Penrith, Cumbria
Encyclopedia
Penrith was an urban district
between 1894 and 1974, when it was merged into Eden District.
The authority's area was coterminous with the civil parish of Penrith although when the council was abolished Penrith became an unparished area
.
The area had previously been an urban sanitary district
presided over by the Local Board of Health.
As well as the town of itself the district also contained the hamlets of Carleton (now a suburb of Penrith), Bowscar, Plumpton Head and part of the village of Eamont Bridge.
The district was divided into 4 wards: North, South, East and West, which remained the basis of local government divisions in the town until the 1990s.
From 1906 the council was based at Penrith Town Hall which had previously been two houses believed to have been designed by Robert Adam
.
In the 1920s Penrith Castle
came into the possession of the council. The grounds were turned into a public park, and Castle Hill or Tyne Close Housing Estate was built nearby. Further pre-war council housing was built at Fair Hill and Castletown and after World War II
at Scaws, Townhead and Pategill.
The district was surrounded on three sides by the Penrith Rural District
; the southern boundary, marked by the River Eamont, was with Westmorland
.
s:
Penrith West which includes Castletown and parts of the town centre and Townhead.
Penrith North: part of the town centre, the New Streets, most of Townhead and the outlying settlements of Roundthorn, Bowscar and Plumpton Head.
Penrith South: Wetheriggs, Castle Hill, a small part of the town centre, part of Eamont Bridge
and part of the Bridge Lane/Victoria Road area.
Penrith East: part of the town centre, Scaws, Carleton Park and Barco
Penrith Carleton (formerly part of Penrith East): Carleton Village, High Carleton, Carleton Heights, Carleton Hall Gardens
Penrith Pategill (also formerly part of Penrith East): Pategill, Carleton Drive/Place, Tynefield Drive/Court and part of Eamont Bridge
.
Penrith West and South wards make up the Penrith West Electoral Division of Cumbria County Council whereas East, Carleton and Pategill wards combine to form Penrith East division. Penrith North, along with the rural Lazonby ward, makes up Penrith North division.
and includes the Gilwilly Industrial Estate and part of the Penrith or Myers Industrial Estate. The area - which was originally built to house workers on the railway line - mostly consists of late 19th and early 20th century housing (mainly terraced) including some council housing but in recent years modern housing developments such as Greystoke Park, Castletown Drive and Castle Park have sprung up.
There was until March 2010 a pub in the suburb, The Castle Inn and in previous years there was a sub-postoffice, Co-op store
and other shops all now closed. Until the 1970s Castletown had its own church
, St Saviour's in Brougham Street which acted as a chapel of ease
to Penrith's parish church
of St Andrew.
The suburb has a community centre
on the recreation ground
at Gilwilly and did until recently hold an annual gala day and parade throughout Penrith. At one time in the mid 20th century elections were held amongst regulars at the Castle pub to find a Mayor of Castletown. There is a long standing rivalry between the Castletown and Townhead districts.
.
The main part of area is built along both sides of the A6 road heading up the hill in the direction of Carlisle. The road is streetnamed as Stricklandgate and Scotland Road but on maps dating before the mid 19th century was just marked as Town Head.
Town Head was one of the 7 townships or constablewicks
that the ancient parish of Penrith was divided into the others were Middlegate, Burrowgate, Dockray and Netherend within the town proper and Plumpton Head and Carleton outside the town.
There are various small businesses in the area including a carpet showroom, pet shop, a fish and chip shop, an Indian restaurant and two petrol filling stations one formerly incorporating a sub-postoffice. (Post Office closed on the 1st August 2008 as part of the nationwide closure program)
) which consists of steep streets of some terraced housing but mainly large detached and semi detached houses mostly laid out in the late 19th century going up the hill. The streets are - from north to south - Graham Street, Wordsworth Street, Lowther Street, and Arthur Street. The term is sometimes extended to include Fell Lane (which is actually the ancient east road from Penrith town centre leading to Langwathby
), and Croft Avenue and Croft Terrace (dating from c.1930). However, the late date of the development of the latter streets place them outwith the traditional definition of the term. At the foot of the streets is Drovers Lane which is sub-divided along its entire length into Wordsworth Terrace, Lowther Terrace, Bath Terrace, Arthur Terrace, Lonsdale Terrace and finally Meeting House Lane. Running along the top of the streets is Beacon Edge from which spectacular views can be seen over the town and towards the Lake District. Until about the turn of the 20th century, Beacon Edge was known as Beacon Road. As well as the streets going up the fellside there are some that connect the streets such as Beacon Street and smaller housing developments in the gaps between the individual streets. The fellside is known to have been used as a burial ground for victims of the many attacks of plague which struck Penrith down the centuries, and there are also areas which still bear the names of the farming which took place in the area. For example, a now wooded enclosed area on Fell Lane is still known as 'the Pinfold' (or Pinny) and was used to house stray animals until their owner paid a fine to release them. Also, a lane off Beacon Edge is still known as 'Intack Lane' (that is, the lane to farmed land). Most of the land that formed the "intack" itself was used to form Penrith Cemetery.
on land previously known as The Flatt Field and Scaws Farm which formed part of the Lowther Estates
. Scaws Farm is now known as Coldsprings Farm. The name was changed following a murder which took place at the farm.
In later years some private housing was built on the higher parts of the estate.
Beaconside Infants and Junior Schools are located in the centre of the estate and there were at one time 3 corner shops and a launderette in the area.
Adjoining Scaws are the privately owned Barcohill and Meadow Croft housing estates.
Carleton Village
itself is a small line of houses along one side of the A686 road
that forms part of the boundary of the town's built up area; at the junction of the A686 and Carleton Road (formerly the A66 road) is the Cross Keys Inn.
On the other side of the road and to the west of Carleton Road is the large High Carleton housing estate which was started in the 1960s and is still growing. The estate is subdivided into the Frenchfield Way/Gardens area, the original High Carleton area, Carleton Park or Parklands, Carleton Meadows and Carleton Heights most of the streets in this area are named after trees or other plants eg: Oak Road, Sycamore Drive, Juniper Way. A small stream runs through the estate. Oak Road connects Carleton with Meadow Croft and Scaws. To the west of High Carleton is Winters Park where Penrith Rugby Union Football Club has its ground and the Carleton Hall Gardens estate.
Carleton Hall is the headquarters of the Cumbria Constabulary
.
At Frenchfield just south of Carleton Village towards Brougham Castle
is the Hunter Hall Preparatory School
and new Eden District Council-owned sports pitches.
in 1977.
The centre of the estate is accessible by foot only and there is a small convenience store
here.
Several properties are run as sheltered accommodation for the elderly.
Further development did not start until the 1960s and 1970s when land between Wetheriggs Lane and Ullswater Road was built on though it was not until the late 1980s that the two roads were connected after the building of the Clifford Road extension which saw the Skirsgill area developed.
Within the area are three schools: Ullswater Community College. North Lakes Junior and Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS). The Crescent on Clifford Road is a block of elderly sheltered accommodation. There was formerly a shop at the junction of Huntley Avenue and Clifford Road next to North Lakes School.
