Cumbria

This county has a population of 496,000 and covers 2,635 square miles (6,826 sq km). It is situated in the extreme North West of England. Cumbria is the second largest Shire County in England and contains almost half of the whole land area of the North West region (48%). The county town is Carlisle.

In Cumbria there are the popular towns of  Brough,  Windermere,  Hawkshead, Kirkby Lonsdale, Tebay, Longtown, Carlisle, Maryport, Kendal, Penrith, Port Carlisle, Keswick, Whitehaven, Workington, Appleby and Brough.

 

Geography

Cumbria is located in the North West of England. The County boundary is naturally defined by the Irish Sea to the West, from the Solway Firth to Morecambe Bay, with the Scottish border to the north and the Pennine hills to the east. It includes the scenic area of the Lake District, which as its name implies contains a series of beautiful lakes in mountainous country. Hill walking and climbing and watersports are popular in this area. Cumbria is a County of different landscapes, which reflect a complex geology. A central ‘dome’ of high relief, which forms most of the Lake District National Park, dominates the physical geography of Cumbria. Cumbria’s sixteen lakes fall within this area. Many of the Countys' rivers originate from here and radiate outwards. However, the County's longest river, the Eden, rises in the Pennines and flows towards the Solway Firth, across one of the substantial lowland valleys to be found around the central ‘dome’. A substantial part of Cumbria lies above 300 metres and this mass of

 

Industry

Tourism is a major source of revenue, hill sheep farming is still a common agricultural activity, salmon fishing, and mineral extraction are the primary industries.

 

History

Cumbria was inhabited along the coast at a very early stage. During the Neolithic Age, settlers moved inland to farm. Numerous stone circles dot the landscape such as the one at Caslterigg near Keswick. The Romans built roads and forts and AD 138 they constructed Hadrian's Wall, an 80 mile defensive structure, stretching from Newcastle-upon Tyne in the east to Bowness on Solway in the west. After the Romans left in the 5th Century, the Celtic inhabitants of Cumbria began to be displaced by an influx of Anglo-Saxon immigrants. The Celts were pushed into the central highlands of the county and named the area Cymry (the Welsh or the compatriots) from which the name Cumbria is derived. King Edmund of Northumbria finally broke the Celts grip of the county with the defeat of Dunmail, the last Celtic king in 945. The ownership of Cumbria was disputed between Scotland and England until 1216.