99-547: Rheged ( Welsh pronunciation: [ˈr̥ɛɡɛd] ) was one of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd ("Old North"), the Brittonic -speaking region of what is now Northern England and southern Scotland , during the post-Roman era and Early Middle Ages . It is recorded in several poetic and bardic sources, although its borders are not described in any of them. A recent archaeological discovery suggests that its stronghold
198-498: A Labour majority administration since the 2022 Cumberland Council election , and Westmorland and Furness has had a Liberal Democrat majority administration since the 2022 Westmorland and Furness Council election . Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council collaborate through a Joint Executive Committee and the Enterprising Cumbria Economic Growth Body. In September 2024,
297-598: A vitrified fort near Gatehouse of Fleet , and the analysis of its artefacts in the context of other sites and their artefacts have led to claims that the kingdom was centred on Galloway early in the 7th century. Interpretations of another place-name, with even less certainty, indicate that Rheged could also have reached as far south as Rochdale in Greater Manchester , recorded in the Domesday Book as Recedham . The River Roch on which Rochdale stands
396-423: A "capital", but it was not the bureaucratic administrative centre of modern society, nor the settlement or civitas of Roman rule. As the ruler and protector of his kingdom, the king would maintain multiple courts throughout his territory, travelling among them to exercise his authority and to address the needs of his people, such as in the dispensing of justice. This ancient method of dispensing justice survived as
495-495: A Northumbrian partisan and spoke with prejudice against the native Britons, his Ecclesiastical History of the English People is highly regarded for its effort towards an accurate telling of history, and for its use of reliable sources. When passing along "traditional" information that lacks a historical foundation, Bede takes care to note it as such. The De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae by Gildas (c. 516–570)
594-581: A descendant of one of Magnus Maximus ' generals, Paternus, who Maximus appointed as commander at Alt Clut. The Welsh and the Men of the North may have seen themselves as one people. The Welsh name for themselves, Cymry , derives from this ancient relationship, although this is debatable, as while Gwynedd seemed to have good relationships with them, and with Ceredigion, it is unknown how the other Welsh Kingdoms saw them, since they were not unified themselves, especially
693-459: A large upland area which has been designated a national park and UNESCO world heritage site . It includes Scafell Pike , England's highest mountain, and Windermere , its longest and largest lake. The county has long coast to the west, which is bordered by a plain for most of its length. In the north-west it borders the Solway Firth , a national landscape, and the southern coast includes
792-489: A line, perhaps of kings, descended from Cynfarch Oer's brother: Elidir Lydanwyn. According to Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd Elidir's son, Llywarch Hen , was a ruler in North Britain in the 6th century. He was driven from his territory by princely in-fighting after Urien's death and was perhaps in old age associated with Powys . However, it is possible, because of internal inconsistencies, that the poetry connected to Powys
891-625: A literary convenience. The Iolo Manuscripts are a collection of manuscripts presented in the early 19th century by Edward Williams, who is better known as Iolo Morganwg . Containing various tales, anecdotal material and elaborate genealogies that connect virtually everyone of note with everyone else of note (and with many connections to Arthur and Iolo's native region of Morgannwg ), they were at first accepted as genuine, but have since been shown to be an assortment of forged or doctored manuscripts, transcriptions, and fantasies, mainly invented by Iolo himself. A list of works tainted by their reliance on
990-634: A number of early Welsh poems and royal genealogies. His victories over the Anglian chieftains of Bernicia in the second half of the 6th century are recorded by Nennius and celebrated by the bard Taliesin , who calls him "Ruler of Rheged". He is thus placed squarely in the North of Britain and perhaps specifically in Westmorland when referred to as "Ruler of Llwyfenydd" (identified with the Lyvennet Valley ). Later legend associates Urien with
1089-545: A part of royal procedure until the reforms of Henry II (reigned 1154–1189) modernised the administration of law. Modern scholarship uses the term "Cumbric" for the Brittonic language spoken in the Hen Ogledd. It appears to have been very closely related to Old Welsh , with some local variances, and more distantly related to Cornish , Breton and the pre-Gaelic form of Pictish . There are no surviving texts written in
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#17327835755891188-603: A shooting spree that spanned over 24 kilometres (15 mi) along the Cumbrian coastline. Local newspapers The Westmorland Gazette and Cumberland and Westmorland Herald continue to use the name of their historic counties. Other publications, such as local government promotional material, describe the area as "Cumbria", as does the Lake District National Park Authority. Cumbria is the most northwesterly ceremonial county of England and