The large North Lakes Hotel
and Spa stands at the junction of Clifford and Ullswater Roads overlooking the Skirsgill Junction 40 Interchange of the M6 motorway
, A66 and A592 roads.
and North of England, Penrith experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. The nearest Met Office weather station is at Newton Rigg, about a mile outside of the town centre. Temperature extremes range from 31.1 °C (88 °F) during August 1990, down to -17.8 C in February 1969 - Although this was nearly eclipsed by a temperature of -17.7 C during December 2010. Newton Rigg also holds the record for the coldest April temperature reported in England -15.0 C during April 1917.
style, abutting an earlier 13th century tower. The churchyard has some ancient crosses and hogback tombstones in it known now as "Giant's Grave", and "Giant's Thumb" which is the remains of a Norse cross dated to 920 AD.
The ruins of Penrith Castle
(14th-16th centuries) can be seen from the adjacent railway station. The castle is run as a visitor attraction by English Heritage
. To the south-east of the town are the more substantial ruins of Brougham Castle
, also under the protection of English Heritage.
To the south of the town are the ancient henge
sites known as Mayburgh Henge and King Arthur's Round Table. Both are under the protection of English Heritage.
In the centre of the town is the Clock Tower, erected in 1861 to commemorate Philip Musgrave
of Edenhall
. Hutton Hall, on Folly Lane, preserves a 14th century pele tower
at the rear, attached to an 18th century building. The Gloucester Arms public house, formerly known as Dockray Hall, is said to date from c1470 and may incorporate the remains of another pele tower.
Penrith has been noted for the number of wells
in and around the town, and well-dressing
ceremonies were commonplace on certain days in the month of May. Three miles south-east of the town, on the River Eamont are the "Giants' caves", where the well was dedicated to St. Ninian. The caves are enlarged out of Lower Permian sandstone
s and their associated breccias and purple shale
s.
Just to the north of the town is the wooded signal-beacon hill, naturally named Beacon Hill
. It last use was probably in 1804 in the war against Napoleon. Traditionally, the Beacon Pike was used to warn of approaching danger from Scotland. Today, although surrounded by a commercial woodland owned by Lowther Estates, the hill still contains some natural woodlands and is a popular local and tourist attraction. On a clear day the majority of the Eden Valley, the local fells, Pennines and parts of the North Lakes can be seen. It is almost certain that the Beacon Hill gave Penrith its name - in Celtic - of "red hill".
A fibreglass 550 cm (18 ft)-tall statue of King Kong
once stood in the market, it is now at the market place on the outskirts of Penrith.
, the A66, the A6 and the A686
intersect in the town.
Penrith is also a stop on the West Coast Main Line
, with the town's station
(dating from 1846) officially known as 'Penrith North Lakes'. Since the upgrade to the West Coast Main Line was completed in 2008, the number of trains stopping at Penrith was reduced and the town now has an irregular service of fast trains to/from London
, Birmingham
, Manchester
, Glasgow
and Edinburgh
.
National Express
operate 2 long distance coach routes with stops in Penrith.
The National Cycle Network
's major National Route 7 runs through the town, and National Route 71 stops just short of the southern edge of the town.
Penrith has a number of taxi firms operating in the town which are licensed by Eden District Council. The main taxi rank is on Sandgate in the middle of town and there is also one outside the Railway Station which is useful for commuters.
's mother, and the poet spent some of his childhood in the town, attending the local school with Mary Hutchinson his later wife.
George Leo Haydock
(1774–1849), noted for his annotated edition of the Catholic Douay Bible, served as pastor of the Catholic Church here from 1839 until his death in 1849.
The MP
and social reformer Samuel Plimsoll
spent part of his childhood living at Page Hall in Foster Street. The row of houses at Townhead called Plimsoll Close is named after him.
Mary, the wife of Prime Minister
Harold Wilson
, lived in Penrith for part of her life whilst her father was minister at the Congregational Church
in Duke Street.
The Victorian writer
Frances Trollope
, (Anthony Trollope
's mother) lived for a while at a house called Carleton Hill (not be confused with Carleton Hall) just outside the town on the Alston road.
The Scottish
road-builder and engineer John Loudon Macadam the inventor of "Macadam
ized" roads (not Tarmac
adam as that came later) lived for a while at Cockell House in Townhead. Close by Cockell House today are the streets Macadam Way and Macadam Gardens.
The feature film Withnail and I
features the real Penrith very briefly, but most of the filming locations were actually in and around nearby Shap
. The famous "Penrith Tea Rooms" scene was filmed in Stony Stratford
, Milton Keynes
.
Charlie Hunnam
, British actor, attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith
(QEGS) and lived locally in the area during his teenage years.
Oliver Turvey
, Racing Driver, attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith
(QEGS) and lives locally
Angela Lonsdale
was born in Penrith. She is perhaps best known for playing policewoman Emma Taylor in Coronation Street
and is currently starring as DI Eva Moore in the BBC soap, Doctors.
Paul Nixon
, Leicestershire
wicket keeper and current England cricket international was born in Carlisle but grew up in the Penrith area.
Penrith is the birthplace of the footballer Stephen Hindmarch
Will Addison, professional rugby union player currently representing Sale Sharks
rugby union club attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith
making his début in the Aviva Premiership on the 8th April 2011 against Gloucester Rugby union club at only 18 years of age.
Lewis Brett Guy
(born 22 August 1985 in Penrith, Cumbria) is an English footballer who plays as a forward. He is currently playing for Milton Keynes Dons.
s to form the basis of social entertainment, and was once famous for the sheer number of pubs in the town and at one time the town had five working breweries. There were once many more pubs in the town than there are now, and the trend of pub closure is still continuing. Despite this, there are still a considerable number of pubs in the town. These range from traditional, small pubs that have a loyal clientele to the bigger bars which form part of the "circuit". Penrith also has numerous dining places and restaurants.
The Lonsdale (formerly the Alhambra) in Middlegate is a cinema
with two screens built in 1910 by William Forrester. There was until the 1980s another cinema called the Regent on Old London Road.
Amateur dramatics and musicals are staged at the Penrith Players Theatre, Ullswater Community College
and Queen Elizabeth Grammar School
spoken around the Penrith and Eden district area.
, goes on sale every Saturday. Sections of the Herald are updated every following Tuesday on their website. The Herald is independently owned, with offices on King Street, but is printed at the CN Group's
printing works in Carlisle, where the weekly Cumberland News and daily paper the News and Star
which also cover news items from Penrith are printed.
A separate edition of the Herald is published for the Keswick
area, and is known as the Lake District Herald.
Penrith lies with the ITV
Border
region and the BBC's North East and Cumbria region.
There are two local radio stations serving the Penrith area, both based in Carlisle. These are BBC Radio Cumbria
and the independent
station CFM
.
Penrith was used as a setting in the 1940 book Cue for Treason
by Geoffrey Trease
Former schools in the town include:
As a small market town relying quite heavily on the tourist trade Penrith benefits from a mix of some high street chain stores and many small local specialist shops. Though as has happened with many towns of a similar size a lot of shops have given way to business such as bank
s, building societies and travel agents
Market days are Tuesday and Saturday. On Tuesdays there is a small outdoor market in Great Dockray and Cornmarket, once a month this is expanded to include a Farmers' Market
in the Market Square as well. On Saturdays at the Auction Mart alongside the M6 motorway
Junction 40 takes place Cumbria's largest outdoor market. Stagecoach North West
operate a free bus service between the Auction Mart and the town centre on Saturdays.
