Cumbria

Cumbria, is a in the extreme  of. Cumbria came into existence as a county in after the passage of the. The county consists of six, and has a total of 498,800.

Cumbria, the, is bound to the west by the , to the south by , to the southeast by , and to the east by and. lies directly to the north.

A predominantly rural county, Cumbria is home to the, considered one of the most beautiful areas of the. The area has provided inspiration for generations of British and foreign artists, writers and musicians. Much of the county is ous, with the highest point of the county (and of England) being at 978 m (3210 ft). All the territory in England that is over 3,000 feet above sea level is in Cumbria.

Parts of can be found in the northernmost reaches of the county, in and around.

Boundaries and divisions
Cumbria is neighboured by, , , , and the of  and  in Scotland.

The boundaries are along the to  in the west, and along the  to the east. Cumbria's northern boundary stretches from the along the border with  to.

It is made up of six :, , , , and. For many administrative purposes Cumbria is divided into 3 areas - East, West and South. East being the districts of Carlisle and Eden, West - Allerdale and Copeland and South Lakeland and Barrow making up South Cumbria.

In January 2007, Cumbria County Council voted in favour of an official bid to scrap the current two-tier system of county and district councils in favour of a new Cumbria Council, to be submitted for consideration to the.

The county returns 6 to the, representing the constituencies of , , , ,  and.

History
The county of Cumbria was created in. It was a combination of the area of the of  and, the Cumberland county borough of , along with the North Lonsdale or  part of Lancashire (including the  of ), and from the , the. The name "Cumbria" has been used for the territory for centuries.

Following the creation of Cumbria as a non-metropolitan county, some people, particularly those born or brought up in the area, continue to refer to some parts of Cumbria as part of the ; this includes the area as a part of, and the  and surrounding area as a part of.

Local papers The Westmorland Gazette and Cumberland and Westmorland Herald are continue to be named on this pre-1974 county basis. Others, including local government, promotional material for the area, the National Park Authority, and most visitors describe the area as being in "Cumbria". A MORI poll in the county found 79% of those polled identified "very strongly" or "strongly" to Cumbria throughout the county, but dropping to 55% and 71% in Barrow and South Lakeland districts, which incorporate part of historic Lancashire.

Culture
Cumbria as an English county on the border with Scotland has faced repeated invasion. Resisting such attacks and many attepts by the Kingdom of Scotland to annex it has given Cumbria a strong sense of pride and a very strong Northern English culture, shared with its neighboring counties, particularly Lancashire and Northumberland.

The culture of the area was predominantly until fairly late after the annexation by the   (see ), and the name for the area derives from its name in the. It is etymologically connected to the term Cymru, meaning "", which is now used as the Welsh name for  itself. The Cumbric language has been extinct since about the 11th century.

Cumbria also had very strong links with Norse culture due to Viking invasions. Leaving behind evidence particularly in the genetics of the local population. Studies have shown that the county of Cumbria has one of the most striking signs of Scandinavian genetics in England.

Dialect
The is spoken throughout the region. There is quite a large variation in accent and words, especially between north and south and west coast.

Many of the traditional dialect words are remnants of Norse settlement, with settlers probably arriving in Cumbria in the 10th century via  and the.

Sport
are the only professional football team in Cumbria. They attract support from across Cumbria. However,, has been one of the best supported football teams in the  since their relegation in the. Recently have also made a rapid rise up the non league ladder and now compete with Barrow in the Conference North.

is a very popular sport in West Cumbria. , and  all compete in the. played in the national competitions between 1981 and 1997, Carlisle today has Carlisle Centurions in the. There are amateur teams playing in the, notablely Wath Brow Hornets and  as well as a  and.

is very popular in the east of the county with teams such as Carlisle RUFC, Kendal RUFC, Kirkby Lonsdale RUFC, Keswick RUFC, Upper Eden RUFC and Penrith RUFC (who have recently been promoted to the National Leagues) competing in many local and national competitions.

'Wrestling

Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling is an ancient and well-practised tradition in the county with a strong resemblance to.

In the 21st century Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling along with other aspects of Lakeland culture are practiced at the, an annual meeting held every year since 1852 on the August.

The origin of this form of wrestling is a matter of debate, with some describing it as having evolved from Norse wrestling brought over by Viking invaders, while other historians associate it with the  and  styles indicating that it may have developed out of a longer-standing Celtic tradition.

Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of East Cumbria at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of West Cumbria at current basic prices published (pp.240-253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.