1287-558: A traditional version of football, with its origins in medieval football or an even earlier form. Players from outside Workington also take part, especially fellow West Cumbrians from Whitehaven and Maryport . Cumbria formerly had minor American football clubs, the Furness Phantoms (the club is now defunct, its last name was Morecambe Bay Storm ) and the Carlisle Kestrels. Barrow and Carlisle United are
1386-794: Is a very popular sport in south and West Cumbria. Barrow , Whitehaven and Workington play in the Rugby League Championships . Amateur teams; Wath Brow Hornets, Askam , Egremont Rangers , Kells , Barrow Island, Hensingham and Millom play in the National Conference . Cumbria County Cricket Club is one of the cricket clubs that constitute the National Counties in the English domestic cricket structure. The club, based in Carlisle , competes in
1485-527: Is at present the only university in Cumbria and has campuses across the county, together with Lancaster and London. The M6 is the only motorway that runs through Cumbria. Kendal and Penrith are amongst its primary destinations. Further north it becomes the A74(M) at the border with Scotland north of Carlisle . Major A roads within Cumbria include: Several bus companies run services in Cumbria serving
1584-572: Is disparaged as pseudohistory , though it looms large as a source for the largely fictional chivalric romance stories known collectively as the Matter of Britain . The lack of historical value attributed to the Historia lies only partly in the fact that it contains so many fictions and falsifications of history; the fact that historical accuracy clearly was not a consideration in its creation makes any references to actual people and places no more than
1683-473: Is mostly mountainous, with large upland areas to the south-west and east. The south-west contains the Lake District , a national park and UNESCO world heritage site which includes Scafell Pike , England's highest mountain at 978 metres (3,209 ft), and Windermere , its longest and largest lake. The Border Moors and North Pennines lie along the county's eastern border. The south-east contains
1782-632: Is occasionally relevant in that it mentions early people and places also mentioned in the literary and historical sources. The work was intended to preach Christianity to Gildas' contemporaries and was not meant to be a history. It is one of the few contemporary accounts of his era to have survived. Brittonic place names in Scotland south of the Forth and Clyde, and in Cumberland and neighbouring counties, indicate areas of Hen Ogledd inhabited by Britons in
1881-493: Is possible that it was a peaceful takeover, both kingdoms being inherited by the same man. After Rheged was incorporated into Northumbria , the old Cumbric language was gradually replaced by Old English , Cumbric surviving only in remote upland communities. Around the year 900, after the power of Northumbria was destroyed by Viking incursions and settlement, large areas west of the Pennines fell without apparent warfare under
1980-402: Is reliably known. These sources are not without deficiencies. Both the authors and their later transcribers sometimes displayed a partisanship that promoted their own interests, portraying their own agendas in a positive light, always on the side of justice and moral rectitude. Facts in opposition to those agendas are sometimes omitted, and apocryphal entries are sometimes added. While Bede was
2079-576: Is that the name may be a compound of rö- , a prefix meaning "great", and cę:d meaning "wood, forest" (c.f. Welsh coed ) although the expected form in Welsh would be *Rhygoed . If association of the name with cę:d is correct, the prefix may be rag- , meaning "before, adjacent to, opposite". Derivation from the element reg , which with the suffix -ed has connotations of "generosity", is another possibility. The name Rheged appears regularly as an epithet of Urien (a late 6th-century king of Rheged) in
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#17327835755892178-522: Is tourism, with the county attracting over 47 million visitors annually. The Lake District National Park alone receives some 15.8 million visitors every year. Despite this, fewer than 50,000 people reside permanently within the Lake District: mostly in Ambleside , Bowness-on-Windermere , Coniston , Keswick , Gosforth , Grasmere and Windermere . Over 36,000 Cumbrians are employed in
2277-608: Is unknown whether or not they refer to British kingdoms and regions of the Hen Ogledd . Cumbria Cumbria ( / ˈ k ʌ m b r i ə / KUM -bree-ə ) is a ceremonial county in North West England . It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancashire to
2376-576: The Cartmel and Furness peninsulas. East of the peninsulas, the county contains part of Arnside and Silverdale another national landscape The county contains several Neolithic monuments, such as Mayburgh Henge . The region was on the border of Roman Britain , and Hadrian's Wall runs through the north of the county. In the Early Middle Ages parts of the region successively belonged to Rheged , Northumbria , and Strathclyde , and there
2475-819: The Conference North . Barrow were then promoted to the Conference Premier in 2007/08. In 2020, Barrow were promoted to the Football League as a result of winning the National League . Rugby union is popular in the county's north and east with teams such as Furness RUFC & Hawcoat Park RUFC (South Cumbria), Workington RUFC (Workington Zebras), Whitehaven RUFC, Carlisle RUFC, Creighton RUFC, Aspatria RUFC , Wigton RUFC, Kendal RUFC , Kirkby Lonsdale RUFC, Keswick RUFC, Cockermouth RUFC, Upper Eden RUFC and Penrith RUFC . Rugby league
