Cockermouth/ˈkɒkərməθ/[2] is a market town and civil parish in Cumbria, England, so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent. The mid-2010 census estimates state that Cockermouth has a population of 8,204,[3] increasing to 8,761 at the 2011 Census.[4]
Historically a part of Cumberland, Cockermouth is situated outside the English Lake District on its northwest fringe. Much of the architectural core of the town remains unchanged since the basic medieval layout was filled in the 18th and 19th centuries. The regenerated market place is now a central historical focus within the town and reflects events from its 800-year history. The town is prone to flooding and experienced severe floods in 2005,[5] 2009,[6] and 2015.[7]
Etymology
Cockermouth is "the mouth of the River Cocker"; the river takes its name from the Brythonic Celtic word kukrā, meaning 'the crooked one'.[8] It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names.[9]
Geography
Cockermouth owes its existence to the confluence of the rivers Cocker and Derwent, being the lowest point, historically, at which the resultant fast flowing river powered by the Lake District could be bridged.[10] Cockermouth is situated a few minutes' travelling distance from lakes such as Buttermere, Crummock Water, Loweswater, and Bassenthwaite.
Cockermouth has a temperate climate that is influenced by the Irish Sea and its low-lying elevation. Cockermouth receives slightly below average rainfall compared with the UK average. Temperatures are also round about average compared with other parts of the UK. The nearest weather station for which online records are available is Aspatria, about 7 miles (11 kilometres) north-northeast of the town centre.
The hottest temperatures recorded in the area were 31.3°C (88.3°F) at Lorton on 19 July 2006 and 31.1°C (88.0°F) at Aspatria during August 1990,[13] with the coldest being −13.9°C (7.0°F) during January 1982[14] at Aspatria and −13.8°C (7.2°F) at Lorton on 8 December 2010. West Cumbria gets relatively little snow in comparison with the Lake District and Eastern Cumbria, owing to its proximity to the Irish Sea and its low height above sea level.[15]
Climate data for Aspatria, elevation: 62m (203ft), 1981–2010 normals
The main town developed under the Normans who, after occupying the former Roman fort, built Cockermouth Castle closer to the river crossing: little remains today of the castle thanks to the efforts of Robert the Bruce. The market town developed its distinctive medieval layout, of a broad main street of burgesses' houses, each with a burgage plot stretching to a "back lane": the Derwent bank on the north and Back Lane (now South Street), on the south.[10] The layout is largely preserved, leading the British Council for Archaeology to say in 1965 that it was worthy of special care in preservation and development.[17]
The town market pre-dates 1221, when the market day was changed from Saturday to Monday. Market charters were granted in 1221 and 1227 by King Henry III, although this does not preclude the much earlier existence of a market in the town.[19] In recent times, the trading farmers market now only occurs seasonally, replaced by weekend continental and craft markets.
In the days when opening hours of public houses were restricted, the fact that the pubs in Cockermouth could open all day on market days made the town a popular destination for drinkers, especially on Bank Holiday Mondays. The Market Bell remains as a reminder of this period (inset into a wall opposite the Allerdale Hotel), while the 1761 and Castle pub (which spans three floors) have been renovated to reveal medieval stonework and 16th and 18th-century features.
Architecture
River Cocker with the walkway attached to the building
Much of the centre of the town is of medieval origin, substantially rebuilt in Georgian style with Victorian infill. The tree-lined Kirkgate offers examples of unspoilt classical late 17th and 18th-century terraced housing, cobbled paving and curving lanes which run steeply down to the River Cocker. Most of the buildings are of traditional slate and stone construction with thick walls and green Skiddaw slate roofs.
Many of the facades lining the streets are frontages for historic housing in alleyways and lanes (often maintaining medieval street patterns) to the rear. There are examples of Georgian residences near the Market Place, St. Helens Street, at the bottom of Castlegate Drive and Kirkgate.
