Cumberland

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Cumberland

Cumberland is one of the 39 historic counties of England

Historic counties of England

The historic counties of England are ancient subdivisions of England established for administration by the Normans and in most cases based on earlier Anglo-Saxons kingdoms and shires....
. It formed an administrative county

Administrative counties of England

Administrative counties were a level of Subdivisions of England used for the purposes of local government from 1889 to 1974. They were created by the Local Government Act 1888 and abolished by the Local Government Act 1972....
from 1889 to 1974 (excluding Carlisle from 1915) and now forms part of Cumbria

Cumbria

Cumbria is a non-metropolitan county in the North West England of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
.

he time of the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

The Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England, or William the Conqueror....
in 1086 most of the county was part of Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
although some villages in the far south west were included in the Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a Historic counties of England of northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Because of its great size, over time functions were increasingly undertaken by its subdivisions, which have been subject to History of local government in Yorkshire....
section with the Furness

Furness

Furness is a peninsula in south Cumbria, England. As a socio-cultural unit, it is more loosely defined. At its widest extent, it is considered to cover the whole of North Lonsdale, that part of the Lonsdale Hundred that is an exclave of the Historic counties of England of Lancashire, lying to the north of Morecambe Bay....
region.

The historic county boundaries formed by the 12th Century were with Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is a Counties of England in the North East England of England. The non-metropolitan counties of England of Northumberland borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of Nort...
and County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England of Historic counties of England in North East England England. The county town is Durham.The largest settlement in the county is the town of Darlington....
to the east, Westmorland

Westmorland

Westmorland is an area of north-west England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 and now forms part of Cumbria....
to the south, the Furness

Furness

Lancashire

Lancashire is a Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England of Historic counties of England in the North West England of England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea....
to the south-west, Dumfriesshire

Dumfriesshire

Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries is a registration county of Scotland. The Lieutenancy areas of Scotland of Dumfries has similar boundaries....
in Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
to the north and Roxburghshire

Roxburghshire

Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh is a registration county of Scotland. It borders Dumfriesshire to the west, Selkirkshire to the north-west, and Berwickshire to the north....
in Scotland to the north-east.

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Encyclopedia

Cumberland is one of the 39 historic counties of England

Historic counties of England

Administrative counties of England

Cumbria

Cumbria is a non-metropolitan county in the North West England of England. Cumbria came into existence as a county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
.

Early history

At the time of the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

The Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England, or William the Conqueror....
in 1086 most of the county was part of Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
although some villages in the far south west were included in the Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Furness

Northumberland

County Durham

Westmorland

Furness

Lancashire

Dumfriesshire

Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries is a registration county of Scotland. The Lieutenancy areas of Scotland of Dumfries has similar boundaries....
in Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
to the north and Roxburghshire

Roxburghshire

Ullswater

Ullswater is the second largest lake in the Lake District, being approximately nine miles long and 0.75 miles wide with a maximum depth of slightly more than ....
formed part of the border with Westmorland.

The highest point of the county is Scafell Pike

Scafell Pike

|}At 978 metres , Scafell Pike is the highest mountain in England. It is located in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria.It is sometimes confused with the neighbouring Sca Fell, to which it is connected by the col of Mickledore....
at 978 m (3,208 ft); it is the highest mountain

Mountain

A mountain is a landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill....
in England. Carlisle

Carlisle

Carlisle is in the City of Carlisle, a district of Cumbria in North West England. It is located at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, River Caldew and River Petteril, south of the Anglo-Scottish border....
is the historic county town

County town

A county town is the 'capital' of a county in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county....
of the county.

Division into wards

The county was divided into five wards, rather than the hundred

Hundred (division)

A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in England, Wales, Denmark, South Australia, some parts of the USA, Germany , Sweden, Finland and Norway, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions....
s found in most English counties. The wards were:

Allerdale above Derwent
Allerdale below Derwent
Cumberland
Cumberland (ward)

The ward of Cumberland was one of the ancient divisions of the historic counties of England of Cumberland, England. In most other counties these dvisions were called Hundred or Wapentakes....
Eskdale
Leath
Leath

Leath was one of the ward of the Historic counties of England of Cumberland in north west England. Cumberland unlike most other English counties was divided into wards rather than hundred ....