The main shopping areas in the town centre are Middlegate, Little Dockray, Devonshire Street/Market Square, Cornmarket, Angel Lane and the Devonshire Arcade and Angel Square precincts with some shops in Burrowgate, Brunswick Road, Great Dockray and King Street.
Although the main industries in the area are based around tourism and agriculture there are some other industries reperesented within Penrith for example Greggs
have 2 bakeries
in the Friargate area formerly belonging to the Penrith based Birketts firm; Dominos Pizza have a dough manufacturing site at Gilwilly and the model firm Lilliput Lane (now part of Enesco
) was founded in Penrith and until March 2009 had its main factory at Skirsgill Park. Also at Penrith Industrial Estate is the Penrith Door Company factory formerly belonging to Magnet Joinery
, now part of the American based JELD-WEN
group.
Agricultural based industries include BOCM Pauls
who have a large animal feed
mill on the Penrith Industrial Estate and until 2005 there was another Feed Mill at Gilwilly originally belonging to Cumberland and Westmorland Farmers Ltd but eventually becoming part of the Carrs Milling Industries
group. Local butchers Cranstons have an expanding meat packing, pies and sandwich manufacturing site alongside their shop and head office on Ullswater Road.
In the past Penrith was known for its tanning industry and breweries. The tanning factories were located mainly in the Friargate/Old London Road area of the town. There were at one time five working breweries in the town.
The plans for the rest of the scheme have been developed by the property company Lowther Mannelli and include a new Sainsbury's supermarket (though previously it was thought that it was going to be a branch of Tesco
), new shopping streets, car parking and housing. The name of the scheme is Penrith New Squares as the new shops will be centred around two squares which will provide parking and places for public entertainment.
Work on the development was suspended in October 2008 due to a lack of funding during the financial crisis, but a new deal has been agreed with Sainsbury's and work was resumed in 2011. This new deal includes less new housing and parts of the scheme deferred for up to five years.
Penrith Town F.C. currently play in the Arngrove Northern League 2.
Penrith Rangers FC have two teams who play in the Talbot Insurance Westmorland League.
Penrith also has a newly developed skatepark
recreational area by the Penrith Leisure Centre.
The Eden Valley Mountaineering Club draws many of its members from Penrith.
with the Australian city
named after it in New South Wales
.
, Penrith holds it's Mayday Carnival. The Carnival includes a parade, street dancers and fairground rides. The fairground rides are situated in the Great Dockray and Market Square car parks situated in the commercial area of Penrith. The parade includes over 30 floats, vintage cars, a marching band, various local celebrities and and members of the Penrith Lions Club. The parade starts in the yard of Ullswater Community College
and ends in the bus station car park. Many of the roads in the town centre are closed for this event. The carnival is held by the Penrith Lions Club.
Urban district
In the England, Wales and Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected Urban District Council , which shared local government responsibilities with a county council....
between 1894 and 1974, when it was merged into Eden District.
The authority's area was coterminous with the civil parish of Penrith although when the council was abolished Penrith became an unparished area
Unparished area
In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish. Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparished. Many towns and some cities in otherwise rural districts are also unparished areas and therefore no longer have a town council or city...
.
The area had previously been an urban sanitary district
Sanitary district
Sanitary districts were established in England and Wales in 1875 and in Ireland in 1878. The districts were of two types, based on existing structures:*Urban sanitary districts in towns with existing local government bodies...
presided over by the Local Board of Health.
As well as the town of itself the district also contained the hamlets of Carleton (now a suburb of Penrith), Bowscar, Plumpton Head and part of the village of Eamont Bridge.
The district was divided into 4 wards: North, South, East and West, which remained the basis of local government divisions in the town until the 1990s.
From 1906 the council was based at Penrith Town Hall which had previously been two houses believed to have been designed by Robert Adam
Robert Adam
Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...
.
In the 1920s Penrith Castle
Penrith Castle
Penrith Castle was built between 1399 and 1470 as a defense against Scottish raids. It is believed to have been first built by William Strickland who later become Bishop of Carlisle...
came into the possession of the council. The grounds were turned into a public park, and Castle Hill or Tyne Close Housing Estate was built nearby. Further pre-war council housing was built at Fair Hill and Castletown and after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
at Scaws, Townhead and Pategill.
The district was surrounded on three sides by the Penrith Rural District
Penrith Rural District
Penrith was a rural district within the administrative county of Cumberland, England that existed from 1894 to 1974 with slight boundary changes in 1934....
; the southern boundary, marked by the River Eamont, was with Westmorland
Westmorland
Westmorland is an area of North West England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974, after which the entirety of the county was absorbed into the new county of Cumbria.-Early history:...
.
Local government divisions
For the purposes of electing councillors to Eden District Council the unparished area of Penrith is divided into six wardWard (subnational entity)
A ward is a subdivision of a municipality. Wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to the area...
s:
Penrith West which includes Castletown and parts of the town centre and Townhead.
Penrith North: part of the town centre, the New Streets, most of Townhead and the outlying settlements of Roundthorn, Bowscar and Plumpton Head.
Penrith South: Wetheriggs, Castle Hill, a small part of the town centre, part of Eamont Bridge
Eamont Bridge
Eamont Bridge is a small village immediately to the south of Penrith, Cumbria.The village is named after the River Eamont and straddles the boundary between the ancient counties of Cumberland and Westmorland...
and part of the Bridge Lane/Victoria Road area.
Penrith East: part of the town centre, Scaws, Carleton Park and Barco
Penrith Carleton (formerly part of Penrith East): Carleton Village, High Carleton, Carleton Heights, Carleton Hall Gardens
Penrith Pategill (also formerly part of Penrith East): Pategill, Carleton Drive/Place, Tynefield Drive/Court and part of Eamont Bridge
Eamont Bridge
Eamont Bridge is a small village immediately to the south of Penrith, Cumbria.The village is named after the River Eamont and straddles the boundary between the ancient counties of Cumberland and Westmorland...
.
Penrith West and South wards make up the Penrith West Electoral Division of Cumbria County Council whereas East, Carleton and Pategill wards combine to form Penrith East division. Penrith North, along with the rural Lazonby ward, makes up Penrith North division.
Geography
Castletown
Castletown is the area to the west of the railway lineWest Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...
and includes the Gilwilly Industrial Estate and part of the Penrith or Myers Industrial Estate. The area - which was originally built to house workers on the railway line - mostly consists of late 19th and early 20th century housing (mainly terraced) including some council housing but in recent years modern housing developments such as Greystoke Park, Castletown Drive and Castle Park have sprung up.
There was until March 2010 a pub in the suburb, The Castle Inn and in previous years there was a sub-postoffice, Co-op store
Penrith Co-operative Society
The Penrith Co-operative Society Limited, known locally as Penrith Co-op, is a small regional consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. The society was formed in 1890 and today operates one department store with supermarket attached and eight small supermarkets or convenience stores in Cumbria...
and other shops all now closed. Until the 1970s Castletown had its own church
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, St Saviour's in Brougham Street which acted as a chapel of ease
Chapel of ease
A chapel of ease is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently....
to Penrith's parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
of St Andrew.