Cockermouth may have been the first town in Britain to have piloted electriclighting. In 1881 six powerful electric lamps were set up to light the town, together with gas oil lamps in the back streets. The electrical service proved to be intermittent, and there was afterwards a return to gas lighting.[20]
In 1964, Cockermouth was named one of 51 'Gem Towns' in the UK, by the Council for British Archaeology. This recognised the importance of the historic buildings, and the need for effective traffic management and urban development.[21]
Present
The Bitter End, Kirkgate
The centre of Cockermouth retains much of its historic character and the renovation of Market Place has been completed, now with an artistic and community focus. The Kirkgate Centre is the town's major cultural focus and offers regular historical displays by the Cockermouth Heritage Group[22] in addition to holding major cultural events including theatre, international music and world cinema. The tree-lined main street boasts a statue of Lord Mayo, formerly an MP for Cockermouth, who became British Viceroy of India and whose subsequent claim to fame was that he was assassinated.
The renovated arts and cultural zone in the 13th-century Market Place has undergone something of a "regeneration" following European Union funding, and is now pedestrian-friendly adorned with stone paving and roadways, underground lighting and controversial seating in bright colours to reflect the area's facades. Pavement art and stonework commemorate eclectic historical events, John Dalton's atomic theory, local dialect, flooding and a curious range other memorabilia.
A cycleway runs along the former Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway route, and spans a high bridge over the Cocker affording views of the town and river-scape.
Cockermouth suffered badly in the nationwide flood on 19 and 20 November 2009.[23] Over 200 people needed to be rescued, with helicopters from RAF Valley, RAF Boulmer and RAF Leconfield retrieving about 50 and the remainder being rescued by boats, including those of the RNLI. Water levels in the town centre were reported to be as high as 2.50 metres (8ft 2in) and flowing at a rate of 25 knots. Many historic buildings on and adjacent to Main Street sustained severe damage, as did a number of bridges in and around the town. Recovery from the devastation was slow, with residents placed in temporary accommodation and some businesses temporarily relocated to Mitchells auction mart. By the summer of 2011 most of the damage had been repaired and buildings re-occupied, though some remained empty or boarded up.
Flooding occurred again in 2015 when the River Derwent burst its banks on 5 December, with several hundred homes and businesses affected.[24]
Cockermouth Castle is a sizeable but partly ruined Normancastle, formerly the home of the late Pamela, The Dowager Lady Egremont. Built at the confluence of the Rivers Cocker and Derwent, the castle has a tilting tower which hangs Pisa-like over Jennings Brewery. The castle, with its preserved dungeons, is only opened to the public once a year during the annual town festival.
Wordsworth House, the birthplace of William Wordsworth, has been restored following extensive damage during the November 2009 floods, and features a working 18th-century kitchen and children's bedroom with toys and clothes of the times. Harris Park offers riverside walks and views down over the historic town.
Jennings Brewery offers regular public tours and occasional carriage rides pulled by a shire horse.
Culturally, the Kirkgate Centre[26] offers international music, heritage, theatre and world cinema (including critically acclaimed and art-house movies on Monday evenings) and the town has an annual festival of concerts and performances each summer. Cockermouth has an annual Easter Fair, fireworks display and carnival. In April 2005 it hosted its first Georgian Fair, which was repeated in 2006, again in May 2008 and 2010, with the next fair on 2 May 2015. At Christmas the town presents festive lighting throughout its main and subsidiary streets, accompanied by competing shop displays.
The main cemetery on the Lorton Road is something of a walker's garden, featuring streams, humped stone bridges and views of the nearby fells.
The adjoining village of Papcastle is also picturesque in its own right, and stands on the site of the Roman fort of Derventio (Papcastle), lined with grand 18th- and 19th-century houses.
