X-Nico

84 unusual facts about Cumbria


2009 Workington floods

The cemetery at Camerton, historically the burial ground for the community of Seaton, was badly damaged with many gravestones being damaged or upturned.

A road bridge over a disused railway line in the village of Camerton collapsed due to floodwaters on the railway line.

A74 road

The road received a substantial upgrade in the early 19th century under the direction of Thomas Telford, who made significant engineering improvements, including a new route over the Beattock Summit and the Metal Bridge just in England just south of the border.

In August 2008, when the A74 was still an all-purpose road across the Cumberland Gap, the Highways Agency took out a special order to ban cyclists and pedestrians from the route, advising them to use the A7 to Longtown instead.

Alexander Birtwistle

He supervised the disposal of thousands of sheep which were culled on site or brought there from Carlisle abattoir.

Anthony Lowther, Viscount Lowther

Lowther returned to the family estates after the war, dwelling in Clifton Hall, Westmorland.

Arkengarthdale

Beyond Tan Hill, the road divides again, heading westward to Brough, south to Keld and south-west to Kirkby Stephen.

Augustus Molade Akiwumi

In 1910 he was sent to live with guardians, a Smith family of Crosby, Cumbria in England.

Barepot

Barepot has about 70 houses and is situated on the River Derwent.

Barrow House

Barrow House, Cumbria, England, A late 18th century mansion in Cumbria, also known as Derwentwater Youth Hostel.

Battle of Sedgemoor

Other contenders for the title of last English battle include: the Battle of Preston in Lancashire, which was fought on 14 November 1715, during the First Jacobite Rebellion; the Second Jacobite Rebellion's Clifton Moor Skirmish, near Penrith, Cumberland, on 18 December 1745; and the skirmish known as the Battle of Graveney Marsh in Kent on 27 September 1940.

Beaumont, Cumbria

The village lies four miles north-west of Carlisle on the banks of the River Eden.

Bridgefoot

It is situated at the confluence of the River Marron and Lostrigg Beck, approximately 1 mile south of the River Derwent.

Briggflatts

The title "Briggflatts" comes from the name of a meetinghouse (actually spelled "Brigflatts", with one "g") in a Quaker community near Sedbergh in Cumbria, England.

Buttermere, Cumbria

Buttermere is situated on the B5289 road that runs beside Crummock Water and along the valley of the River Cocker north to Cockermouth.

Camerton, Cumbria

St Peter's church is located south-east of the village on a meander of the River Derwent.

Cannabis Law Reform

The first official LCA candidate in a parliamentary election was former mayor of Carlisle Colin Paisley in the November 1999 by election in the Kensington and Chelsea constituency.

Canonbie

It is only five miles north of Longtown, where the disease was first spotted at the livestock market.

Cargo, Cumbria

Cargo is a small village near the river Eden on the Solway Plain.

Celia Whitelaw, Viscountess Whitelaw

She and her husband's funerals were held and their remains interred at St Andrew's Church, Dacre.

Cistercian Way

Cistercian Way (England), footpath from Grange-over-Sands to Roa Island in Cumbria, 33 miles (53 km)

Cleator

The surge of water off the fells of the Lake District flowed back to the Irish Sea down the rivers of West Cumbria, including the River Derwent which caused flooding and damage at Keswick, Cockermouth and Workington.

Coggabata

Two miles south of the fort a Roman road was uncovered linking the western end of the Stanegate to Kirkbride to the west.

Cohors II Gallorum veterana equitata

In Britannia, the regiment garrisoned, from 178 at the latest, the fort at Old Penrith (Cumbria).

Countess Pillar

The Countess Pillar is a 17th-century monument near Brougham, Cumbria, England, between Penrith and Appleby.

Coupland, Cumbria

Coupland Beck is a minor river that flow into the river Eden south of Coupland.

David Beamish

David Richard Beamish (born 20 August 1952; Carlisle, Cumbria, England) is a British public servant who has been the Clerk of the Parliaments, the chief clerk in the House of Lords, since 16 April 2011.

Egremont, Massachusetts

It is unclear whether the town is named for the English town or for the first Earl of Egremont, whose title was created shortly after the settlement of the town.

