On 9 June 2006 the church was set alight in an arson attack which devastated its roof parts of which had been in situ since it was erected 900 years ago.

Others are Victorian, when much of the village was concerned with the railway line to Silloth, and, more recently, a large number of houses were built at "Friars Garth".

Abbeytown is part of the parliamentary constituency of Penrith and Solway, and has been represented by Markus Campbell-Savours of the Labour Party since the 2024 general election.

In June 2012, it became clear that the Solway Plain between Silloth, Abbeytown and Westnewton has been identified as a potential site for a Geological Disposal Facility for the UK's high level nuclear waste.

The Solway Plain was not named by the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) Partnership, rather they referred to the 'Low permeability sedimentary rocks associated with the Mercia Mudstone Group (MMG)'.