Wythop is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

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 ...

district of

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. It lies between the towns of

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Cumberland unitary authority area of Cumbria, England. The name refers to the town's position by the confluence of the River Cocker into the River Derwent. At the 2021 census, the built u ...

and Keswick and is within the

Lake District National Park The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 36.

Toponymy

'Wythop' is " 'withy valley', cf. 'wīðig', 'hop' " (from the

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 ...

). 'Wīðig','

withy A withy or withe (also willow and osier) is a strong flexible willow stem, typically used in thatching, basketmaking, gardening and for constructing woven wattle hurdles.

' means 'willow', 'hop' means 'a small enclosed valley'; so 'Wythop' is the 'valley of willow trees'.

Geography

Alfred Wainwright Alfred Wainwright Order of the British Empire, MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalking, fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial ...

stressed the unique nature of Wythop valley, in that instead of rising to a crest it fell away to the declivity of

Bassenthwaite Lake Bassenthwaite Lake is a body of water in the Lake District in North West England, near the town of Keswick. It has an area of , making the fourth largest of the lakes in the region. The lake has a length of approximately long and maximum wid ...

. However he also made the point that "its ''scenery'' is in no way freakish. ''Here is a charming and secluded natural sanctuary in an idyllic setting''. The promontory of Beck Wythop was selected by Thomas West as one of his four 'stations' for viewing Bassenthwaite Lake. The settlement of Wythop Mill is just outside the parish boundary, forming part of the neighbouring parish of Embleton.

Governance

There are two tiers of local government covering Wythop, at parish and

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 ...

level: Embleton and District Parish Council and

Cumberland Council Cumberland Council is the local authority for Cumberland, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, England. It is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council. The ...

. The parish council is a

grouped parish council A parish council is a civil local authority found in England, which is the lowest tier of local government. Parish councils are elected corporate bodies, with variable tax raising powers, and they carry out beneficial public activities in geogr ...

, covering the three civil parishes of Embleton, Setmurthy, and Wythop. The parish is wholly within the Lake District National Park, and so some functions are administered by the Lake District National Park Authority, notably town planning, planning. Wythop is within the Penrith and Solway (UK Parliament constituency), Penrith and Solway UK Parliamentary constituency.

Administrative history

Wythop was historically a Township (England), township in the ancient parish of Brigham, Cumbria, Brigham, which formed part of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Cumberland. The parish of Brigham was large, and its four south-eastern townships of Brackenthwaite, Buttermere, Brackenthwaite, Buttermere, Cumbria (village), Buttermere, Lorton, Cumbria, Lorton, and Wythop were served by a chapel of ease at Lorton. Another chapel was subsequently built at Wythop, which was subordinate to the one at Lorton. Wythop was made a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1835. In 1864, a replacement Wythop church dedicated to St Margaret was built on a new site; the old church near Kelswick Farm is now in ruins. Wythop Chapel as a whole

The township of Wythop took on civil functions under the poor laws from the 17th century onwards. As such, the township also became a

in 1866, when the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws. When elected parish and district councils were established in 1894, Wythop was included in the Cockermouth Rural District. Cockermouth Rural District was abolished in 1974, becoming part of the borough of Allerdale in the new county of Cumbria. Allerdale was in turn abolished in 2023 when the new Cumberland Council was created, also taking over the functions of the abolished Cumbria County Council in the area.

References

External links