Egremont, Merseyside

The name of the area was decided by one Captain Askew who built a house in the area as early as 1835 and named the village 'Egremont' after his Cumberland birthplace.

Eleanor Bone

She claimed to have been initiated in 1941 by a couple of hereditary witches in Cumbria.

Eric Martlew

He worked as a technician and personnel manager for Nestlé from 1962-87 at the powdered milk factory in Dalston.

Fairfield horseshoe

Fairfield Horseshoe is a classic circular hillwalking ridge walk route starting from Rydal or Ambleside in the English Lake District that takes in all the fells that surround the valley of the Rydal Beck.

Fellsman

The route includes Ingleborough, Whernside, Gragareth, Great Coum, Dent, Blea Moor, Great Knoutberry, Snaizeholme, Dodd Fell, Fleet Moss, Middle Tongue, Cray, Buckden Pike, Great Whernside before finishing in Threshfield.

Floriston railway station

Floriston was in the vicinity of the bridge over the River Esk.

Fred Robertson

Frederick A. Robertson (b. October 22, 1911 in Carlisle, England, United Kingdom – d. September 20, 1997 in Barrie, Ontario) was a professional ice hockey player who played 34 games in the National Hockey League.

Grange in Borrowdale

The double-arched bridge that links the village to the B5289 across the River Derwent was built in 1675.

Greasy pole

In the UK, contests to climb a greasy pole were held at numerous fairs including the Crab Fair in Egremont, Cumbria where the contest continues to this day - alongside the annual Gurning World Championships see Gurn.

Great Salkeld

The village is believed to have been connected at one time by a bridge over the River Eden to Little Salkeld.

Harry Redfern

He was responsible for designing, in an imaginative and varied manner, a number of notable public houses in the Carlisle district under the auspices, as chief architect, of the Home Office State Management Scheme (SMS).

Henry Ainslie

In 1785 he married Agnes Ford of Monk Coniston (an estate near Coniston Water in the English Lake District) in the church at Colton.

Henry Winder

The son of Henry Winder (d. 1733), farmer, by a daughter of Adam Bird of Penruddock, he was born at Hutton John, parish of Greystoke, Cumberland, on 15 May 1693.

James Pickering

He was descended from the knightly Pickering family of Killington, then in Westmorland, and was married to Elizabeth Greystoke.

Jennings Brewery

Jennings Brewery was established as a family concern in 1828 in the village of Lorton, between Buttermere and Cockermouth in the Lake District, England.

John Leicester, 1st Baron de Tabley

Born at Tabley House in Cheshire, 4 April 1762, he was the eldest son of Sir Peter Leicester, 4th Baronet, by his wife Catherine, coheiress of Sir William Fleming of Rydal, Westmoreland.

Jonathan Cape

Cape was born in London on 15 November 1879, the youngest of the seven children of Jonathan Cape, a clerk from Ireby in what is now Cumbria, and his wife Caroline, née Page.

Keswick Island

Keswick Island was later individually named in 1879 after the town of Keswick in England's Cumbria Lake District by Staff Commander E. P. Bedwell, RN, in SS Llewellyn.

Kirkoswald

Kirkoswald, Cumbria, a civil parish and village in the District of Eden

L9 Bar Mine

In 2012, a parcel of forty barmines being shipped by rail on a Ministry Of Defence train from DMC Longtown to Oxfordshire disappeared while in transit.

Lakeside, Cumbria

It was established as a steamer pier for services along the lake when the Lakeside branch of the Furness Railway reached it in 1869, meaning that steamer services no longer had to negotiate the River Leven to Newby Bridge.

Langwathby

'Langwathby' can be translated as 'long' ('lang'), 'ford' ('wath', Old Norse 'vað'), 'village' (Old English 'bȳ', Old Norse 'býr'), referring to the fording of the River Eden which runs along the edge of the village.

Low Newton

Low Newton, Cumbria, a village located on the Cartmel Peninsula in Cumbria, England

Loweswater, Cumbria

The civil parish of Loweswater covers a considerable area around the village, and is bordered on its eastern side by the western shore of Crummock Water and by the River Cocker.

Martin of Littlebury

Before 1245 he was presented to the parish church at Kirkoswald by Thomas of Moulton, either the Thomas of Moulton who served as a royal justice or his son of the same name.