Education
Although Carlisle has a comprehensive system almost in toto, it has one state grammar school in Penrith. There are 42 state secondary schools and 10 independent schools. Sixth-form provision is good (mainly as schools in the county's rural areas are far apart, so education has to be less geographically spread out). The exception is Barrow-in-Furness district where no schools have sixth forms, and this is the same for three schools in Allerdale and South Lakeland, and one in the other districts. Carlisle, Allerdale and South Lakeland all have the largest school population by year of about 1250, with Eden the smallest. In general, year sizes are low, with six schools having year sizes under 50. In England, 45.8% of pupils gain 5 good GCSEs including Englsh and Maths; for Cumbria 's 6100 pupils taking GCSE at 16, it is 45.3% - slightly under the average. This is misleading as in the rural areas, the schools generally get good results. The best comprehensive school at GCSE is the with 68%, followed by the  in  with 64% and the  in Brampton with 61%. The worst is the Alfred Barrow School in Barrow in Furness with 17%. The catholic schools in Whitehaven and are the best schools by far in the towns, as most are underperforming in these two towns. The school system in Carlisle has five underperforming schools, with the rest doing much better; not unlike a selective system. The same could be said for Allerdale district. At A-level, like at GCSE, Cumbria performs exactly at the England average. The best state school (in 2006), understandably is the. The better comprehensive schools do very well at A-level, with the in Kendal being the best, followed by. The best overall at A level is, a girls school in.

GCSE results by district council (%)
2006 results for % of state school pupils gaining grades A-C at GCSE including English and Maths; compare to average house price.
 * South Lakeland 54.9
 * Eden 54.8
 * Allerdale 47.4
 * Carlisle 39.8
 * Barrow-in-Furness 38.4
 * Copeland 38.0

Towns and Villages


Carlisle is the largest and only city in the county, whilst Barrow-in-Furness (the largest town) is between 2 and 3 times larger than the second largest town (Kendal).

The twelve most populated settlements in Cumbria are listed below:

Density
Cumbria as a whole is the second least densely populated county in with only 73 people per square kilometre. Despite it being the third largest in area (6,768 km²), about a third of the county is taken up by the. Below is a table listing each district by population density.

Ethnicity
The data below is based on recent available 2005 estimates.

Increase Cumbria has previosuly been considered an almost all white county, however since the millenium, the county has experienced one of the UK's largest increases in the population of non-indigenous communities. Below is a table noting the percentage change for each respective ethnic group between and  compared to  as a whole. Altough please note that this table does not reflect how many people of each race recide in each district, large percentage increases in such places as Copeland and Eden often mean that a community could have just increased from 30 to 37.

Notable Non-Indigenous Ethnic Communities
 * - 1,600
 * Carlisle - 170
 * Carlisle - 1,470 (Around 1/2 of Cumbria's Mixed Race population - see above)
 * - 390 (60% of Cumbria's Black population - see above)
 * Barrow-in-Furness - 140
 * Barrow-in-Furness - (Most distinct Kosovar community in Britain)
 * Barrow-in-Furness - 120

Places of interest
See also:


 * [[Image:HH icon.png|Historic House]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * [[Image:AP Icon.PNG|Priory]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * [[Image:AP Icon.PNG|Cathedral]]
 * , "Gem" Town
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:NTE icon.png]]
 * [[Image:Museum icon.png|Museum]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * &mdash;
 * [[Image:NTE icon.png|County Park]]
 * [[Image:AP Icon.PNG|Abbey]]
 * [[Image:Museum icon.png|Museum]]
 * [[Image:HH icon.png|Historic House]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:UKAL icon.png]]
 * [[Image:HR icon.png|heritage railway]]
 * and Brief Encounters Cafe
 * (the lake)
 * [[Image:HH icon.png|Historic House]]
 * The former site of the Beast Banks post office in.
 * [[Image:Museum icon (red).png|Museum]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * [[Image:Museum icon.png|Museum]]
 * &mdash; [[Image:HR icon.png|Heritage Railway]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:NTE icon.png]]
 * [[Image:NTE icon.png|County Park]]
 * [[Image:AP Icon.PNG|Abbey]]
 * [[Image:Museum icon.png|Museum]]
 * [[Image:HH icon.png|Historic House]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:UKAL icon.png]]
 * [[Image:HR icon.png|heritage railway]]
 * and Brief Encounters Cafe
 * (the lake)
 * [[Image:HH icon.png|Historic House]]
 * The former site of the Beast Banks post office in.
 * [[Image:Museum icon (red).png|Museum]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * [[Image:Museum icon.png|Museum]]
 * &mdash; [[Image:HR icon.png|Heritage Railway]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:NTE icon.png]]
 * [[Image:HR icon.png|heritage railway]]
 * and Brief Encounters Cafe
 * (the lake)
 * [[Image:HH icon.png|Historic House]]
 * The former site of the Beast Banks post office in.
 * [[Image:Museum icon (red).png|Museum]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * [[Image:Museum icon.png|Museum]]
 * &mdash; [[Image:HR icon.png|Heritage Railway]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:NTE icon.png]]
 * [[Image:Museum icon (red).png|Museum]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:EH icon.png]]
 * [[Image:Museum icon.png|Museum]]
 * &mdash; [[Image:HR icon.png|Heritage Railway]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:NTE icon.png]]
 * [[Image:Museum icon.png|Museum]]
 * &mdash; [[Image:HR icon.png|Heritage Railway]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:NTE icon.png]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:NTE icon.png]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:NTE icon.png]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:NTE icon.png]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:NTE icon.png]]
 * [[Image:CL icon.PNG|Castle]] [[Image:NTE icon.png]]