Birkbeck Fells is a township located in part of the parishes of Crosby Ravensworth, Orton and Shap in the historic county of Westmorland. [lower-alpha 1] [1] [2] It is a large mountainous district, and was described in the mid nineteenth century as containing around thirty scattered houses. [1]
A map of 1858 shows that at the time Birkbeck Fells consisted of several detached parts to the north of Brethedrale and west of the hamlet of Greenholme, together with the undivided moor of Birkbeck Fells Common [3]
It is notable for being the birth-place of Nicholas Close whom Henry VI of England appointed to oversee the construction of King's College Chapel, Cambridge. [4] [5]
Westmorland (, formerly also spelt Westmoreland; is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. Between 1974 and 2023 Westmorland lay within the administrative county of Cumbria. In April 2023, Cumbria County Council was abolished and replaced with two unitary authorities, one of which, Westmorland and Furness, covers all of Westmorland, thereby restoring the Westmorland name to a top-tier administrative entity. The people of Westmorland are known as Westmerians.
Cumberland is a historic county in North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974, when it was subsumed into Cumbria, a larger administrative area which also covered Westmorland and parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. In April 2023, Cumberland was revived as an administrative entity when Cumbria County Council was abolished and replaced by two unitary authorities; one of which is named Cumberland and includes most of the historic county, with the exception of Penrith and the surrounding area.
Kirkby Lonsdale is a town and civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England, on the River Lune. Historically in Westmorland, it lies 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Kendal on the A65. The parish recorded a population of 1,771 in the 2001 census, increasing to 1,843 at the 2011 Census.
The Langdale axe industry is the name given by archaeologists to a Neolithic centre of specialised stone tool production in the Great Langdale area of the English Lake District. The existence of the site, which dates from around 4,000–3,500 BC, was suggested by chance discoveries in the 1930s. More systematic investigations were undertaken by Clare Fell and others in the 1940s and 1950s, since when several field surveys of varying scope have been carried out.
Nicholas Close was an English priest.
The Wrynose Pass is a mountain pass in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England between the Duddon Valley and Little Langdale.
The Rothay is a spate river of the Lake District in north-west England. Its name comes from Old Norse and translates literally as the red one. This has come to mean trout river. It rises close to Rough Crag above Dunmail Raise at a point about 1542 feet above sea level. Its catchment area covers Grasmere Common including Easedale Tarn, the southern flanks of Fairfield, and several of the fells to the east of Dunmail Raise, including Great Rigg, Rydal Fell, Scandale Fell and Heron Pike.
The Howgill Fells are uplands in Northern England between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, lying roughly within a triangle formed by the town of Sedbergh and the villages of Ravenstonedale and Tebay. The name Howgill derives from the Old Norse word haugr meaning a hill or barrow, plus gil meaning a narrow valley.
Westmorland and Lonsdale is a constituency in the south of Cumbria, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Tim Farron, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats (2015–2017).
The Barony of Kendal is a subdivision of the English historic county of Westmorland. It is one of two ancient baronies that make up the county, the other being the Barony of Westmorland. In 1974, the entire county became part of the modern county of Cumbria and ceased to have an administrative function. At the same time, Kendal borough along with some other rural and urban districts in Westmorland was merged with the neighbouring parts of Lancashire, Furness and Cartmel, and also the Sedbergh Rural District of the West Riding of Yorkshire into the new South Lakeland district of the new county.
Nine Standards Rigg is the summit of Hartley Fell in the Pennine Hills of England. It lies near the boundary between Cumbria and North Yorkshire, a few miles south-east of Kirkby Stephen and approximately 770 yards (700 m) outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Nine Standards Rigg lies within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The name is derived from a group of cairns, the Nine Standards, located near the summit. The fell is listed as Nine Standards Rigg, rather than Hartley Fell, in Alan Dawson's book The Hewitts and Marilyns of England.
The A591 is a major road in Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness, in North West England, which lies almost entirely within the Lake District national park. A 2009 poll by satellite navigation firm Garmin named the stretch of the road between Windermere and Keswick as the most popular road in Britain. The 29.8 mile stretch between Kendal and Keswick was also named the UK's best driving road, according to a specially devised driving ratio formulated by car rental firm Avis.
Birk Beck is a minor river in Cumbria.
Hilton is a village in Cumbria, England, in the civil parish of Murton, about 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Appleby-in-Westmorland and at an elevation of 752 feet (229 m). In 1870-72 the township had a population of 253. It has a rural economy, with much grazing of sheep, though the past was also home to lead mining.
Stainmore is a remote geographic area in the Pennines on the border of Cumbria, County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name is used for a civil parish in the Eden District of Cumbria, England, including the villages of North Stainmore and South Stainmore. The parish had a population of 253 in the 2001 census, increasing to 264 at the Census 2011. Stainmore Forest stretches further east into County Durham, towards Bowes.
Murton is a small village and civil parish in the Eden District of Cumbria, England. The parish had a population of 330 in 2001, rising to 360 at the 2011 Census. Settlements within the parish include the villages of Hilton, Langton, Brackenber and various small farms, houses and cottages. The town of Appleby-in-Westmorland is to the south-west.
The Westmorland County Agricultural Society is a registered charity which supports agriculture and related activities in and around the former county of Westmorland, England. Its activities include the annual Westmorland County Show. It was previously known as the Westmorland and Kendal District Agricultural Society.
High Knott, marked on some Ordnance Survey maps as Williamson's Monument, is a hill in the eastern part of the English Lake District, near Staveley, Cumbria. The monument on its summit was built by the Reverend T. Williamson in 1803, in memory of his father Thomas Williamson, who had climbed the fell every day before breakfast. The fell is the subject of a chapter of Wainwright's book The Outlying Fells of Lakeland. It reaches 901 feet (275 m) and Wainwright's route starts near the 17th-century Ulthwaite Bridge on the River Kent, climbing High Knott and then making a clockwise circuit to the early British village site at Hugill and "over the pleasant heights on the west side of mid-Kentmere".
Knipescar Common, or Knipe Scar, is an upland area in the east of the English Lake District, above the River Lowther, near Bampton, Cumbria. It is the subject of a chapter of Wainwright's book The Outlying Fells of Lakeland. The summit is "indefinite" but reaches 1,118 feet (341 m) and there are limestone outcrops and an ancient enclosure. Wainwright commends the views which include Blencathra to the north and "a continuous skyline of the higher Pennines."
Staveley Fell is an upland area in the English Lake District, near Staveley-in-Cartmel, Cumbria, east of the southern end of Windermere. It is the subject of a chapter of Wainwright's book The Outlying Fells of Lakeland, but he admits that: "Strictly it has no name, not even locally, being referred to on Ordnance maps as Astley's and Chapel House Plantations, which are new forests severely encroaching upon it". He says it "commands a fine aerial view of the foot of Windermere." The fell reaches 870 feet (270 m) and Wainwright's route is a clockwise loop starting from Staveley-in-Cartmel. Chris Jesty in his revised edition of Wainwright's book provides an alternative route and comments that "There must be many people who, encouraged by the ordnance Survey map, or by the first edition of this book, have ... been turned back by an uncrossable fence."