2574-461: The Cymry ), and in the English county name Cumbria , both meaning "homeland", "mother country". Many of the traditional sources of information about the Hen Ogledd survive in Welsh tradition, and bards such as Aneirin (the reputed author of Y Gododdin ) are thought to have been court poets in the Hen Ogledd. A listing of passages from the literary and historical sources, particularly relevant to
2673-642: The Furness Line and much of the Settle-Carlisle Railway . Cumbria's largest settlement and only city is Carlisle , in the north of the county. The largest town, Barrow-in-Furness , in the south, is slightly smaller. The county's population is largely rural: it has the second-lowest population density among English counties, and only five towns with over 20,000 people. Cumbria is one of the country's most ethnically homogeneous counties, with 95% categorised as White British (around 471,000 of
2772-574: The Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata to the northwest. All of these peoples would play a role in the history of the Old North. From a historical perspective, wars were frequently internecine, and Britons were aggressors as well as defenders, as was also true of the Angles, Picts, and Gaels . However, those Welsh stories of the Hen Ogledd that tell of Britons fighting Anglians have a counterpart, told from
2871-625: The Lake Poets . The place names Cumbria and Cumberland both mean "land of the Cumbrians" and are names derived from the term that had been used by the inhabitants of the area to describe themselves. In the period c. 400 – c. 1100 , it is likely that any group of people living in Britain who identified as 'Britons' called themselves by a name similar to 'Cum-ri' which means "fellow countrymen" (and has also survived in
2970-545: The Lakes Aquarium and South Lakes Safari Zoo , the last of which would almost certainly rank within the top five). Cumbria is governed by two unitary authorities, Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council. The Cumberland unitary authority area covers the north and west of Cumbria, and Westmorland and Furness the south and east; they are named after the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland , but have different boundaries. Cumberland has had
3069-832: The National Counties Cricket Championship and the NCCA Knockout Trophy . The club also play some home matches in Workington , as well as other locations. Cumbrian club cricket teams play in the North Lancashire and Cumbria League . Cumbria is home to the Cartmel Valley Lions , an amateur baseball team based in Cartmel. Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling is an ancient and well-practised tradition in
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3168-656: The Orton Fells , Howgill Fells and part of the Yorkshire Dales , which are all within the Yorkshire Dales national park . The Vale of Eden , the valley of the River Eden , runs south-east to north-west between these upland areas, and broadens into the Solway Plain near Carlisle. The county has long coast to the west, which is bordered by a plain for most of its length. In the north-west it borders
3267-668: The Roman Empire had conquered in about AD 85. Based on inscriptional evidence from the area, the Roman civitas of the Carvetii seems to have covered portions of Cumbria. The names Cumbria , Cymru (the native Welsh name for Wales ), Cambria , and Cumberland are derived from the name these people gave themselves, * kombroges in Common Brittonic , which originally meant "compatriots". Although Cumbria
3366-584: The Romantic movement , such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge , lived among, and were inspired by, the lakes and mountains of the region. Later, the children's writer Beatrix Potter also wrote in the region and became a major landowner, granting much of her property to the National Trust on her death. In turn, the large amount of land owned by the National Trust assisted in
3465-610: The Solway Firth , a national landscape , and to the south are the Cartmel and Furness peninsulas. East of the peninsulas, the county contains part of Arnside and Silverdale , also a national landscape. The Lancaster Canal runs from Preston into southern Cumbria and is partly in use. The Ulverston Canal which once reached to Morecambe Bay is maintained although it was closed in 1945. The northernmost and southernmost points in Cumbria are just west of Deadwater, Northumberland and South Walney respectively. Kirkby Stephen (close to Tan Hill, North Yorkshire ) and St Bees Head are
3564-782: The Southwestern Brittonic languages . In general, however, the differences appear to be slight, and the distinction between Cumbric and Old Welsh is largely geographical rather than linguistic. Cumbric gradually disappeared as the area was conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, and later the Scots and Norse , though it survived in the Kingdom of Strathclyde , centred at Alt Clut in what is now Dumbarton in Scotland. Kenneth H. Jackson suggested that it re-emerged in Cumbria in
3663-580: The University of Oxford 's People of the British Isles project, the original population of Rheged has left a distinct genetic heritage amongst the people of Cumbria. The research compared the DNA of over 2000 people across the British Isles whose grandparents were all born within 50 miles (80 km) of each other, and found a number of cases, including Rheged, where genetic clusters of people matched
