Kirkby Thore
Kirkby Thore is a small village and civil parish in Cumbria, England, near the Lake District and the Pennines. It covers areas called Bridge End in the southwest by the A66 and Cross End in the northeast. The parish population was 731 in 2001 and 758 in 2011.
Appleby-in-Westmorland is about five miles away, and Penrith is about eight miles away.
The name Kirkby Thore first appears in 1179 as Kirkebythore. “Kirkby” means a village with a church, and “Thore” comes from an Old Norse name related to Thor.
The village sits on the site of a Roman cavalry camp called Bravoniacum, and Roman artifacts have been found there. The Maiden Way, a Roman road, ran from Bravoniacum to other forts along Hadrian’s Wall. In 2016, LiDAR found another road from Kirkby Thore to the fort at Low Borrowbridge near Tebay.
The Anglican church of St Michael is built from red sandstone and dates from Norman times. There was also a Methodist chapel. Kirkby Thore Hall is a Grade II* medieval manor house.
Gypsum has been quarried or mined in the area for over 200 years. The British Gypsum plant has produced plaster since 1910 and plasterboard since the 1960s. It sometimes uses desulpho-gypsum from Drax by rail.
The village has several farms, including dairy and sheep/beef farms, with arable land. The Settle-Carlisle Railway runs just north of the village, and the company has a private siding at Kirkby Thore.
Kirkby Thore is in the Westmorland and Lonsdale parliamentary constituency. The A66 runs along the village’s western edge, and plans to upgrade or bypass this section have been discussed since 2006, with new scheme stages starting in 2019.
Facilities include a village shop with a post office and a filling station.
Notable people connected to the area include Helen Skelton and Gavin Skelton, who grew up on a nearby farm and attended Kirkby Thore Primary School. Helen became a TV presenter, while Gavin played professional football and later became Carlisle United’s assistant manager.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:17 (CET).