 18th and 19th centuries. The London Lead Company (Quaker-owned) developed the village through the construction of housing, a school, a library and the installation of piped water. A fountain and circular water trough built by the Company forms a centrepiece on the green. The inscription on the fountain reads (translated from the Latin):

There is a clear pool, whose waters gleam like silver. It is not tainted by shepherds, or by their she-goats grazing on the mountain. Nor is it muddied by cattle, or by birds or wild animals, or by a branch fallen from a tree.

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