3762-607: The Welsh Triads . Almost nothing is reliably known of Central Britain before c. 550 . There had never been a period of long-term, effective Roman control north of the Tyne – Solway line, and south of that line effective Roman control began to erode before the traditionally given date of departure of the Roman military from Roman Britain in 407. It was noted in the writings of Ammianus Marcellinus and others that there
3861-474: The 10th century, as Strathclyde established hegemony over that area. It is unknown when Cumbric finally became extinct, but the series of counting systems of Brittonic origin recorded in Northern England since the 18th century have been proposed as evidence of a survival of elements of Cumbric; though the view has been largely rejected on linguistic grounds, with evidence pointing to the fact that it
3960-484: The 500,000). The larger towns have ethnic makeups closer to the national average. The 2001 census indicated Christianity was the religion with the most adherents in the county. 2010 ONS estimates placed the number of foreign-born (non-United Kingdom) people living in Cumbria at around 14,000 and foreign nationals at 6,000. Population trends indicate a gradual decline in younger demographics, with an increasing proportion of elderly residents. The 2001 UK Census showed
4059-609: The Cumbria coast. The busiest railway stations in Cumbria are Carlisle , Barrow-in-Furness , Penrith and Oxenholme Lake District . The 399 miles (642 km) West Coast Main Line runs through the Cumbria countryside, adjacent to the M6 motorway. The Cumbrian Coast Line connects Barrow-in-Furness to Carlisle and is a vital link in the west of the county. Other railways in Cumbria are the Windermere Branch Line , most of
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4158-834: The Cumbrians is Owain ap Dyfnwal , who ruled from c. 915 – c. 937 . Cumbria was created in April 1974 through an amalgamation of the administrative counties of Cumberland and Westmorland , to which parts of Lancashire (the area known as Lancashire North of the Sands ) and of the West Riding of Yorkshire were added. During the Neolithic period the area contained an important centre of stone axe production (the so-called Langdale axe factory ), products of which have been found across Great Britain. During this period, stone circles and henges were built across
4257-670: The Hen Ogledd, can be found in Sir Edward Anwyl 's article Wales and the Britons of the North . A somewhat dated introduction to the study of old Welsh poetry can be found in his 1904 article Prolegomena to the Study of Old Welsh Poetry . Stories praising a patron and the construction of flattering genealogies are neither unbiased nor reliable sources of historically accurate information. However, while they may exaggerate and make apocryphal assertions, they do not falsify or change
4356-551: The Liberal Democrats. The 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies abolished Copeland, Workington, and Penrith and the Border, replacing them with the new constituencies of Penrith and Solway and Whitehaven and Workington . The three remaining constituencies underwent significant boundary changes, including some electoral wards being transferred from Westmorland and Lonsdale to Morecambe and Lunesdale , making
4455-471: The Men of the North during the early 7th century (and possibly earlier), and was used throughout the Middle Ages to describe the Kingdom of Strathclyde . Before this, and for some centuries after, the traditional as well as the more literary term was Brythoniaid , recalling the still older time when all on the island remained a unity. Cymry survives today in the native name for Wales ( Cymru , land of
4554-678: The North Lonsdale or Furness part of Lancashire , usually referred to as "Lancashire North of the Sands", (including the county borough of Barrow-in-Furness ) and, from the West Riding of Yorkshire , the Sedbergh Rural District . Between 1974 and 2023 it was governed by Cumbria County Council but in 2023 the county council was abolished and replaced by two new unitary authorities Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council. On 2 June 2010, taxi driver Derrick Bird killed 12 people and injured 11 others in
4653-614: The Northumbrian and Pictish royal families would produce the Pictish king Talorgan I . Áedán mac Gabráin fought as an ally of the Britons against the Northumbrians. Cadwallon ap Cadfan of the Kingdom of Gwynedd allied with Penda of Mercia to defeat Edwin of Northumbria . Conquest and defeat did not necessarily mean the extirpation of one culture and its replacement by another. The Brittonic region of northwestern England
4752-410: The Welsh name for Wales which is Cymru ). The first datable record of the place name as Cumberland is from an entry in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle for the year AD 945. This record refers to a kingdom known to the Anglo Saxons as Cumberland (often also known as Strathclyde) which in the 10th century may have stretched from Loch Lomond to Leeds. The first king to be unequivocally described as king of
4851-590: The city of Carlisle (the Roman Luguvalium ), only twenty-five miles away; Higham suggests that Rheged was "broadly conterminous with the earlier Civitas Carvetiorum , the Roman administrative unit based on Carlisle". Although it is possible that Rheged was merely a stronghold, it was not uncommon for sub-Roman monarchs to use their kingdom's name as an epithet. Place-name evidence, e.g., Dunragit (possibly "Fort of Rheged") suggests that, at least in one period of its history, Rheged included Dumfries and Galloway . Recent archaeological excavations at Trusty's Hill ,