2+1⁄2 miles (4 kilometres) northwest of the town lies Dovenby Hall Estate, a 115-acre (47ha) park and woodland estate. Dovenby Hall is the home of the FordRally team. The estate was bought in January 1998 by Malcolm Wilson for his M-Sport motorsport team and that was selected in 1996 by Ford Motorsport to build, prepare and run a fleet of cars for entry into the World Rally Championship.
Economy and services
Built as a market town, close to a fast-flowing river in a farming area with a tradition of cloth weaving, Cockermouth became a hub for spinning and weaving. The town had a fulling mill by 1156 and by the mid-19th century there were over forty industrial sites; mills (wool, linen, cotton), hat factories, tanneries and smaller concerns making chairs, churns, mangle rollers, nails and farm machinery.[10][17]
With the need for steam power, industrialisation declined, but the coming of the railway and the Victorian holiday, together with the power of Wordsworth's publications, meant that Cockermouth became an early inland tourist centre. The local economy is still reliant today on farming and tourism, with light industrial facilities servicing local needs. Industrialisation and hence work has moved to the west coast around Carlisle and Workington, and includes servicing the nuclear facilities at Sellafield.[10]
Road haulier Lawsons Haulage Limited is a major employer in the town.[27]
Cockermouth School is a comprehensivesecondary school with around 1400 pupils including 310 sixth formers. The current Headteacher is Mr R J King. Cockermouth School won the regional championship in the north of England for the kids lit quiz 2009 coming 1st with 92 points[28]
Transport
The nearest motorway is the M6 junction 40 at Penrith, which is 30 miles (48km) away via the A66.
Local bus services connect Cockermouth to Workington, Penrith and Carlisle, operated by Stagecoach North West. A free bus operates between Cockermouth and Buttermere with five return services per day.[30]
Two cycle routes pass through the town, the Sea to Sea Cycle Route from Workington to Tyneside, and the Reivers Cycle Route.
Sports and leisure
Cockermouth has a sports centre with swimming pool, two gyms, and two parks with riverside walks.
Cockermouth Cricket Club is one of the town's most successful and best supported sports teams. They play their home games at the Sandair Ground, located just off Gote Road. The First XI play in the North Lancashire and Cumbria League Premier Division, Second XI in the third tier of the same league. The club's Third XI play in the Cumbria Cricket League. The thriving junior section of the club runs from u11 up to u15. The current Club Captain is former Northamptonshire County Cricket Club batsman, Gareth White and for the 2015 season, the club's Overseas Professional is Fahad Masood, who has represented Pakistan 'A' in international cricket.[31]
Cockermouth School has an Astroturf pitch used for community football, including the local 6-a-side league.[32]
Cockermouth Rugby Football Club is based at the former Cockermouth Grammar School site and in 1987 played the first ever rugby union league match[citation needed] when they played Kirkby Lonsdale when the Rugby Union formed national and regional leagues, the precursors of what have now become the national and premier leagues.
The town has a youth football club, Cockermouth F.C. In the 2007–2008 season, the Under 12 team were County Cup Champions. Cockermouth beat Allerdale Leisure, from Workington, 1–0 in the final.[citation needed]
Cumbria is a ceremonial county in North West England, bordering Scotland. It came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. In April 2023, its county council was abolished and all of its administrative functions were taken over by Westmorland and Furness and Cumberland. Cumbria's largest settlement is Carlisle and other major settlements include Barrow-in-Furness, Kendal, Whitehaven and Workington.
The Derwent is a famous river in the county of Cumbria in the north of England; it rises in the Lake District and flows northwards through two of its principal lakes, before turning sharply westward to enter the Irish Sea at Workington
Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in Cumberland, Cumbria, England. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207.
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.
Allerdale was a non-metropolitan district of Cumbria, England, with borough status. Its council was based in Workington and the borough has a population of 93,492 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 96,422 at the 2011 Census.