Millican Dalton

Born on 20 April 1867 at Nenthead, Alston, Cumberland, he spent his early life in the northwest of England before his family moved to Essex.

Monkhill, Cumbria

The village is situated on the course of a vallum associated with Hadrian's Wall and is near the narrowest point of the River Eden, the site was a crossing point for Roman troops, Scottish border raiders, and cattle drovers.

Murder of John Alan West

West was a 53-year-old van driver for a laundry when he was killed by Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen who had gone to rob him at his home in Seaton, Cumberland.

North Ormesby

The neighbourhood has in recent years seen something of a decline, with much of its original housing having long been demolished, partially as allowance for new developments, including, more recently, the erection of numerous new buildings and the restructuring of the A66 Redcar to Penrith trunk road which passes through the north of the area.

Northern Foods

In 2005 the corporate headquarters was moved to Leeds, while Evesham Foods and the London Road site of Cavaghan & Gray in Carlisle were both closed.

Papcastle

The village is now effectively a northern extension of Cockermouth, which lies to the south of the River Derwent.

Pardshaw Young Friends' Centre

Pardshaw Young Friends' Centre is located within the historic Parshaw Friends Meeting House complex, near Cockermouth in Cumbria, England.

Pauline Forster

Pauline Forster (born 1949, Carlisle) is an English artist, performer, musician, designer and landlady of The George Tavern in the East End of London.

Pauline Forster was born in Carlisle 1949, the Lake District, daughter of Jack Forster and Meg Arbury, the fourth of six siblings.

Ravenglass

It is located at the estuary of three rivers: the Esk, Mite and Irt.

Richard Baty

Baty built a parsonage for himself at his own expense, and for the use of his parishioners provided a ferry for the first time across the River Esk, which ran through the town, and across which there was no bridge.

Rowanburn

Several farms in the area were devastated by the 2001 foot and mouth crisis which spread rapidly via the local livestock market at Longtown.

Russell Rea

Rea was the third son of Daniel Key Rea from Eskdale in Cumberland and his wife Elizabeth, who was the daughter of Liverpool shipbuilder Joseph Russell.

Rydalmere, New South Wales

'Rydal' comes from Rydal, Cumbria, in the Lake District of England where O'Neill was born, while 'mere' means a lake.

Samuel Bourn

He was born at Crook near Kendal, and educated at Stand grammar school and Glasgow University, where he studied under Francis Hutcheson and Robert Simson.

Slate budgerigar mutation

In 1935 T S Bowman of Carlisle bred a Skyblue Slate and a Cobalt Slate, both hens, from a Cobalt cock and a Skyblue hen.

Smardale

Smardalegill is a small steep sided valley connecting Smardale and the valley of the River Eden with the eastern end of the valley of the River Lune, Scandal beck runs north-northeast through it, as does the former Stainmore Railway.

Stagecoach

Within the month the service had been extended from London to Norwich, Nottingham, Liverpool and Manchester, and by the end of 1785 services to the following major towns and cities of England and Wales had also been linked: Leeds, Dover, Portsmouth, Poole, Exeter, Gloucester, Worcester, Holyhead and Carlisle.

Tarraby

It is about two miles away from the city centre of Carlisle and is near the River Eden.

The Tale of Benjamin Bunny

Summering at Fawe Park in Keswick, Cumbria with her parents, Potter filled her sketchbook with pictures of the estate's several gardens including the kitchen garden and its greenhouses, cold frames, potting shed, and espaliered fruit trees.

Underskiddaw

The parish lies immediately to the north of the town of Keswick, and includes the southern and eastern flanks of Skiddaw as well as part of the valley of the rivers Greta and Derwent, and a small part of Bassenthwaite Lake.

Upperby

Upperby is a suburb of Carlisle, in the City of Carlisle district, in the English county of Cumbria.

It is a few miles to the south-east of the city centre of Carlisle and is near the River Petteril.

Waitby

Waitby Beck rises from springs to the north east of the Waitby, joining Sandwith Sike which flows into the River Eden.

Wetheral

Wetheral stands high on a bank overlooking a gorge in the River Eden.