4950-413: The control of the British Kingdom of Strathclyde , with Leeds recorded as being on the border between the Britons and the Norse Kingdom of York . This may have represented the political assertion of lingering British culture in the region. The area of Cumbria remained under the control of Strathclyde until the early 11th century when Strathclyde itself was absorbed into the Scottish kingdom. The name of
5049-417: The county and broadens into the Solway Plain near Carlisle. To the north-east are part of the Border Moors and to the east part of the North Pennines ; the latter have been designated a national landscape . South of the vale are the Orton Fells , Howgill Fells , and part of the Yorkshire Dales , which are all within the Yorkshire Dales national park . The south-west contains the Lake District ,
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#17327835755895148-430: The county comprises two unitary authority areas, Westmorland and Furness and Cumberland . Cumbria was created in 1974 from the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland , the Furness area of Lancashire, and a small part of Yorkshire . The interior of Cumbria contains several upland areas which together fringe the Vale of Eden , the wide valley of the River Eden which runs south-east to north-west across
5247-486: The county with a strong resemblance to Scottish Backhold . In the 21st century Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling along with other aspects of Lakeland culture are practised at the Grasmere Sports and Show, an annual meeting held every year since 1852 on the August Bank Holiday . 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
5346-414: The county, and today, Cumbria has one of the largest number of preserved field monuments in England'. While not part of the region conquered in the Romans' initial conquest of Britain in AD 43, most of modern-day Cumbria was later conquered in response to a revolt deposing the Roman-aligned ruler of the Brigantes in AD 69. The Romans built a number of fortifications in the area during their occupation,
5445-481: The destruction of the Brittonic kingdoms of the north. Welsh tradition included genealogies of the Gwŷr y Gogledd , or Men of the North, and several important Welsh dynasties traced their lineage to them. A number of important early Welsh texts were attributed to the Men of the North, such as Taliesin , Aneirin , Myrddin Wyllt , and the Cynfeirdd poets. Heroes of the north such as Urien , Owain mab Urien , and Coel Hen and his descendants feature in Welsh poetry and
5544-408: The dialect; evidence for it comes from placenames, proper names in a few early inscriptions and later non-Cumbric sources, two terms in the Leges inter Brettos et Scottos , and the corpus of poetry by the cynfeirdd , the "early poets", nearly all of which deals with the north. The cynfeirdd poetry is the largest source of information, and it is generally accepted that some part of the corpus
5643-400: The dynamic political situation of the region. There were at least three sieges of Carlisle fought between England and Scotland, and two further sieges during the Jacobite risings . After the Jacobite Risings of the 18th century, Cumbria became a more stable place and, as in the rest of Northern England , the Industrial Revolution caused a large growth in urban populations. In particular,
5742-475: The early Middle Ages. Isolated locations of later British presence are also indicated by place names of Old English and Old Norse origin. In Yorkshire, the names of Walden , Walton and Walburn , from Old English walas "Britons or Welshmen", indicate Britons encountered by the Anglo-Saxons, and the name of Birkby , from Old Norse Breta "Britons", indicates a place where the Vikings met Britons. The Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth
5841-471: The family of Llywarch and Urien with Powys has suggested to some, on grounds of proximity, that the area of modern Lancashire may have been their original home. After Bernicia united with Deira to become the kingdom of Northumbria , Rheged was annexed by Northumbria, some time before AD 730. There was a royal marriage between Prince (later King) Oswiu of Northumbria and the Rhegedian princess Rieinmelth , granddaughter of Rum (Rhun), probably in 638, so it
5940-412: The fellow Brittonic Celtic Kingdom of Elmet , in Yorkshire . Its population spoke a variety of the Brittonic language known as Cumbric which is closely related to, if not a dialect of Old Welsh . The people of Wales and the Hen Ogledd considered themselves to be one people, and both were referred to as Cymry ('fellow-countrymen') from the Brittonic word combrogi . The Hen Ogledd was distinct from
6039-430: The following most common countries of birth for residents of Cumbria that year: Fell running is a popular sport in Cumbria, with an active calendar of competitions taking place throughout the year. Cumbria is also home to several of the most active orienteering clubs in the UK as well as the Lakes 5 Days competition that takes place every four years. Workington is home to the ball game known as Uppies and Downies,
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#17327835755896138-433: The formation in 1951 of the Lake District National Park , which remains the largest National Park in England and has come to dominate the identity and economy of the county. The Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident in Great Britain's history. Cumbria was created in 1974 from the traditional counties of Cumberland and Westmorland , the Cumberland County Borough of Carlisle , along with
