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Malew
Parish encompasses an area from Langness
and Scarlett up to Foxdale, and includes the
villages of Ballasalla, St Marks and Derbyhaven. |
The area includes
both Ronaldsway and Balthane Industrial estates
and, of course, the Isle of Man Airport. |
The last census
gave a figure of 2,304 population with 936 households.
Administration of the Parish is undertaken from
Commissioners Offices in the heart of Ballasalla
Village.
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The
Parish of Malew (from St.
Lupus, the patron Saint of the district) is bounded
on the east by the Santon Burn, on the north by
the Granite Mountain, and South Barrule on the
south, by an irregular line from Barrule to Pooil
Vash on the west, and by the sea on the east. It
contains about 15 square miles. |
The
southern half of this extensive parish has for its sub-rock
a thick series of carboniferous limestones, and
is low and undulating, forming part of the southern
plain of Castletown. |
The
northern half is high, the
hills which form it rising out of the low plain and
swelling into the mountains of the southern range.
The chief river is the Silverburn, the western branch
of which rises on Barrule, and the eastern branch
on the Granite Mountain. The two streams unite above
Ballasalla, and flow in a S.E. direction into the
sea at Castletown. |
The
coast line is low, but rocky
and dangerous. It contains two great openings-Derbyhaven,
a fine natural harbour, protected by a small breakwater;
and Castletown Bay, a deep but exposed and dangerous
inlet between Langness and Scarlett. The headlands
are Dreswick Point and Langness Point, the two extremities
of the long, low peninsula of Langness; and Scarlett
Point, a conical mass of sub-columnar basalt. |
The
north part of the district,
along the slopes of the mountains, is barren and
in great part unenclosed; lower, the land is of greater
value, and is carefully cultivated. The-level district
around Castletown is among the richest and best worked
parts of the Island. The district is chiefly agricultural,
but a considerable number of its inhabitants follow
other employments. At Derbyhaven and Castletown they
are fishermen, at Scarlett and at Ballasalla they
are employed at the extensive lime quames and kilns.
At Ballasalla also were very large fruit gardens,
employing in the summer a large number of women and
children. Castletown used to be in this district.
Ballasalla was a large agricultural village. Near
it are the ruins of Rushen Abbey, founded in 1098,
and dissolved late in the reign of Elizabeth, and
an ancient bridge over the Silverburn, called the
Crossag, or the Monk's Bridge, too narrow for vehicles.
Derbyhaven is an agricultural and fishing village.
St. Mark's, in the northern division of the parish,
is a small agricultural village clustered round a
chapel of ease. ' |
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