County in England
Cumbria
England's highest mountain, deepest lake and a World Gurning Championship share one county, where only one lake actually has 'Lake' in its name.
Key information
- County
- Cumbria
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 500,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- The Lake District, Hadrian's Wall, Kendal Mint Cake, Herdwick sheep, Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter
- What locals are called
- Cumbrians
- Famous people
- William Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter, Stan Laurel, Melvyn Bragg
- Football clubs
- Carlisle United, Barrow, Workington
About Cumbria
The only lake in the Lake District with 'Lake' in its name
Here is a pub-quiz favourite: Bassenthwaite Lake is the only one of the Lake District's principal lakes with 'Lake' in its name. Windermere, Ullswater, Buttermere and Wast Water are lakes too, despite their names, which is why you get meres, waters and tarns on the map. The superlatives are no less impressive. Scafell Pike is England's highest summit. Wastwater is its deepest lake, at about 79 metres. Windermere is its longest, at roughly ten and a half miles. In 2017 the central Lake District was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The citation was for a cultural landscape shaped by farming, not just for pretty scenery. Generations of hill farmers raising Herdwick sheep, with their grey-brown fleeces, gave the fells the stone walls and patchwork look they have today.
A county younger than your grandparents
Cumbria only appeared on the map in 1974, when Cumberland and Westmorland were merged with the Furness area of Lancashire and a slice of the old West Riding of Yorkshire around Sedbergh. Some locals still say they are from Westmorland or Cumberland, and plenty of pubs, newspapers and sports clubs keep the old names alive. The name itself is ancient. It comes from the same root as Cymry, the Welsh word for themselves, and recalls the Brittonic-speaking people who once held this north-western corner. Traces linger in the old shepherds' counting system. Yan, tan, tethera, methera, pimp runs from one to five and was used to count sheep in the dales within living memory. The landscape is far older than the name. Castlerigg stone circle, near Keswick, was raised around 3000 BC, and Long Meg and Her Daughters, near Penrith, is one of the largest stone circles in England.
The edge of the Roman world, and a pirate's raid
Hadrian's Wall ended in the west at Bowness-on-Solway, and Carlisle was a key Roman base on that frontier. Further south, Hardknott Roman Fort sits on a pass so steep and remote that visiting it feels like a small expedition. Centuries later, the border country was the scene of reiving, cross-border raiding, and the county's pele towers and fortified farmhouses remain from that time. Whitehaven has a stranger claim. In 1778 the American naval commander John Paul Jones landed there during the Revolutionary War and tried to burn the ships in the harbour. It is often described as the last hostile landing on English soil. The town, a major coal and trading port in its day, still has its Georgian grid of streets.
Mint cake, gingerbread and a very good sausage
Kendal Mint Cake is a sugary slab of peppermint that went up Everest. It was carried on the 1953 expedition that put Hillary and Tenzing on the summit. Grasmere Gingerbread has been made since 1854, when Sarah Nelson began selling it from a tiny cottage by the churchyard gate. It is a cross between a biscuit and a cake, and the recipe is still a closely guarded secret. Then there is the Cumberland sausage, a coiled, peppery pork spiral sold by length rather than by the link. Cartmel, in the south of the county, has a strong claim to sticky toffee pudding, and its village shop has built a business on it. Keswick, meanwhile, owes its pencil museum to the graphite found in Borrowdale, which made the town the home of the pencil trade.
Wrestling, gurning and fell running
Cumbrians have their own sporting calendar. Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling is a stand-up style in which opponents hold each other around the body and the first to touch the ground or break their hold loses. Hound trailing sees dogs follow an aniseed scent across the fells, with crowds betting on the outcome. Fell running is practically a local religion. The Bob Graham Round, a 42-peak circuit to be done within 24 hours, was first completed in 1932 by the Keswick guesthouse owner of that name. Then there is the Egremont Crab Fair, held since 1267, which includes the World Gurning Championships. Contestants pull the most grotesque face they can, framed by a horse collar. The Appleby Horse Fair each June brings thousands of Gypsy and Traveller families to the town to trade and meet. For football, Carlisle United are the county's best-known club, with Barrow and Workington carrying the flag too.
Poets, penguins and a comedy legend
Cockermouth gave the world William Wordsworth, who later made Grasmere his home and wrote about daffodils at Ullswater. His neighbour Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived for a time at Greta Hall in Keswick. Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny on the Bounty, also came from the Cockermouth area. Beatrix Potter, born in London, fell for the Lakes on childhood holidays, then bought Hill Top farm at Near Sawrey in 1905 with the proceeds from Peter Rabbit. She became a passionate sheep breeder and left some 4,000 acres to the National Trust when she died in 1943. Ulverston gave the world Stan Laurel, and the town has a museum devoted to the comic duo. Wigton produced broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, whose writing returns often to this corner of England.