6237-436: The historical facts that were known to the bards' listeners, as that would bring ridicule and disrepute to both the bards and their patrons. In addition, the existence of stories of defeat and tragedy , as well as stories of victory, lends additional credibility to their value as sources of history. Within that context, the stories contain useful information, much of it incidental, about an era of British history where very little
6336-432: The kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd except Strathclyde were gradually either integrated or subsumed by the emerging Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Gaelic Scots and fellow Brittonic Picts by about 800; Strathclyde was eventually incorporated into the rising Middle Irish -speaking Kingdom of Scotland in the 11th century. The memory of the Hen Ogledd remained strong in Wales after its fall, and indeed the term came into being in Wales after
6435-465: The largest private employer in Cumbria, BAE Systems in Barrow employs around 12,000 with further job growth associated with new contracts expected, the Sellafield nuclear processing site, has a workforce of 10,000. Below is a list of some of the county's largest companies and employers (excluding services such as Cumbria Constabulary , Cumbria Fire and Rescue and the NHS in Cumbria), categorised by district. The largest and most widespread industry
6534-545: The latter a cross-county constituency (it had previously been exclusively in Lancashire ). Michelle Scrogham Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are strongest in rural areas, and Labour is strongest in the industrial towns. Although Cumbria has a comprehensive system almost fully, there is one state grammar school in Penrith. There are 42 state secondary schools and 10 independent schools. The more rural secondary schools tend to have sixth forms (although in Barrow-in-Furness district, no schools have sixth forms due to
6633-400: The location of historical kingdoms (other examples included Bernicia and Elmet ). Hen Ogledd Yr Hen Ogledd ( Welsh pronunciation: [ər ˌheːn ˈɔɡlɛð] ), meaning the Old North , is the historical region that was inhabited by the Brittonic people of sub-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages , now Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands , alongside
6732-557: The main towns and villages in the county, with some services running to neighbouring areas such as Lancaster . Stagecoach North West is the largest; it has depots in Barrow-in-Furness, Carlisle, Kendal and Workington. Stagecoach's flagship X6 route connects Barrow-in-Furness and Kendal in south Cumbria. There are only two airports in the county: Carlisle Lake District and Barrow/Walney Island . Both airports formerly served scheduled passenger flights and both are proposing expansions and renovations to handle domestic and European flights in
6831-486: The material presented by Iolo (sometimes without attribution) would be quite long. Places in the Old North that are mentioned as kingdoms in the literary and historical sources include: Several regions are mentioned in the sources, assumed to be notable regions within one of the kingdoms if not separate kingdoms themselves: Kingdoms that were not part of the Old North but are part of its history include: The following names appear in historical and literary sources, but it
6930-593: The most easterly and westerly points of the county. The boundaries are along the Irish Sea to Morecambe Bay in the west, and along the Pennines to the east. Cumbria's northern boundary stretches from the Solway Firth from the Solway Plain eastward along the border with Scotland . Cumbria is bordered by Northumberland , County Durham , North Yorkshire , Lancashire in England, and Dumfries and Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale in Scotland. Many large companies and organisations are based in Cumbria. The county council itself employs around 17,000 individuals, while
7029-406: The most famous being UNESCO World Heritage Site Hadrian's Wall which passes through northern Cumbria. At the end of the period of British history known as Roman Britain ( c. AD 410 ) the inhabitants of Cumbria were Cumbric -speaking native Celtic Britons who were probably descendants of the Brigantes and Carvetii (sometimes considered to be a sub-tribe of the Brigantes) that
7128-641: The near future. The nearest international airports to south Cumbria are Blackpool , Manchester , Liverpool John Lennon and Teesside . North Cumbria is closer to Newcastle , Glasgow Prestwick and Glasgow International . Barrow-in-Furness is one of the country's largest shipbuilding centres, but the Port of Barrow is only minor, operated by Associated British Ports alongside the Port of Silloth in Allerdale. There are no ferry links from any port or harbour along
7227-510: The only professional football teams in Cumbria. Carlisle United attract support from across Cumbria and beyond, with many Cumbrian "ex-pats" travelling to see their games, both home and away. Workington —who are always known locally as "the reds"—are a well-supported non-league team, having been relegated from the Football League in the 1970s. Workington made a rapid rise up the non league ladder and in 2007/08 competed with Barrow in
7326-529: The only sixth form college in Cumbria being located in the town) and this is the same for three schools in Allerdale and South Lakeland, and one in the other districts. Chetwynde is also the only school in Barrow to educate children from nursery all the way to year 11. Colleges of further education in Cumbria include: The University of Cumbria is one of the UK's newest universities, having been established in 2007. It