The A595 is a primary route in Cumbria, in Northern England that starts in Carlisle, passes through Whitehaven and goes close to Workington, Cockermouth and Wigton. It passes Sellafield and Ravenglass before ending at the Dalton-in-Furness by-pass, in southern Cumbria, where it joins the A590 trunk road. The road is mostly single carriageway, apart from in central Carlisle, where it passes the castle as a busy dual carriageway road named Castle Way, and prior to that as Bridge Street and Church Street, where it passes close to the McVitie's or Carr's biscuit factory. The Lillyhall bypass is also dual carriageway.
The River Cocker is a river in the Lake District in North West England, in the county of Cumbria. Its source is at the head of the Buttermere valley. It flows north through Buttermere and then Crummock Water, through Lorton Vale, to the town of Cockermouth, where it joins the River Derwent. It is roughly 12 miles (19 km) long. The river takes its name from the Brythonic Celtic word kukrā, meaning 'the crooked one.'
Loweswater is one of the smaller lakes in the English Lake District. The village of Loweswater is situated to the east of the lake.
Workington Bridge railway station was situated at the northern end of Workington Bridge next to the River Derwent, and was originally served by the Cockermouth and Workington Railway, later absorbed by the London and North Western Railway; the road at the north end of the bridge having to be raised to allow the railway to pass under it. It served eastern Workington, Cumberland, England.
Cockermouth Castle is in the town of Cockermouth in Cumbria on a site by the junction of the Rivers Cocker and Derwent. It is a grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Mealsgate is a village in Cumbria, England, historically within Cumberland.
Dearham is a village and civil parish in Cumbria, historically part of Cumberland, near the Lake District National Park in England. It lies about 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Maryport and 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Cockermouth.
The Cockermouth & Workington Railway was an English railway company which built and operated a railway between the Cumberland towns of Workington and Cockermouth. The railway opened for service in 1847, and ran from the Whitehaven Junction Railway station at Workington to a station at Cockermouth near the bridge over the Derwent. A single-tracked line of eight and a half miles length, its revenue came largely from the transport of coal from the pits of the lower Derwent valley to the port at Workington for shipment by sea. The Marron extension of the Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway and the Derwent Branch of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway were both constructed to link with the C&WR and together give an alternative route for the northward movement of haematite ore from the Cumberland ore-field. The completion of the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway made the C&WR part of a continuous through route between South Durham and the Cumberland orefield. These developments both improved the potential profitability of the C&WR, and made control of it important to bigger companies wishing to maximise the iron-ore traffic over their lines: the C&WR was absorbed by the London and North Western Railway in 1866.
Great Broughton is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Broughton. It caters strongly for visitors. The estimated resident population was 1,823 in 2017. In 1891 the parish had a population of 1447.
Buttermere is a village and civil parish in the county of Cumbria, England.
Derventio was a Roman settlement at Papcastle on the river Derwent near Cockermouth, Cumbria, England. It was the site of a Roman fort, which was originally built in timber and rebuilt in stone. There was also a civilian settlement (vicus). It is sometimes called Derventio Carvetiorum by modern writers to distinguish it from other places named Derventio, but there is no evidence of that extended name being used in the Roman period.
Papcastle railway station was on the single track Derwent Branch of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway (M&CR) in the then county of Cumberland, now Cumbria, England.
Dearham railway station was on the single track Derwent Branch of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway (M&CR) in the then county of Cumberland, now Cumbria, England.
1 2 3 J Bernard Bradbury (1994). Cockermouth and District in Old Photographs. Alan Sutton.
↑ Escott, Margaret (2009). "Cumberland County". In Fisher, D.R. (ed.). The House of Commons 1820–1832. The History of Parliament. Cambridge University Press – via History of Parliament Online.
↑ "Pitcairn". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol.21 (11thed.). 1911. p.659; see para 2, line 5. Meanwhile in 1790 a party consisting of Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny, eight Englishmen, six Polynesian men and twelve Polynesian women had taken possession of Pitcairn Island and burned the "Bounty."
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