The suburb has a community centre
Community centre
Community centres or community centers or jumping recreation centers are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within...
on the recreation ground
Recreation Ground
A recreation ground is a type of park.Recreation Ground is the name of the following stadiums in the United Kingdom:*Recreation Ground , the home ground of Aldershot Town F.C., located in Aldershot, England...
at Gilwilly and did until recently hold an annual gala day and parade throughout Penrith. At one time in the mid 20th century elections were held amongst regulars at the Castle pub to find a Mayor of Castletown. There is a long standing rivalry between the Castletown and Townhead districts.
Townhead
Townhead is the general name for the northern area of the town which also includes the Fair Hill district and the Voreda Park or Anchor housing estateHousing estate
A housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance...
.
The main part of area is built along both sides of the A6 road heading up the hill in the direction of Carlisle. The road is streetnamed as Stricklandgate and Scotland Road but on maps dating before the mid 19th century was just marked as Town Head.
Town Head was one of the 7 townships or constablewicks
Parish constable
Parish constable was a law enforcement officer, usually unpaid and part-time, serving a parish. In some parishes, the position was known as "high constable", e.g. the High Constable of Holborn....
that the ancient parish of Penrith was divided into the others were Middlegate, Burrowgate, Dockray and Netherend within the town proper and Plumpton Head and Carleton outside the town.
There are various small businesses in the area including a carpet showroom, pet shop, a fish and chip shop, an Indian restaurant and two petrol filling stations one formerly incorporating a sub-postoffice. (Post Office closed on the 1st August 2008 as part of the nationwide closure program)
New Streets
The New Streets is a name for the area between Townhead and Scaws on the side of the Beacon Hill (or FellFell
“Fell” is a word used to refer to mountains, or certain types of mountainous landscape, in Scandinavia, the Isle of Man, and parts of northern England.- Etymology :...
) which consists of steep streets of some terraced housing but mainly large detached and semi detached houses mostly laid out in the late 19th century going up the hill. The streets are - from north to south - Graham Street, Wordsworth Street, Lowther Street, and Arthur Street. The term is sometimes extended to include Fell Lane (which is actually the ancient east road from Penrith town centre leading to Langwathby
Langwathby
Langwathby is a village and civil parish in northern Cumbria, England. It is situated about north east of Penrith on the A686 road. The village lies on the banks of the River Eden....
), and Croft Avenue and Croft Terrace (dating from c.1930). However, the late date of the development of the latter streets place them outwith the traditional definition of the term. At the foot of the streets is Drovers Lane which is sub-divided along its entire length into Wordsworth Terrace, Lowther Terrace, Bath Terrace, Arthur Terrace, Lonsdale Terrace and finally Meeting House Lane. Running along the top of the streets is Beacon Edge from which spectacular views can be seen over the town and towards the Lake District. Until about the turn of the 20th century, Beacon Edge was known as Beacon Road. As well as the streets going up the fellside there are some that connect the streets such as Beacon Street and smaller housing developments in the gaps between the individual streets. The fellside is known to have been used as a burial ground for victims of the many attacks of plague which struck Penrith down the centuries, and there are also areas which still bear the names of the farming which took place in the area. For example, a now wooded enclosed area on Fell Lane is still known as 'the Pinfold' (or Pinny) and was used to house stray animals until their owner paid a fine to release them. Also, a lane off Beacon Edge is still known as 'Intack Lane' (that is, the lane to farmed land). Most of the land that formed the "intack" itself was used to form Penrith Cemetery.
Scaws
The Scaws Estate was first built by Penrith Urban District Council almost immediately after World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
on land previously known as The Flatt Field and Scaws Farm which formed part of the Lowther Estates
Earl of Lonsdale
Earl of Lonsdale is a title that has been created twice in British history, firstly in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1784 , and then in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1807, both times for members of the Lowther family....
. Scaws Farm is now known as Coldsprings Farm. The name was changed following a murder which took place at the farm.
In later years some private housing was built on the higher parts of the estate.
Beaconside Infants and Junior Schools are located in the centre of the estate and there were at one time 3 corner shops and a launderette in the area.
Adjoining Scaws are the privately owned Barcohill and Meadow Croft housing estates.
Carleton
Carleton, once a separate settlement, is the area of Penrith that has seen the most growth of housing in the past 30 years.Carleton Village
Carleton village
Carleton used to be a separate village or small hamlet one mile east of the centre of Penrith, Cumbria, England. Today, it is a rural suburb in an area of Penrith that has seen the most growth of housing in the past 30 years.- Name origin :...
itself is a small line of houses along one side of the A686 road
A686 road
The A686 is a road in northern England. It runs from Penrith in Cumbria to Haydon Bridge in Northumberland. The AA named the A686 One of the Greatest Drives in Britain owing to the dramatic scenery of the Pennines mountains encountered along its route. The road is popular with motorcyclists, and...
that forms part of the boundary of the town's built up area; at the junction of the A686 and Carleton Road (formerly the A66 road) is the Cross Keys Inn.
On the other side of the road and to the west of Carleton Road is the large High Carleton housing estate which was started in the 1960s and is still growing. The estate is subdivided into the Frenchfield Way/Gardens area, the original High Carleton area, Carleton Park or Parklands, Carleton Meadows and Carleton Heights most of the streets in this area are named after trees or other plants eg: Oak Road, Sycamore Drive, Juniper Way. A small stream runs through the estate. Oak Road connects Carleton with Meadow Croft and Scaws. To the west of High Carleton is Winters Park where Penrith Rugby Union Football Club has its ground and the Carleton Hall Gardens estate.
Carleton Hall is the headquarters of the Cumbria Constabulary
Cumbria Constabulary
Cumbria Constabulary is the territorial police force in England covering Cumbria. It is currently the fifth-largest force in England and Wales in terms of geographic area but one of the smallest in terms of officer numbers. Given the force area's size and population of just under 500,000, it is...
.
At Frenchfield just south of Carleton Village towards Brougham Castle
Brougham Castle
Brougham Castle is a medieval building about south-east of Penrith, Cumbria, England. It is a Scheduled Monument and open to the public. Founded by Robert de Vieuxpont in the early 13th century on the site of a Roman fort, it sits near the confluence of the rivers Eamont and Lowther...
is the Hunter Hall Preparatory School
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
and new Eden District Council-owned sports pitches.
Pategill
Adjoining Carleton is the Pategill Estate which started as a council estate in the 1960s and is still mostly owned by housing associations. Two streets on the estate namely Prince Charles Close and Jubilee Close were opened by HRH The Prince of WalesCharles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
in 1977.
The centre of the estate is accessible by foot only and there is a small convenience store
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
here.
Several properties are run as sheltered accommodation for the elderly.
Wetheriggs
The Wetheriggs, Skirsgill and Castle Hill or Tyne Close areas were first developed in the 1920s by the Penrith UDC on land formerly known as Scumscaw and the first private housing to be developed was Holme Riggs Avenue and Skirsgill Gardens just prior to World War II.Further development did not start until the 1960s and 1970s when land between Wetheriggs Lane and Ullswater Road was built on though it was not until the late 1980s that the two roads were connected after the building of the Clifford Road extension which saw the Skirsgill area developed.
