The county is predominantly rural, with an area of 6,769 km2 (2,614 sq mi) and a population of 500,012; this makes it the third largest ceremonial county in England by area but the eighth-smallest by population. After Carlisle (74,281), the largest settlements are Barrow-in-Furness (56,745), Kendal (29,593), and Whitehaven (23,986). For local government purposes the county comprises two unitary authority areas, Westmorland and Furness and Cumberland. Cumbria was created in 1974 from the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland, the Furness area of Lancashire, and a small part of Yorkshire.
Cumbria within England
The history of medieval Cumbria has several points of interest. The region's status as a borderland coping with 400 years of warfare is one. The attitude of the English central government, at once uninterested and deeply interested, is another. As a border region, of geopolitical importance, Cumbria changed hands between the Angles, Norse (Norwegians, Danes and Hiberno-Norse), Strathclyde Brythons, Picts, Normans, Scots and English; and the emergence of the modern county is also worthy of study. (Full article...)
Image 2'Giants Grave', St. Andrew's churchyard, Penrith, an unusual arrangement of two Viking-age cross-shafts with four hogbacks (in the foreground). In addition, there is a smaller, Viking-age, wheel-headed cross just visible in the background (from History of Cumbria)
Image 4Roman milestone still in situ by the A66 near Kirkby Thore (from History of Cumbria)
Image 5The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan – an enamelled cooking and serving vessel, engraved with the names of four Hadrian's Wall forts sited in Cumbria (2nd century AD). See also the article on the Rudge Cup and Amiens skillet. (from History of Cumbria)
Image 9Brantwood, overlooking Coniston Water, viewed from the steam yacht 'Gondola' – note the angled, corner windows designed to take in the views (from History of Cumbria)
Image 12St Laurence's Church, Morland : with "the only tower of Anglo-Saxon character in the NW counties", according to Pevsner. Tower possibly built by order of Siward, Earl of Northumbria, sometime between 1042 and 1055; nave possibly later (1120) (from History of Cumbria)
Image 17Claife Station on the western shore of Windermere – built in the 1790s with tinted windows angled to take in all the aesthetically pleasing views (from History of Cumbria)
Image 18The University of Cumbria's Fusehill Campus in Carlisle (from Cumbria)
Image 19Workington Hall, the Curwens' family seat (from History of Cumbria)
Image 20Yanwath hall – a semi-fortified house near Penrith (from History of Cumbria)
Image 23The Eden Valley between Appleby and Penrith, an area referred to affectionately as the heartland of Rheged in the praise poems of Taliesin (from History of Cumbria)
Image 26Wray Castle – built by a Liverpool doctor who had married a rich wife. Constructed in 1840 at the head of Windermere. Associated with two key players of the National Trust : Canon Rawnsley and Beatrix Potter (from History of Cumbria)
Image 29Greta Hall, Keswick – home of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1800–1804; home to Robert Southey, 1803–1843 (from History of Cumbria)
Image 30Swarthy Hill, near Crosscanonby on the Solway coast – possible site of Iron Age hillfort, later the site of mile-fortlet 21 in Roman times (from History of Cumbria)
Image 31The Gosforth Cross, 10th-century Viking-age sculpture. (A replica of 1887, with clearer depictions of the decoration, may be found in the churchyard at Aspatria, along with a replica of another cross, the original of which is at Dearham) (from History of Cumbria)
Image 36Greystoke Castle. Held by the Greystoke family, then by the Dacres and inherited by the Howard family during Elizabeth I's reign. Photo:Simon Ledingham (from History of Cumbria)
Image 47The Ormside bowl, probably late 8th century and made in Northumbria; possibly looted from York by a Viking warrior and buried with him at Great Ormside (from History of Cumbria)
Image 55The entrance to Whinlatter Forest Park (from Cumbria)
Image 56So-called "Saint's tomb" (left), and "Warrior's tomb" (right), two hogbacks in St. Mary's church, Gosforth. Typically high and narrow Cumbrian style, in the shape of a building with a roof, eaves and walls. The Saint's tomb has a crucifixion on the end, the Warrior's tomb has a procession of armed men (from History of Cumbria)
Image 58Carlisle Castle – begun by William Rufus in 1092; rebuilt in stone under Henry I, 1122–35, and David I of Scotland, 1136–1153 (from History of Cumbria)
Image 59Loki stone, Kirkby Stephen parish church, part of a 10th-century Viking-age cross-shaft. But does it show Loki or Satan? (from History of Cumbria)
Image 63St Mary's Church, Abbeytown : all that is left of Holmcultram Abbey, founded by David I, King of Scots, and his son, Earl Henry, in 1150 (from History of Cumbria)
Image 68Approximate extent of Domesday coverage : the district of Hougun, if indeed it was a district, may have covered the three peninsulas at the left of the pink area (from History of Cumbria)
Image 73The Stanegate line is marked in red, to the south of the later Hadrian's Wall. (n.b. Brocavum is Brougham, not Kirkby Thore as given in the map) (from History of Cumbria)
Image 74Rydal Mount – home to Wordsworth 1813–1850. Hundreds of visitors came here to see him over the years (from History of Cumbria)
Image 75Birdoswald – showing partial blockage of main (east) gateway (from History of Cumbria)
Image 76Dove Cottage (Town End, Grasmere) – home of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, 1799–1808; home of Thomas De Quincey, 1809–1820 (from History of Cumbria)
Haweswater is a reservoir in the valley of Mardale, Cumbria in the Lake District, England. Work to raise the height of the original natural lake was started in 1929. It was controversially dammed after the UK Parliament passed a Private Act giving Manchester Corporation permission to build the reservoir to supply drinking water to the city. The decision caused a public outcry because the farming villages of Measand and Mardale Green would be flooded and the valley altered forever.
A panoramic view of Derwent Water, one of the principal bodies of water in the Lake District National Park, as seen from the northern shore of Keswick.
A panoramic view of Derwent Water, one of the principal bodies of water in the Lake District National Park, as seen from the northern shore of Keswick.
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