Cumbria is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's county town is Carlisle, in the north of the county, and the only other major urban area is Barrow-in-Furness on the southwestern tip of the county.
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests and mountains, and its associations with William Wordsworth and other Lake Poets and also with Beatrix Potter and John Ruskin. The Lake District National Park was established in 1951 and covers an area of 2,362 square kilometres. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017.
Alfred Wainwright ("A.W.") MBE was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966 and consisting entirely of reproductions of his manuscript, has become the standard reference work to 214 of the fells of the English Lake District. Among his 40-odd other books is the first guide to the Coast to Coast Walk, a 192-mile long-distance footpath devised by Wainwright which remains popular today.
Westmorland is a historic county in north west England. It formed an administrative county between 1889 and 1974, after which the whole county was administered by the new administrative county of Cumbria. In 2013, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, formally recognised and acknowledged the continued existence of England's 39 historic counties, including Westmorland.
Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England. Historically in Westmorland, it lies 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Windermere, 19 miles (31 km) north of Lancaster, 23 miles (37 km) north-east of Barrow-in-Furness and 38 miles (61 km) north-west of Skipton, in the dale of the River Kent, from which comes its name. The 2011 census found a population of 28,586. making it the third largest town in Cumbria after Carlisle and Barrow. It is known today mainly as a centre for tourism, as the home of Kendal mint cake, and as a producer of pipe tobacco and snuff. Its local grey limestone buildings have earned it the nickname "Auld Grey Town".
Windermere is a town and civil parish in the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England. It has a population of 8,245 increasing to 8,359 at the 2011 Census, and lies about half a mile (1 km) east of the lake, Windermere. Although the town Windermere does not touch the lake, it has now grown together with the older lakeside town of Bowness-on-Windermere, though the two retain distinguishable town centres. Tourism is popular in the town owing to its proximity to the lake and local scenery. Boats from the piers in Bowness sail around the lake, many calling at Ambleside or at Lakeside where there is a restored railway. Windermere Hotel opened at the same time as the railway.
Grange-over-Sands is a town and civil parish located on the north side of Morecambe Bay in Cumbria, England. Travelling by road, Grange Over Sands is 13.1 miles (21.1 km) to the south of Kendal, 14.9 miles (24.0 km) to the east of Ulverston, 25 miles (40 km) to the east of Barrow-in-Furness and 28.1 miles (45.2 km) to the west of Lancaster. Historically part of Lancashire, the town was created as an urban district in 1894. Since 1974, following local government re-organisation, the town has been administered as part of the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, though it remains part of the Duchy of Lancaster. Grange-over-Sands is located a few miles south of the Lake District National Park.
Heart North Lancashire & Cumbria was a local radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcast to north Lancashire and south Cumbria from studios in Lancaster.
Smooth Lake District is an Independent Local Radio station for the Lakes, owned and operated by Global and part of the Smooth network.
Bowness-on-Windermere is a town in South Lakeland, Cumbria, England. Due to its position on the banks of Windermere, the town has become a tourist honeypot. Although their mutual growth has caused them to become one large settlement, the town is distinct from the town of Windermere as the two still have distinguishable town centres. Historically part of Westmorland, in 2012, Bowness was one of the official stop off points for the Olympic torch before it made its way to the Olympic Games opening ceremony.
Oxenholme Lake District railway station is a railway station in Oxenholme, near Kendal, in Cumbria, England. The station is situated on the West Coast Main Line and is also the start of the Windermere Branch Line to Windermere. All platforms are electrified; however, platform 3 on the Windermere branch has limited capacity for longer trains. The station serves as a main line connection point for Kendal and Windermere and is managed by Avanti West Coast. The station is owned by Network Rail.
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).
William Gershom Collingwood was an English author, artist, antiquary and professor of Fine Arts at University College, Reading.
Kirkbie Kendal School is an academy school and known as a Business and Enterprise College in Kendal, Cumbria, Northern England, and serves the area around the town and rural countryside. Kirkbie Kendal School operates as a Foundation school, and has been regularly oversubscribed, accepting students based on a designated hierarchy. The school has 880 pupils on roll, ages 11–18.
Abbot Hall Art Gallery is a museum and gallery in Kendal, England. Abbot Hall was built in 1759 by Colonel George Wilson, the second son of Daniel Wilson of Dallam Tower, a large house and country estate nearby. It was built on the site of the old Abbot’s Hall, roughly where the museum is today. Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries this was where the Abbot or his representative would stay when visiting from the mother house of St Mary's Abbey, York. The architect is unknown. During the early twentieth century the Grade I listed building was dilapidated and has been restored as an art gallery.
The British county of Cumbria is located in North West England and has a population of 496,200. However, with an area of 6,768 km² it is England's 3rd largest county, with only 73 per km², it is the country's second least densely populated county. People from Cumbria are known as Cumbrians and they speak a variety of the Cumbrian dialect to the north, whilst a Lancashire accent is more prominent in the South. Along with Lancashire to the south, Cumbria is bordered with Scotland to the north, the Irish Sea to the west, Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east and North Yorkshire to the south-east.
Kendal College is a further education college situated in Kendal on the edge of the Lake District National Park. The College provides a range of training and education programmes, including Further Education, Higher Education and training courses to support local employers, as well as more diverse work such as hospitality consultancy for Cambridge University.
Kendal Museum is a local museum in Kendal, Cumbria, on the edge of the Lake District in northwest England. It was founded in 1796 and includes collections of local archaeology, history, and geology, and a natural history collection from around the globe. The museum also features a changing programme of temporary exhibitions and displays, events, walks, and talks. The museum has a large natural history taxidermy collection, and features a stuffed polar bear and a model of a dodo.
Nibthwaite is a village in the South Lakeland District in the county of Cumbria in the northwest of England, near the Scottish border. It is in the civil parish of Colton, Cumbria, and on the east side of Coniston Water. It is in the historic county of Lancashire.
Lakeland Arts is an English charitable company, successor to the Lakeland Arts Trust, based in the Lake District. It operates Blackwell The Arts & Crafts House near Windermere, Abbot Hall Art Gallery and the Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry both in Kendal, and Windermere Jetty: Museum of Boats, Steam and Stories which re-opened in March 2019.