Within the area are three schools: Ullswater Community College. North Lakes Junior and Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS). The Crescent on Clifford Road is a block of elderly sheltered accommodation. There was formerly a shop at the junction of Huntley Avenue and Clifford Road next to North Lakes School.
The large North Lakes Hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
and Spa stands at the junction of Clifford and Ullswater Roads overlooking the Skirsgill Junction 40 Interchange of the M6 motorway
M6 motorway
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...
, A66 and A592 roads.
Climate
As with the rest of the British IslesBritish Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
and North of England, Penrith experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. The nearest Met Office weather station is at Newton Rigg, about a mile outside of the town centre. Temperature extremes range from 31.1 °C (88 °F) during August 1990, down to -17.8 C in February 1969 - Although this was nearly eclipsed by a temperature of -17.7 C during December 2010. Newton Rigg also holds the record for the coldest April temperature reported in England -15.0 C during April 1917.
Landmarks
The main church is St. Andrew's, built from 1720 to 1722 in an imposing GrecianArchitecture of Ancient Greece
The architecture of Ancient Greece is the architecture produced by the Greek-speaking people whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland and Peloponnesus, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Asia Minor and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, with the earliest...
style, abutting an earlier 13th century tower. The churchyard has some ancient crosses and hogback tombstones in it known now as "Giant's Grave", and "Giant's Thumb" which is the remains of a Norse cross dated to 920 AD.
Penrith Castle
Penrith Castle was built between 1399 and 1470 as a defense against Scottish raids. It is believed to have been first built by William Strickland who later become Bishop of Carlisle...
(14th-16th centuries) can be seen from the adjacent railway station. The castle is run as a visitor attraction by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
. To the south-east of the town are the more substantial ruins of Brougham Castle
Brougham Castle
Brougham Castle is a medieval building about south-east of Penrith, Cumbria, England. It is a Scheduled Monument and open to the public. Founded by Robert de Vieuxpont in the early 13th century on the site of a Roman fort, it sits near the confluence of the rivers Eamont and Lowther...
, also under the protection of English Heritage.
To the south of the town are the ancient henge
Henge
There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork which are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three types is that they feature a ring bank and ditch but with the ditch inside the bank rather than outside...
sites known as Mayburgh Henge and King Arthur's Round Table. Both are under the protection of English Heritage.
In the centre of the town is the Clock Tower, erected in 1861 to commemorate Philip Musgrave
Philip Musgrave
Philip Musgrave may refer to:*Sir Philip Musgrave, 2nd Baronet *Sir Philip Musgrave, 6th Baronet *Sir Philip Musgrave, 8th Baronet , MP for Carlisle and Petersfield...
of Edenhall
Edenhall
Edenhall is a village located about a mile south of Langwathby, in the Eden district, in the county of Cumbria, England. Edenhall has a church called St Cuthbert's Church...
. Hutton Hall, on Folly Lane, preserves a 14th century pele tower
Peel tower
Peel towers are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, intended as watch towers where signal fires could be lit by the garrison to warn of approaching danger...
at the rear, attached to an 18th century building. The Gloucester Arms public house, formerly known as Dockray Hall, is said to date from c1470 and may incorporate the remains of another pele tower.
Penrith has been noted for the number of wells
Wells
Wells is a cathedral city and civil parish in the Mendip district of Somerset, England, on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills. Although the population recorded in the 2001 census is 10,406, it has had city status since 1205...
in and around the town, and well-dressing
Well dressing
Well dressing is a summer custom practised in rural England in which wells, springs or other water sources are decorated with designs created from flower petals...
ceremonies were commonplace on certain days in the month of May. Three miles south-east of the town, on the River Eamont are the "Giants' caves", where the well was dedicated to St. Ninian. The caves are enlarged out of Lower Permian sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
s and their associated breccias and purple shale
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
s.
Just to the north of the town is the wooded signal-beacon hill, naturally named Beacon Hill
Beacon Hill
Beacon Hill is a name shared by many hills, suburbs, villages and other places around the world. Many are so called because they were historically the site of a warning beacon. Others are named after other places of the same name.-In the United Kingdom:...
. It last use was probably in 1804 in the war against Napoleon. Traditionally, the Beacon Pike was used to warn of approaching danger from Scotland. Today, although surrounded by a commercial woodland owned by Lowther Estates, the hill still contains some natural woodlands and is a popular local and tourist attraction. On a clear day the majority of the Eden Valley, the local fells, Pennines and parts of the North Lakes can be seen. It is almost certain that the Beacon Hill gave Penrith its name - in Celtic - of "red hill".
A fibreglass 550 cm (18 ft)-tall statue of King Kong
King Kong statue
A statue of King Kong by Nicholas Monro was commissioned in 1972 for display in Manzoni Gardens in The Bull Ring, in the centre of Birmingham, England. It was later displayed elsewhere in Birmingham, then in Edinburgh, and is now in Penrith....
once stood in the market, it is now at the market place on the outskirts of Penrith.
Transport
Situated just off Junction 40 of the M6 motorwayM6 motorway
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...
, the A66, the A6 and the A686
A686 road
The A686 is a road in northern England. It runs from Penrith in Cumbria to Haydon Bridge in Northumberland. The AA named the A686 One of the Greatest Drives in Britain owing to the dramatic scenery of the Pennines mountains encountered along its route. The road is popular with motorcyclists, and...
intersect in the town.
Penrith is also a stop on the West Coast Main Line
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...
, with the town's station
Penrith railway station
Penrith railway station is located on the West Coast Main Line in the United Kingdom. It serves the town of Penrith, Cumbria and is less than one mile from its centre...
(dating from 1846) officially known as 'Penrith North Lakes'. Since the upgrade to the West Coast Main Line was completed in 2008, the number of trains stopping at Penrith was reduced and the town now has an irregular service of fast trains to/from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
National Express
National Express
National Express Coaches, more commonly known as National Express, is a brand and company, owned by the National Express Group, under which the majority of long distance bus and coach services in Great Britain are operated,...
operate 2 long distance coach routes with stops in Penrith.
The National Cycle Network
National Cycle Network
The National Cycle Network is a network of cycle routes in the United Kingdom.The National Cycle Network was created by the charity Sustrans , and aided by a £42.5 million National Lottery grant. In 2005 it was used for over 230 million trips.Many routes hope to minimise contact with motor...
's major National Route 7 runs through the town, and National Route 71 stops just short of the southern edge of the town.
Penrith has a number of taxi firms operating in the town which are licensed by Eden District Council. The main taxi rank is on Sandgate in the middle of town and there is also one outside the Railway Station which is useful for commuters.
Notable people
Penrith was the home town of William WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
's mother, and the poet spent some of his childhood in the town, attending the local school with Mary Hutchinson his later wife.
George Leo Haydock
George Leo Haydock
George Leo Haydock , scion of an ancient English Catholic Recusant family, was a priest, pastor and Bible scholar. His edition of the Douay Bible with extended commentary, originally published in 1811, became the most popular English Catholic Bible of the 19th century on both sides of the Atlantic...
(1774–1849), noted for his annotated edition of the Catholic Douay Bible, served as pastor of the Catholic Church here from 1839 until his death in 1849.
The MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
and social reformer Samuel Plimsoll
Samuel Plimsoll
Samuel Plimsoll was a British politician and social reformer, now best remembered for having devised the Plimsoll line .-Early life:Plimsoll was born in Bristol and soon moved to Whiteley Wood...
spent part of his childhood living at Page Hall in Foster Street. The row of houses at Townhead called Plimsoll Close is named after him.
Mary, the wife of Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
, lived in Penrith for part of her life whilst her father was minister at the Congregational Church
United Reformed Church
The United Reformed Church is a Christian church in the United Kingdom. It has approximately 68,000 members in 1,500 congregations with some 700 ministers.-Origins and history:...
in Duke Street.
The Victorian writer
Victorian literature
Victorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Queen Victoria . It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different literature of the 20th century....
Frances Trollope
Frances Trollope
Frances Milton Trollope was an English novelist and writer who published as Mrs. Trollope or Mrs. Frances Trollope...
, (Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
's mother) lived for a while at a house called Carleton Hill (not be confused with Carleton Hall) just outside the town on the Alston road.
The Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
road-builder and engineer John Loudon Macadam the inventor of "Macadam
Macadam
Macadam is a type of road construction pioneered by the Scotsman John Loudon McAdam in around 1820. The method simplified what had been considered state-of-the-art at that point...
ized" roads (not Tarmac
Tarmac
Tarmac is a type of road surface. Tarmac refers to a material patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1901...
adam as that came later) lived for a while at Cockell House in Townhead. Close by Cockell House today are the streets Macadam Way and Macadam Gardens.
The feature film Withnail and I
Withnail and I
Withnail and I is a British black comedy made in 1986 by HandMade Films. It was written and directed by Bruce Robinson and is based on his life in London in the late 1960s. The main plot follows two unemployed young actors, Withnail and “I” who live in a squalid flat in Camden in 1969 while...
features the real Penrith very briefly, but most of the filming locations were actually in and around nearby Shap
Shap
Shap is a linear village and civil parish located amongst fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, England. The village lies along the A6 road and the West Coast Main Line, and is near to the M6 motorway...
. The famous "Penrith Tea Rooms" scene was filmed in Stony Stratford
Stony Stratford
Stony Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes and is a civil parish with a town council within the Borough of Milton Keynes. It is in the north west corner of Milton Keynes, bordering Northamptonshire and separated from it by the River Great Ouse...
, Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes (borough)
The Borough of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority and borough in south central England, at the northern tip of the South East England Region. For ceremonial purposes, it is in the county of Buckinghamshire...
.
Charlie Hunnam
Charlie Hunnam
Charles Matthew "Charlie" Hunnam is an English actor. He is perhaps best known to UK audiences as Pete Dunham in Green Street Hooligans and as Nathan Maloney in the Channel 4 hit drama Queer as Folk and to US audiences as Vice President of Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original Jackson...
, British actor, attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith
Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith
Queen Elizabeth Grammar School , which was founded in 1564, is a selective secondary school in Penrith, Cumbria, England.-History:It moved from its original premises in St Andrew's churchyard to its present site on Ullswater Road , close to the railway station, in 1917...
(QEGS) and lived locally in the area during his teenage years.
Oliver Turvey
Oliver Turvey
Oliver Jonathan Turvey is a British racing driver. He was a notable kart racer, with two national titles, and was the 2006 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner. His career has been supported by the Racing Steps Foundation....
, Racing Driver, attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith
Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith
Queen Elizabeth Grammar School , which was founded in 1564, is a selective secondary school in Penrith, Cumbria, England.-History:It moved from its original premises in St Andrew's churchyard to its present site on Ullswater Road , close to the railway station, in 1917...
(QEGS) and lives locally
Angela Lonsdale
Angela Lonsdale
Angela Lonsdale , is an English actress.Born to a policeman father, Lonsdale's passion for acting was showcased in the Brewery Youth Theatre at the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal. Working behind the box office, Lonsdale's talent was nurtured by the then Arts Centre Director, Anne Pierson...
was born in Penrith. She is perhaps best known for playing policewoman Emma Taylor in Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
and is currently starring as DI Eva Moore in the BBC soap, Doctors.
Paul Nixon
Paul Nixon
Paul Andrew Nixon is an English cricket player who has played for Leicestershire, England, England A, MCC and Kent. He is a wicket-keeper and left-handed batsman...
, Leicestershire
Leicestershire County Cricket Club
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland....
wicket keeper and current England cricket international was born in Carlisle but grew up in the Penrith area.
Penrith is the birthplace of the footballer Stephen Hindmarch
Stephen Hindmarch
Stephen David Hindmarch is an English footballer who currently plays for Western Suburbs in the New Zealand Central Premier League as a Attacking Midfielder/Striker.-Early life:...
Will Addison, professional rugby union player currently representing Sale Sharks
Sale Sharks
Sale Sharks are a professional rugby union club who play in England in the Aviva Premiership.The club is an offshoot of Sale FC, which is based at Heywood Road in Sale, Greater Manchester, but Sharks currently play in Stockport at Edgeley Park, ground sharing with Stockport County F.C.Part of the...
rugby union club attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith
Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith
Queen Elizabeth Grammar School , which was founded in 1564, is a selective secondary school in Penrith, Cumbria, England.-History:It moved from its original premises in St Andrew's churchyard to its present site on Ullswater Road , close to the railway station, in 1917...
making his début in the Aviva Premiership on the 8th April 2011 against Gloucester Rugby union club at only 18 years of age.
Lewis Brett Guy
Lewis Guy
Lewis Brett Guy is an English footballer who plays as a forward. He is currently playing for Milton Keynes Dons after joining them on a two year deal on 19 May 2010. Having started his career at Newcastle United, Guy joined Doncaster on loan during the 2004–05 season...
(born 22 August 1985 in Penrith, Cumbria) is an English footballer who plays as a forward. He is currently playing for Milton Keynes Dons.
Nightlife
As it is a small town relying heavily on agriculture and associated trades, the nightlife in Penrith is not especially notable. Like other rural towns of its size, Penrith relies on public housePublic house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
s to form the basis of social entertainment, and was once famous for the sheer number of pubs in the town and at one time the town had five working breweries. There were once many more pubs in the town than there are now, and the trend of pub closure is still continuing. Despite this, there are still a considerable number of pubs in the town. These range from traditional, small pubs that have a loyal clientele to the bigger bars which form part of the "circuit". Penrith also has numerous dining places and restaurants.
The Lonsdale (formerly the Alhambra) in Middlegate is a cinema
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
with two screens built in 1910 by William Forrester. There was until the 1980s another cinema called the Regent on Old London Road.
Amateur dramatics and musicals are staged at the Penrith Players Theatre, Ullswater Community College
Ullswater Community College
Ullswater Community College is a large mixed comprehensive school in Penrith, Cumbria. It currently has around 1450 students, including about 200 in the sixth form....
and Queen Elizabeth Grammar School
Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith
Queen Elizabeth Grammar School , which was founded in 1564, is a selective secondary school in Penrith, Cumbria, England.-History:It moved from its original premises in St Andrew's churchyard to its present site on Ullswater Road , close to the railway station, in 1917...
