Allonby is a village on the coast of

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) 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, Lancash ...

, England. The village is on the B5300 road north of

Maryport Maryport is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town is on the coast of the Solway Firth and lies at the northern end of the former Cumberland Co ...

and south of

Silloth Silloth, or Silloth-on-Solway, is a port town and civil parish in the Cumberland (district), Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town stands on the coast of the Solway Firth, west of Carlisle. It was developed from the 1850s onwards a ...

. The village of Mawbray is to the north, and to the east is the village of Westnewton,

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

is located to the north-east. Other nearby settlements include Crosscanonby, Edderside, Hayton, and

Salta Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Salta Province, the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the List of cities in Argentina, 7th most-populous ...

Etymology

The name 'Allonby' is derived from " 'Alein's bȳ'...'Alein' is a French personal name of Breton origin." ('Bȳ' is a late

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

word from

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

'bȳr' and Swedish or Danish 'by' meaning 'village' or 'hamlet').

Geographical aspect

The village overlooks Allonby Bay in the

Solway Firth The Solway Firth is an inlet on the west coast of Great Britain, forming part of the border between England and Scotland. The firth (a Scottish term for an inlet of the sea) divides Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) from Dumfries and Gallow ...

. The area is within the Solway Coast

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 2023, the areas in England an ...

, and the historic county of

. Allonby, and the five-mile coastal strip of the bay, has views across the Solway to the

Galloway Galloway ( ; ; ) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the counties of Scotland, historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council areas of Scotland, council area of Dumfries and Gallow ...

hills of southern

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Both the South Saltpans beach and the West Winds beach were awarded the Blue Flag rural beach award in 2005. The village is located on the Cumbria Coastal Way long-distance footpath.

History

From the late 18th century until the mid-19th century, Allonby was home to a small fishing fleet. The main catch was

herring Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the Order (biology), order Clupeiformes. Herring often move in large Shoaling and schooling, schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate wate ...

. Fish yards were built where these were salted and packed in barrels made on the premises. There was also a smokehouse where kippers were produced. In the early part of the 19th century, Allonby was a popular sea-bathing resort. Baths were built in 1835. At the time of the 1841 census the population was 811. The village has a 17th-century

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of t ...

now known as the Ship Hotel.

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

and

Wilkie Collins William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist and playwright known especially for ''The Woman in White (novel), The Woman in White'' (1860), a mystery novel and early sensation novel, and for ''The Moonsto ...

stayed overnight at the hostelry in 1857 (due to Collins' illness) while they were touring northern Cumberland; Dickens subsequently described Allonby as a 'dreary little place'. The Reading Room, opened in 1862, was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, the Victorian architect, when he was only 32 years old. The building was largely financed by Joseph Pease, who was Britain's first

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

MP.

Governance

Allonby is part of the parliamentary constituency of Penrith and Solway, and has been represented by Markus Campbell-Savours of the Labour Party since the 2024 general election. Previously the village was represented by Mark Jenkinson, a member of the Conservative Party, who unseated Sue Hayman, a member of the Labour Party, at the 2019 General Election. The Labour Party had previously won the seat in every general election since 1979; the Conservative Party had only been elected once in Workington since the Second World War: in the

1976 Workington by-election Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

. For

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

purposes, since 1 April 2023, it is in the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

. The village also has a parish council, Allonby Parish Council.

Notable residents

* Joseph Huddart was born here in 1741.

References

External links

Allonby Cumbria WebsiteCumbria County History Trust: Allonby
{{authority control Villages in Cumbria Cumberland (unitary authority) Populated coastal places in Cumbria Civil parishes in Cumbria