7425-562: The opposite side. The story of the demise of the kingdoms of the Old North is the story of the rise of the Kingdom of Northumbria from two coastal kingdoms to become the premier power in Britain north of the Humber and south of the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth . The interests of kingdoms of this era were not restricted to their immediate vicinity. Alliances were not made only within
7524-536: The origins of the Old King Cole of folk tradition), who is considered by many to be a mythical figure; if he has some historicity, he may have ruled a considerable part of the North in the early 5th century. All of those listed below may have ruled in Rheged, but only three of their number can be verified from external sources: There are two possible later kings of Rheged : A second royal genealogy exists for
7623-553: The parts of Great Britain inhabited by the Picts , Anglo-Saxons , and Scoti . The major kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd were Elmet , Gododdin , Rheged , and the Kingdom of Strathclyde (Welsh: Ystrad Clud ). Smaller kingdoms included Aeron and Calchfynydd . Eidyn , Lleuddiniawn , and Manaw Gododdin were evidently parts of Gododdin. The later Anglian kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia both had Brittonic-derived names, suggesting they may have been Brittonic kingdoms originally. All
7722-512: The people, whose modern Welsh form is Cymry has, however, survived in the name of Cumberland and now Cumbria ; it probably derives from an old Celtic word * Kombroges meaning "fellow countrymen". Previously, Rheged was assumed to have been centred somewhere in Cumbria, northwest England. However, in 2012 archaeologists found evidence at Trusty's Hill near the town of Gatehouse of Fleet , in Galloway, southwest Scotland, suggesting that
7821-569: The same ethnic groups, nor were enmities restricted to nearby different ethnic groups. An alliance of Britons fought against another alliance of Britons at the Battle of Arfderydd . Áedán mac Gabráin of Dál Riata appears in the Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd , a genealogy among the pedigrees of the Men of the North. The Historia Brittonum states that Oswiu , king of Northumbria, married a Briton who may have had some Pictish ancestry. A marriage between
7920-461: The site may in fact have been Rheged's capital c. 600 AD . The discovery was announced to the public in January 2017 and the site is still under excavation. One of the lead researchers, Ronan Toolis, stated that their findings revealed structural ruins atop the hill. These originally belonged to a fortification system with a timber-reinforced stone rampart where the main fortification
8019-591: The south, and the Irish Sea to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Carlisle . Cumbria is predominantly rural, with an area of 6,769 km (2,614 sq mi) and a population of 500,012; this makes it the third largest ceremonial county in England by area but the eighth-smallest by population. After Carlisle (74,281), the largest settlements are Barrow-in-Furness (56,745), Kendal (29,593), and Whitehaven (23,986). For local government purposes
8118-609: The southern Kingdoms like Dyfed and Ystrad Tywi , which had heavy Irish presence at the time. 'Cymry' was a term that referred to both the Welsh and the Men of the North but was sometimes applied to others such as the Picts and the Irish as well. It is derived from the Brittonic word c ombrogoi , which meant "fellow-countrymen", and it is worth noting in passing that its Breton counterpart kenvroiz still has this original meaning of "compatriots". The word began to be used as an endonym by
8217-775: The sovereign, exercises some rights of the Crown in the County Palatine of Lancaster, which includes the Furness area of Cumbria. Until the 2024 general election , there were six parliamentary constituencies in Cumbria: Barrow and Furness , Carlisle , Copeland , Penrith and the Border , Westmorland and Lonsdale , and Workington . Five were won by the Conservative Party in the 2019 United Kingdom general election , with Westmorland and Lonsdale won by
8316-478: The tourism industry which adds £1.1 billion a year to the county's economy. The Lake District and county as a whole attract visitors from across the UK, Europe, North America and the Far East (particularly Japan). The tables below show the twenty most-visited attractions in Cumbria in 2009. (Not all visitor attractions provided data to Cumbria Tourism who collated the list. Notable examples are Furness Abbey ,
8415-419: The two councils submitted an expression of interest to form a combined authority . Between 1974 and 2023 Cumbria was administered by Cumbria County Council and six district councils : Allerdale , Barrow-in-Furness , Carlisle , Copeland , Eden , and South Lakeland . These were abolished on 1 April 2023, when the two unitary authorities were established. The Duchy of Lancaster , the private estate of
8514-412: The west coast towns of Workington , Millom and Barrow-in-Furness saw large iron and steel mills develop, with Barrow also developing a significant shipbuilding industry. Kendal , Keswick and Carlisle all became mill towns , with textiles, pencils and biscuits among the products manufactured in the region. The early 19th century saw the county gain fame when the Lake Poets and other artists of