Penrith Dialect
The Penrith dialect known as Penrithian, is a variant of the Cumbrian dialectCumbrian dialect
The Cumbrian dialect is a local English dialect spoken in Cumbria in northern England, not to be confused with the extinct Celtic language Cumbric that used to be spoken in Cumbria. As in any county, there is a gradual drift in accent towards its neighbours...
spoken around the Penrith and Eden district area.
Media
The local newspaper, the Cumberland and Westmorland HeraldCumberland and Westmorland Herald
The Cumberland & Westmorland Herald is a local newspaper in Cumbria, England....
, goes on sale every Saturday. Sections of the Herald are updated every following Tuesday on their website. The Herald is independently owned, with offices on King Street, but is printed at the CN Group's
CN Group
The CN Group Limited is an independent local media business based in Carlisle which operates in three different media fields.The company was formerly known as the Cumbrian Newspapers Group Ltd but changed its name to reflect the fact that is no longer primarily a newspaper publisher...
printing works in Carlisle, where the weekly Cumberland News and daily paper the News and Star
News and Star
The News and Star is a local tabloid newspaper in Cumbria. Today it belongs to the CN Group Ltd who produce several regional newspapers in the north west of England....
which also cover news items from Penrith are printed.
A separate edition of the Herald is published for the Keswick
Keswick, Cumbria
Keswick is a market town and civil parish within the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It had a population of 4,984, according to the 2001 census, and is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park...
area, and is known as the Lake District Herald.
Penrith lies with the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
Border
Border Television
Border Television is the ITV franchise holder for the Border region, spanning the England/Scotland border and covering Dumfries & Galloway region, a small part of the south-west area of Ayrshire, the Scottish Borders, parts of north and west Northumberland and the majority of Cumbria...
region and the BBC's North East and Cumbria region.
There are two local radio stations serving the Penrith area, both based in Carlisle. These are BBC Radio Cumbria
BBC Radio Cumbria
BBC Radio Cumbria is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Cumbria and broadcasts from studios in Carlisle.- History :The county of Cumbria, from which the station takes its current name, was not created until 1974...
and the independent
Independent Local Radio
Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. The same name is used for Independent Local Radio in Ireland.-Development of ILR:...
station CFM
CFM Radio
CFM Radio is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to Northern & Central Cumbria and the southern tip of Scotland, with transmitters in Carlisle, Penrith and West Cumbria. Its musical output is popular hits of all genres, with mostly today's hits being featured...
.
Penrith was used as a setting in the 1940 book Cue for Treason
Cue for Treason
Cue for Treason is a children's historical novel written by Geoffrey Trease, and is his best known work.-Plot introduction:The novel is set in Elizabethan England at the end of the 16th century. Two young runaways become boy actors, at first on the road and later in London, where they are...
by Geoffrey Trease
Geoffrey Trease
Geoffrey Trease was a prolific writer, publishing 113 books between 1934 and 1997 . His work has been translated into 20 languages...
Primary schools
- Brunswick School (formerly County Infants), Brunswick Road
- Beaconside Primary, Eden Mount/Brent Road (until 2008 there were separate Beaconside Infant and JuniorJunior schoolA junior school is a type of school which caters for children, often between the ages of 7 and 11.-Australia:In Australia, a junior school is usually a part of a private school that educates children between the ages of 5 and 12....
schools) - North Lakes School (formerly Wetheriggs Junior; was at first a girls only school), Huntley Avenue - North Lakes is one of the first Schools in England to be awarded a Sing UpSing UpSing Up is a UK Government funded national singing programme which aims to ensure that all primary school-aged children are able to access high-quality singing activities every day and that, over time, all primary schools should become 'singing schools'...
Gold Award (Dec 08) and their highest accolade a SING UP Platinum Award (Dec 08). - St Catherines Roman Catholic Primary, Drovers Lane
- Hunter Hall (independentIndependent school (UK)An independent school is a school that is not financed through the taxation system by local or national government and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so is not subject to the conditions imposed by...
preparatory schoolPreparatory school (UK)In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
), Frenchfield
Secondary schools
- Ullswater Community CollegeUllswater Community CollegeUllswater Community College is a large mixed comprehensive school in Penrith, Cumbria. It currently has around 1450 students, including about 200 in the sixth form....
(formerly Ullswater High School), Wetheriggs Lane - Queen Elizabeth Grammar SchoolQueen Elizabeth Grammar School, PenrithQueen Elizabeth Grammar School , which was founded in 1564, is a selective secondary school in Penrith, Cumbria, England.-History:It moved from its original premises in St Andrew's churchyard to its present site on Ullswater Road , close to the railway station, in 1917...
(QEGS) (selective), Ullswater Road
Further Education
- The University of CumbriaUniversity of CumbriaThe University of Cumbria is a university in Cumbria, England. Its headquarters are in Carlisle. and other major campuses are at Lancaster, Ambleside and Penrith. It was established in 2007, with roots extending back to the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts established in 1822 and...
has a campus just outside the town at Newton Rigg. - Ullswater Community College has a large further or adult education centre
Former schools in the town include:
- Girls National School (building now housing school replaced by Beaconside Juniors), Drovers Lane
- Boys National School or St Andrews School for Boys (building now demolished school replaced by Beaconside Juniors), Benson Row
- National Infants School (now Penrith Playgroup Nursery SchoolNursery schoolA nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
), Meeting House Lane - Robinsons School - this was a girls only school founded with 29 pupils which later became a mixed (infant) school founded in 1670 by William Robinson, a local merchant who made good in London. It now houses the town's museum and tourist information centre, Middlegate, and has the following inscription above the door: ""
- County Girls School (building now part of Brunswick Infants the school was replaced by Wetheriggs school), Brunswick Road
- County Boys School (the building now QEGS Sixth FormSixth formIn the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...
Centre, also was for a while an annexe to Wetheriggs. The school merged with Wetheriggs Girls to form Wetheriggs Junior), Ullswater Road - Tynefield Secondary ModernSecondary modern schoolA secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination...
(originally co-educational but later girls only), Wetheriggs Lane - Ullswater Secondary Modern (boys only), Wetheriggs Lane. Ullswater & Tynefield schools and buildings merged to create Ullswater High in 1980.
Church of England
- St Andrew's is the ancient parish churchParish churchA parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
of Penrith Parish, situated in the centre of Penrith and is the largest church of the four parishes which make up the Penrith Team Ministry. - Christ Church, Drovers Lane/Stricklandgate, open in 1850 and formerly a separate parish but from the 1960s to 2010 was part of United Parish of Penrith but is now officially a separate parish church.
Others
- United Reformed ChurchUnited Reformed ChurchThe United Reformed Church is a Christian church in the United Kingdom. It has approximately 68,000 members in 1,500 congregations with some 700 ministers.-Origins and history:...
, Lowther Street - Society of Friends, Quaker Meeting House, Meeting House Lane.
- Gospel Hall Evangelical Church, Albert Street/Queen Street.
- King's Church Eden - part of the Newfrontiers family of churches.
