Cumbria

Cumbria covers an area of 2,635 square miles and has a population of 496,000 . It is located in the extreme North West of England. It is the second largest Shire County in England, After Yorkshire, and contains almost half of the whole land area of the North West region. The county town is Carlisle.

Industry

Tourism is a major source of revenue, hill farming is still a common agricultural activity and is supported by the National Trust who own a lot of the land. Salmon fishing, and mineral extraction are the primary industries.

Geography

The County boundary is 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 contains a series of beautiful lakes in mountainous country. The main rivers are the Eden and Kent. Cumbria is a County of diverse 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 rivers start here and radiate outwards. The County's longest river, the Eden, rises in the Pennines and flows towards the Solway Firth, across one of the main lowland valleys to be found around the central dome. A large part of Cumbria rises above 300 metres and this area of land divides the County from north to south and east to west. The hills are a series of volcanic rock and slate mountain peaks with steep valleys formed by the movement of glaciers during the last Ice Age. It also includes the Carlisle plain. Much of the area forms the Lake District National Park. The area contains a large range of unique flora and fauna including several species of fish, mainly of the salmon family, that are indigenous to their specific lake.

History

The coastal area of Cumbria was inhabited at a very early stage. During the Neolithic Age, settlers moved inland. Many stone circles dot the landscape such as the one at Caslterigg near Keswick. In AD 138, the Romans constructed an 80 mile defensive structure, known as Hadrian’s Wall after the Emperor who built it, stretching from Bowness on Solway in the west to Newcastle-upon Tyne in the east. After the Romans left in the 5th Century, the Celtic inhabitants of Cumbria began to be displaced by an influx of Anglo-Saxon settlers. The Celts were pushed into the central highlands and named the area Cymry (the Welsh or the compatriots) from which the name Cumbria is derived. King Edmund I of England finally defeated Dunmail, the last British king of Cumbria in 945 and gave Cumbria to the King Malcolm I of Scotland. The ownership of Cumbria was disputed between Scotland and England until 1216.