Whincup

The Cumberland Quarter Sessions (Coroner's Inquests) in 1762 looked into the death of Elizabeth Benson, aged 30, who died walking from Whincop in Birker to Boot in Eskdale, when she tried to ford Birker Beck at the site of a footbridge which had been destroyed by earlier floods, and was swept into the River Esk and drowned.

Wigginton, North Yorkshire

Hugh de Moresby, Lord of Moresby in Cumberland, was in possession of the manor of Wigginton in 1337.

William Dalston

Dalston was the son of Sir George Dalston of Dalston Hall, near Carlisle, Cumberland and his wife Catharine Thornworth.

William Henry Bragg

Bragg was born at Westward near Wigton, Cumberland, the son of Robert John Bragg, a merchant marine officer and farmer, and his wife Mary née Wood, a clergyman's daughter.

William John Dalzell Burnyeat

He was the eldest son of William Burnyeat and Sarah Frances Dalzell, of Moresby, Cumberland.

Xavier Petulengro

Unusually among Gypsies at the time, he learned to read and write, later claiming that this was due to the assistance of Admiral Arthur Wilson VC of the Royal Navy and his sister, but also with the help of a farmer's wife, Martha Clark, in Whitehaven, Cumbria, where the family spent several winters.


28 Days Later

The end scenes of the film where Jim, Selena and Hannah are living in a rural cottage were filmed around Ennerdale in Cumbria.

Alaunus

In Roman times in its feminine form, for example, it was used to refer to Roman Valognes in Normandy, Roman Maryport in Cumbria, Roman Alcester in Warwickshire, Roman Watercrook in Natland, Cumbria, Ardoch in Perthshire, and the River Aln in Northumberland (where the feminine form is taken by the Roman fort Alauna, now known as Lower Learchild, near where the Devil's Causeway crosses the River Aln on the modern A697 road), and .

Alfred Goldie

Alfred William Goldie (December 10, 1920, Coseley, Staffordshire – October 8, 2005, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria) was an English Mathematician.

British NVC community MG3

This community, although widespread in the past, is now almost confined to a few upland valleys in County Durham, North Yorkshire and Cumbria.

Calaminarian grassland

In the United Kingdom they are predominantly found on industrial or post-industrial land, especially in the east of Cumbria and western dales, the Peak District and north west Wales and parts of the Scottish Highlands.

Castle Head

Castle Head Field Centre, a house near Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria, England

Cauldron Falls

Cauldron Snout, waterfall on the upper reaches of the River Tees, County Durham/Cumbria, England

Cec Thompson

He went on to play for Great Britain and Ireland and was transferred to Workington Town in Cumbria after which he was manager of Barrow.

Children's Adventure Farm Trust

Each year the Adventure Farm helps 3,000 children aged 4 to 16, coming from all over the North West, with people coming from Cheshire, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, Staffordshire, Yorkshire, North Wales and Derbyshire.

Demography of Cumbria

Cumbria is likely to be the only county in the United Kingdom where Buddhists constitute the second largest religion, where most areas of the country have Islam as the second largest religion.

Islam, unlike in most areas of the UK, is not the second most common religion in Cumbria.

Dog hole

Dog Hole Cave, a cave and archaeological site in Cumbria, England

Eden District

In Eden there are King George's Fields, in memorial to King George V, at Appleby and Patterdale.

Edward Haughey, Baron Ballyedmond

He owns Ballyedmond Castle in Rostrevor, Corby Castle in Cumbria, and No. 9, Belgrave Square, London (a 6-storey townhouse purchased in 2006 for about £12m, restored during the following three years).

Fairy Cave

Dog Hole Cave, Storth, Cumbria, England, also known as Fairy Cave

Fiona Clayton

Brought up in the Pennine foothills and nurtured by musical parents, this Cumbrian singer-songwriter developed her eclectic style and love of imaginatively surreal themes.

Furness Hoard

The Furness Hoard is a hoard of Viking silver coins and other artefacts dating to the 9th and 10th Century that was discovered in Furness, Cumbria, England in May 2011 by an unnamed metal detectorist.

Gareth White

Gareth Andrew White (born 28 January 1979 in Whitehaven, Cumbria) is an English cricketer who played one List A fixture for Cumberland County Cricket Club.

