A brief history of Cumbria

Cumbria is located in the North West of England.place names.
The County boundary is naturally defined by theThe disputed ownership of Cumbria and the
Irish Sea to the West, from the Solway Firth tofrequently military assaults that took place in the
Morecambe Bay, with the Scottish border to theregion between the 11th and 14th centuries
north and the Pennine hills to the east.meant that the purely civil system of
In it's history Cumbria has been a fortified andadministration that developed in the rest of the
disputed land.country did not happen. Instead a series of
The Romans used Cumbria as a militarymilitary based baronies formed, at the heart of
mustering area for incursions into Scotland, andwhich was a string of Castles. Political control of
also to protect more southerly settlements.the area by the English was strengthened by
Roman fortification culminated in the constructionreligion and the establishment of the diocese of
of Hadrian's Wall, an 80 mile long defensiveCarlise in the 12th century, even so sporadic raids
structure with forts, ditches, encampments andstill continued over the next few hundred years.
watch towers. Hadrian's Wall runs from NewcastleThese turbulent times for Cumbria left it
upon Tyne in the East to Bowness on Solway insomewhat isolated from the rest of the country
the west, effectively connecting these twoboth economically and culturally. The mountainous
coasts, separating England from Scotland and wasterrain further isolated the region from industrial
built between AD122 and AD138.development as building canals was difficult, and
The Romans left England and Cumbria in the 5throad transportation was poor relying for a long
Century, leaving the county to an influx oftime on pack animals. However the western sea
Anglo-Saxon immigrants which in the end droveports offered a means of transporting goods to
the indigenous population of Celts out of thethe rest of England and the World. Cumbria being
fertile lowland plains.rich in minerals attracted, coal, copper, tin and iron
The 7th to 10th centuries saw rival claims frommining.
Scottish and Anglo-Saxon kings for sovereigntyThe arrival of the railway was arguably the
over much of the county. These battles saw thegreatest factor in ending the social and economic
end of the last of the Celtic Kings, Dunmail in 945.isolation of Cumbria. The first line in the county
During this time the region was also beinglinked Carlise and Newcastle in the 1830's. Not only
colonised by immigrants from Ireland anddid the railways allow the easy export of goods
Scandinavia. This mixture of Celts, Anglo-Saxonsand create jobs, but they also allowed people to
and Scandinavians, as well as the previous Romanvisit.
population gives Cumbria it's diverse array of