Economy
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
s, building societies and travel agents
Market days are Tuesday and Saturday. On Tuesdays there is a small outdoor market in Great Dockray and Cornmarket, once a month this is expanded to include a Farmers' Market
Farmers' market
A farmers' market consists of individual vendors—mostly farmers—who set up booths, tables or stands, outdoors or indoors, to sell produce, meat products, fruits and sometimes prepared foods and beverages...
in the Market Square as well. On Saturdays at the Auction Mart alongside the M6 motorway
M6 motorway
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...
Junction 40 takes place Cumbria's largest outdoor market. Stagecoach North West
Stagecoach North West
Stagecoach North West is a major operator of bus services in North West England. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, and has its origins in the purchase of Cumberland in 1987 and Ribble in 1988 from the National Bus Company. The head office of Stagecoach North West is in Carlisle...
operate a free bus service between the Auction Mart and the town centre on Saturdays.
The main shopping areas in the town centre are Middlegate, Little Dockray, Devonshire Street/Market Square, Cornmarket, Angel Lane and the Devonshire Arcade and Angel Square precincts with some shops in Burrowgate, Brunswick Road, Great Dockray and King Street.
Although the main industries in the area are based around tourism and agriculture there are some other industries reperesented within Penrith for example Greggs
Greggs
Greggs plc is the largest specialist retail bakery chain in the United Kingdom. It was established in the 1930s as a single shop but has approximately 1,500 outlets....
have 2 bakeries
Bakery
A bakery is an establishment which produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cakes, pastries and pies. Some retail bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises.-See also:*Baker*Cake...
in the Friargate area formerly belonging to the Penrith based Birketts firm; Dominos Pizza have a dough manufacturing site at Gilwilly and the model firm Lilliput Lane (now part of Enesco
Enesco
Enesco is an American company specializing in the sales and distribution of giftware. The company was known as an industry leader during the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, as it carried the Precious Moments porcelain figurine line of products.-History:...
) was founded in Penrith and until March 2009 had its main factory at Skirsgill Park. Also at Penrith Industrial Estate is the Penrith Door Company factory formerly belonging to Magnet Joinery
Magnet Kitchens
Magnet is a British kitchen retailer operating in over 200 locations across the UK supplying products under the Magnet and Magnet Trade brands. The company has over 2,000 employees and its headquarters are in Darlington, County Durham...
, now part of the American based JELD-WEN
JELD-WEN
Jeld-Wen is a corporation with over 150 divisions and 20,000 employees worldwide. The business manufactures building products, including windows, interior and exterior doors, and garage doors. Jeld-Wen owns several distribution facilities and operates several resort properties...
group.
Agricultural based industries include BOCM Pauls
BOCM Pauls
BOCM Pauls Limited is a British animal feed company, established in 1992 by the amalgamation of two existing businesses.BOCM Pauls manufactures and sells animal feed in the United Kingdom and abroad. It offers feed for farm animals, pets and game birds...
who have a large animal feed
Compound feed
Compound feeds are feedstuffs that are blended from various raw materials and additives. These blends are formulated according to the specific requirements of the target animal...
mill on the Penrith Industrial Estate and until 2005 there was another Feed Mill at Gilwilly originally belonging to Cumberland and Westmorland Farmers Ltd but eventually becoming part of the Carrs Milling Industries
Carr's
Carr's is the name of foodstuff and agricultural brands historically derived from founder Jonathan Dodgson Carr but now owned and marketed by more than one separate company. In 1831, Carr formed a small bakery and biscuit factory in the English city of Carlisle; he received a royal warrant in 1841...
group. Local butchers Cranstons have an expanding meat packing, pies and sandwich manufacturing site alongside their shop and head office on Ullswater Road.
In the past Penrith was known for its tanning industry and breweries. The tanning factories were located mainly in the Friargate/Old London Road area of the town. There were at one time five working breweries in the town.
Penrith New Squares
For the past few years controversial plans have been proposed to expand the town centre of Penrith southwards into the Southend Road area which is currently used as car park and sports fields including ones used by Penrith and Penrith United Football Clubs. The first stage of this development has been achieved with the expansion of the swimming pool into a modern leisure centre complex.The plans for the rest of the scheme have been developed by the property company Lowther Mannelli and include a new Sainsbury's supermarket (though previously it was thought that it was going to be a branch of Tesco
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
), new shopping streets, car parking and housing. The name of the scheme is Penrith New Squares as the new shops will be centred around two squares which will provide parking and places for public entertainment.
Work on the development was suspended in October 2008 due to a lack of funding during the financial crisis, but a new deal has been agreed with Sainsbury's and work was resumed in 2011. This new deal includes less new housing and parts of the scheme deferred for up to five years.
Sport
Penrith is home to Penrith Rugby Union Football Club. Penrith RUFC currently play in the Powergen North League 1. Home games are played at Winters Park in Penrith.Penrith Town F.C. currently play in the Arngrove Northern League 2.
Penrith Rangers FC have two teams who play in the Talbot Insurance Westmorland League.
Penrith also has a newly developed skatepark
Skateboarding
Skateboarding is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard.Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an art form, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report...
recreational area by the Penrith Leisure Centre.
The Eden Valley Mountaineering Club draws many of its members from Penrith.
Twin town
Since 1989 Penrith has had a twinning arrangementTown twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...
with the Australian city
Penrith, New South Wales
Penrith is a suburb in western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Penrith is located west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Penrith...
named after it in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
.
Mayday Carnival
On every first monday in MayMayday
Mayday is a distress signalMayday or May Day may also refer to:* May Day, a holiday on or around May 1** International Workers' Day* Mayday, Colorado- Music :* Mayday , an electronic music festival* Mayday...
, Penrith holds it's Mayday Carnival. The Carnival includes a parade, street dancers and fairground rides. The fairground rides are situated in the Great Dockray and Market Square car parks situated in the commercial area of Penrith. The parade includes over 30 floats, vintage cars, a marching band, various local celebrities and and members of the Penrith Lions Club. The parade starts in the yard of Ullswater Community College
Ullswater Community College
Ullswater Community College is a large mixed comprehensive school in Penrith, Cumbria. It currently has around 1450 students, including about 200 in the sixth form....
and ends in the bus station car park. Many of the roads in the town centre are closed for this event. The carnival is held by the Penrith Lions Club.
See also
- Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith RailwayCockermouth, Keswick and Penrith RailwayThe Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway was incorporated by Act of Parliament on 1 August 1861, for a line connecting the town of Cockermouth with the London and North Western Railway West Coast Main Line at Penrith. Arrangements for the use of the stations at either end The Cockermouth,...
- Penrith and The Border (UK Parliament constituency)Penrith and The Border (UK Parliament constituency)Penrith and The Border is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is represented by one Member of Parliament elected by the first past the post system of election. This Cumbrian constituency was first contested in 1950.-History:The constutuency is...
- Penrith Mountain Rescue Team
- Penrith HoardPenrith HoardThe Penrith Hoard is a dispersed hoard of 10th century silver penannular brooches found at Flusco Pike, Newbiggin Moor, Near Penrith in Cumbria, and now in the British Museum in London. The largest "thistle brooch" was discovered in 1785 and another in 1830, with the bulk of items being recovered...
Further reading
- "Ewanion". History of Penrith. Carlisle, 1993. ISBN 0-9519920-3-1.
- ECCP. Country Walks Around Penrith.