Gordon W. Richards

He died from cancer in Carlisle, Cumbria and was succeeded as trainer at Greystoke by his son, Nicky Richards.

Haltcliff Bridge

Haltcliff Bridge is a village on the River Caldew, in the county of Cumbria, England.

Hiduminium

These materials were so crucial to aircraft production that with the outbreak of World War II a shadow factory was established in the remote area of Cumberland (now Cumbria), at Distington, near Whitehaven.

Ignatius Bonomi

Other works included design of Marton House near Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria (1822), Blagdon Hall (1830) in Stannington near Morpeth, Northumberland, the church of St John the Baptist in Leeming, North Yorkshire (1839) and the restoration of St Nicholas House, Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Lithophone

A lithophone called the Musical Stones has been created at Brantwood, the former home of John Ruskin in Cumbria, England, and may be played there by visitors.

No. 650 Squadron RAF

No. 650 squadron was formed on 1 December 1943 at RAF Cark, Cumbria from 'D' Flight of 289 Squadron and 1614 (anti aircraft co-operation) Flight.

Northumberland National Park

The Northumberland National Park covers a large area of Western Northumberland and borders the English county of Cumbria and the Scottish county of The Scottish borders.

Not with a Bang

The pub name is never mentioned in the show, but the shots from the outside are of the White Hart in the village of Bouth in Cumbria.

Ormside bowl

The Ormside Bowl is an Anglo-Saxon double-bowl in gilded silver and bronze, with glass, perhaps Northumbrian, dating from the mid-8th century which was found in 1823, possibly buried next to a Viking warrior in Great Ormside, Cumbria, though the circumstances of the find were not well recorded.

Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway locomotives

Two similar locomotives have been built at Ravenglass for the Shuzenji Romney Railway in Japan, Northern Rock II and Cumbria, in 1989 and 1992, respectively.

Scheelite

Fine crystals have been obtained from Caldbeck Fells in Cumbria, Zinnwald/Cínovec and Elbogen in Bohemia, Guttannen in Switzerland, the Riesengebirge in Silesia, Dragoon Mountains in Arizona and elsewhere.

Sea to Sea Cycle Route

A number of public artworks have been commissioned for the route, including Tony Cragg's Terris Novalis at Consett, sheepfolds by Andy Goldsworthy at various points in Cumbria and Alison Wilding's Ambit in the River Wear at Sunderland.

Sir Stephen Glynne, 9th Baronet

(This volume covers the area of the modern administrative county of Cumbria: i.e. the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, and the Furness region, historically part of Lancashire.)

Solway Aviation Museum

The Buildings contain exhibits and artefacts relating to aviation in Cumbria, including World War II and also houses individual displays featuring the development of Blue Streak, Martin Baker ejection seats and the development and activities of the Airport itself since the Second World War.

Solway Firth Spaceman

On 23 May 1964, Jim Templeton, a firefighter from Carlisle, Cumberland (now part of Cumbria), took three photographs of his five-year-old daughter while on a day trip to Burgh Marsh.

The famous photo was taken on Burgh Marsh, situated near Burgh by Sands, overlooking the Solway Firth in Cumbria, England.

The Paradine Case

Although some external shots show the Lake District in Cumbria, the rest of the footage was shot entirely on three sets at Selznick's Culver City, California lot a first in Selznick's career as an independent producer.

Theakston Brewery

Theakston's expanded into Cumbria in 1974 buying the Carlisle State Management Brewery.

Thomas Heathfield Carrick

Carrick was born in Upperby, near Carlisle in Cumberland (now Cumbria), the son of John Carrick (d. 1852), thought to be a Carlisle Mill owner but listed on the register of births as a calico printer, and Mary (née) Anderson.

West Cumberland Hospital

In 1924, the Earl of Lonsdale sold Whitehaven Castle to Mr H. Walker, who then donated the building to the people of Cumbria, along with monies to convert it into a hospital to replace the Victorian Whitehaven Hospital.

William Angwin

He left Cornwall in 1882 to work as a builder in Whitehaven, Cumberland (now Cumbria), where he joined several reform movements and worked for temperance.

Yiannis Tridimas

Other ultra distance completions include the Joss Naylor challenge in Cumbria, the Leventon line in North Wales and the South Wales Traverse.