8613-474: Was a principality in the Kingdom of Scotland at the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and thus was excluded from the Domesday Book survey of 1086. In 1092 the region was invaded by William II and incorporated into England. Nevertheless, the region was dominated by the many Anglo-Scottish Wars of the latter Middle Ages and early modern period and the associated Border Reivers who exploited
8712-452: Was absorbed by Anglian Northumbria in the 7th century, yet it would reemerge 300 years later as South Cumbria, joined with North Cumbria (Strathclyde) into a single state. The organisation of the Men of the North was tribal , based on kinship groups of extended families, owing allegiance to a dominant "royal" family, sometimes indirectly through client relationships, and receiving protection in return. For Celtic peoples, this organisation
8811-482: Was also "Ruler of Catraeth " ( Catterick in North Yorkshire ). It is accepted by most scholars, therefore, that Rheged was a kingdom covering a large part of modern Cumbria as well as areas of Dumfries and Galloway and extended, for some of its history, into present day Yorkshire. The traditional royal genealogy of Urien and his successors traces their ancestry back to Coel Hen (considered by some to be
8910-710: Was also a Viking presence. It became the border between England and Scotland, and was unsettled until the Union of the Crowns in 1603. During the Industrial Revolution mining took place on the Cumberland coalfield and Barrow-in-Furness became a shipbuilding centre, but the county was not heavily industrialised and the Lake District became valued for its sublime and picturesque qualities, notably by
9009-406: Was associated with Llywarch's name at a later, probably 9th century, date. Llywarch is referred to in some poems as king of South Rheged, and in others as king of Argoed, suggesting that the two regions were the same. Searching for Llywarch's kingdom has led some historians to propose that Rheged may have been divided between sons, resulting in northern and southern successor states. The connections of
9108-578: Was ever-decreasing Roman control from about 100 onward, and in the years after 360 there was widespread disorder and the large-scale permanent abandonment of territory by the Romans. By 550, the region was controlled by native Brittonic -speaking peoples except for the eastern coastal areas, which were controlled by the Anglian peoples of Bernicia and Deira . To the north were the Picts (now also accepted as Brittonic speakers prior to Gaelicisation) with
9207-533: Was first composed in the Hen Ogledd. However, it survives entirely in later manuscripts created in Wales where the oral tradition continued on, and it is unknown how faithful they are to the originals. Still, the texts do contain discernible variances that distinguish the speech from the Welsh dialects. In particular, these texts contain a number of archaisms – features that appear to have once been common in all Brittonic varieties, but which later vanished from Welsh and
9306-492: Was imported to England after the Old English era. One of the traditional stories relating to the genealogies of Welsh dynasties derived from Cunedda and his sons as "Men of the North". Cunedda himself is held to be the progenitor of the royal dynasty of the Kingdom of Gwynedd, one of the largest and most powerful of the medieval Welsh kingdoms, and an ongoing connection to the Hen Ogledd. Cunedda's genealogy shows him as
9405-533: Was located in what is now Galloway in Scotland rather than, as was previously speculated, being in Cumbria . Rheged possibly extended into Lancashire and other parts of northern England. In some sources, Rheged is intimately associated with the king Urien Rheged and his family. Its inhabitants spoke Cumbric , a Brittonic dialect closely related to Old Welsh . The origin of the name Rheged has been described as "problematic". One Brittonic -language solution
9504-565: Was previously believed to have formed the core of the Early Middle Ages Brittonic kingdom of Rheged , more recent discoveries near Galloway appear to contradict this. For the rest of the first millennium, Cumbria was contested by several entities who warred over the area, including the Brythonic Celtic Kingdom of Strathclyde and the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria . Most of modern-day Cumbria
9603-443: Was recorded in the 13th century as Rached or Rachet . Such names may derive from Old English reced "hall or house". However, no other place names originating from this Old English element exist, which makes this derivation unlikely. If they are not of English origin, these place-names may incorporate the element 'Rheged' precisely because they lay on or near its borders. Certainly Urien's kingdom stretched eastward at one time, as he
9702-685: Was still in effect hundreds of years later, as shown in the Irish Brehon law , the Welsh Laws of Hywel Dda , and the Scottish Laws of the Brets and Scots . The Anglo-Saxon law had culturally different origins, but with many similarities to Celtic law . Like Celtic law, it was based on cultural tradition, without any perceivable debt to the Roman occupation of Britain. A primary royal court ( Welsh : llys ) would be maintained as
9801-400: Was supplemented by smaller defensive works along the low-lying slopes. According to Toolis, this suggests the presence of a royal stronghold of the period: " This is a type of fort that has been recognized in Scotland as a form of high status secular settlement of the early medieval period. The evidence makes a compelling case for Galloway being the core of the kingdom of Rheged. " According to
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