Modern history

In 1889, under the Local Government Act 1888

Local Government Act 1888

The Local Government Act 1888 was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales....
, a county council was created for Cumberland, taking over administrative functions from the Quarter Sessions

Quarter Sessions

The Courts of Quarter Sessions or Quarter Sessions were periodic courts held in each county and county borough in England and Wales until 1972, when together with the Assize courts they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court of England and Wales for England and Wales....
. The Local Government Act 1894

Local Government Act 1894

The Local Government Act 1894 was an act of parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London....
further divided the county into urban districts and rural districts.

Carlisle was created a county borough

County borough

County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control....
in 1915 and no longer formed part of the area under the control of the county council, or administrative county

Administrative county

An administrative county was an administrative division in England and Wales and Ireland used for the purposes of local government. They are now abolished, although in Northern Ireland their former areas are used as the basis for lieutenancy....
.

In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972

Local Government Act 1972

The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, that reformed local government in the United Kingdom in England and Wales, on 1 April 1974....
, the administrative county and county borough were abolished and their former area was combined with Westmorland

Westmorland

Lancashire

West Riding of Yorkshire

The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding , was based closely on the historic boundaries....
to form the new county of Cumbria

Cumbria

City of Carlisle

City of Carlisle is a Non-metropolitan district with List of cities in the United Kingdom in Cumbria, England. It has a population of around 100,739 ....
, Allerdale

Allerdale

Allerdale is a Non-metropolitan district with Borough status in England and Wales status, in Cumbria, England. It is Historic Counties of England part of the English county of Cumberland....
, Copeland

Copeland, Cumbria

Copeland is a Non-metropolitan district and borough in western Cumbria, England. Its council is based in Whitehaven. It was formed on April 1, 1974 by the merger of the borough of Whitehaven, Ennerdale Rural District and Millom Rural District....
and part of Eden

Eden, Cumbria

Eden is a Non-metropolitan district in Cumbria, England. Its council is based in Penrith, Cumbria. It is named after the River Eden, Cumbria which flows north through the district toward Carlisle....
.

The distribution of population in 1971 was as follows:

District	Population
County Borough of Carlisle	71,580
Cockermouth Urban District	6,366
Keswick Urban District	5,184
Maryport Urban District	11,612
Penrith Urban District	11,308
Whitehaven Urban District	26,721
Municipal Borough of Workington	28,431
Alston with Garrigill Rural District	1,917
Border Rural District Border Rural District Border was a rural district in Cumberland, England from 1934 to 1974.It was formed by a Local Government Act 1929 in 1934, by a merger of Longtown Rural District, most of Brampton Rural District and nearly all of Carlisle Rural District, as well as a part of Penrith Rural District....	29,267
Cockermouth Rural District Cockermouth Rural District Cockermouth was a rural district in Cumberland, England from 1894 to 1974.It was created by the Local Government Act 1894 based on Cockermouth rural sanitary district....	21,520
Ennerdale Rural District Ennerdale Rural District Ennerdale was a rural district in the county of Cumberland in England from 1934 to 1974.It was created in 1934 by a Local Government Act 1929, by the merger of the urban districts of Arlecdon and Frizington, Cleator Moor, Egremont, Cumbria, and Harrington, Cumbria along with part of Bootle Rural District and most of Whitehaven Rural Distri...	30,983
Millom Rural District Millom Rural District Millom was a rural district in Cumberland in England from 1934 to 1974.It was formed by a Local Government Act 1929 in 1934 by the merger of the Millom urban district with most of the Bootle Rural District....	14,088
Penrith Rural District Penrith Rural District Penrith was a rural district within the administrative county of Cumberland, England that existed from 1894 to 1974 with slight boundary changes in 1934....	11,380
Wigton Rural District Wigton Rural District Wigton was a rural district in Cumberland, England from 1894 to 1974.It was created by the Local Government Act 1894 based on Wigton rural sanitary district....	21,830

Legacy

The name continues in use as a geographical and cultural term, and survives in Cumberland sausages, Cumberland County Cricket Club

Cumberland County Cricket Club

Cumberland County Cricket Club is one of the Historic counties of England clubs which make up the Minor counties of English cricket in the England domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Cumberland and playing in the Minor Counties Championship and the MCCA Knockout Trophy....
and various organisations and companies, such as the local newspapers The Cumberland News, and The West Cumberland Times and Star, and the Cumberland Building Society
Cumberland Building Society

The Cumberland Building Society was established on 16 April 1850 as the Cumberland Co-operative Land and Benefit Building Society. It has its headquarters in Carlisle, Cumbria, England....
.

In June 1994, during the 1990s UK local government reform

1990s UK local government reform

The structure of local government in the United Kingdom underwent large changes in the 1990s. The system of two-tier local government introduced in the 1970s by the Local Government Act 1972 and the Local Government Act 1973 was abolished in Scotland and Wales on April 1, 1996, and replaced with unitary authorities....
, the Local Government Commission published draft recommendations, suggesting as one option a North Cumbria unitary authority

Unitary authority

A unitary authority is a type of local authority that has a single tier and is responsible for all local government functions within its area or performs additional functions which elsewhere in the relevant country are usually performed by national government or a higher level of sub-national government....
(also including Appleby

Appleby-in-Westmorland

Appleby-in-Westmorland is a town in Cumbria, in North West England. It is situated within a loop of the River Eden, Cumbria and has a population of approximately 2,500....
, the historic county town of Westmorland). It also suggested that Cumberland could be reinstated as an independent ceremonial county

Ceremonial counties of England

The ceremonial counties are areas of England that are appointed a Lord Lieutenant, and are defined by the government as the Counties for the purposes of the Lieutenancies Act 1997 with reference to the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England and Lieutenancies Act 1997....
. The final recommendations, published in October 1994, did not include such recommendations, apparently due to lack of expression of support for the proposal to the commission.

As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity Plantlife

Plantlife

Plantlife is a wild plant conservation charity, founded in 1989. As of 2007, its membership was 10,500 and it owned 23 nature reserves around the UK....
chose the Grass-of-Parnassus

Parnassia palustris

Parnassia palustris is a species of the genus Grass of Parnassus.It is the county flower of Cumberland and Sutherland in the United Kingdom....
as the county flower. Parnassus flowers had been associated with the county since 1951, when they were included in the coat of arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms, more properly called an armorial achievement, armorial bearings or often just arms for short, in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person and used by them in a wide variety of ways....
granted to the Cumberland County Council. They subsequently featured in the arms granted to Cumbria County Council and Copeland Borough Council

Copeland, Cumbria

Bibliography

Cumberland Heritage
Heritage

Heritage refers to something which is inherited from one's ancestors. It has several different senses, including:* Geographical heritage, a nation or group's historic monuments, museum collections, etc....
by Molly Lefebure
Molly Lefebure

Molly Leferbure is a United Kingdom writer who has an interest in the English Lake District....
(Chapters include Camden, Briathwaite, Millbeck, Fellwalkers, Carlisle
Carlisle

Carlisle is in the City of Carlisle, a district of Cumbria in North West England. It is located at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, River Caldew and River Petteril, south of the Anglo-Scottish border....
Canal, Armboth, John Peel
John Peel

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, Order of the British Empire , known professionally as John Peel, was an England disc jockey, radio presenter and journalist....
(Farmer) and The Blencathra
Blencathra

|}Blencathra, also known as Saddleback, is one of the most northerly mountains in the England Lake District. It has six separate fell tops, of which the highest is the 868 metre Hallsfell Top....
), with endpaper maps of old Cumberland.

Cumberland

Early history

Division into wards

Modern history

Legacy

Bibliography

External links