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Cumwhitton is a small village and
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 ...
close to
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 ...
in
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 just east of the M6 and the nearest train station is located in
Wetheral Wetheral is a village, civil parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in Cumbria, England. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 census, the population of the Wetheral Wards of the United Kingdom, Ward was ...
, 3 miles away. Cumwhitton is often confused with the nearby village of Cumwhinton in Wetheral parish. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2011 Census was 310.


The village

The current
population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...
of Cumwhitton, according to the 2001
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
, is 293. There is a roughly even split of males to females, with 152 males and 141 females. There are 111
households A household consists of one or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is impo ...
within the small village.


Location

Cumwhitton is located in the north of Cumbria, in the
North West of England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...
. Cumwhitton is approximately 8.8 miles South East of Carlisle. The A69 is the main road that links Cumwhitton to Carlisle. The village is located on the East side of the River Eden which runs through Cumwhitton to
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 ...
.


St. Mary's Church

St. Mary's Church is a grade 2
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
. It dates back to, at least, the 12th century and was extensively rebuilt in the 19th century. St. Mary's Church is an ancient edifice. There are a variety of stained glass windows, most by unknown artists. The east window is probably
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
; the South wall is Norman; and the north arcade of three bays was built around 1200.


Leisure

Cumwhitton also has a caravan park (Cairndale Caravan Park) which is open from 1 March through to 31 October. The park has caravans to hire, and also has tent and caravan pitches


History


Viking burial ground

In March 2004, a Cumbrian metal detectorist, Peter Adams, working found a brooch in the ploughsoil on farmland belonging to Townfoot Farm, on the western edge of Cumwhitton. This was identified as a rare Viking oval brooch of ninth- or tenth-century date. These are almost always found in pairs and in a burial context. They therefore returned to the site and subsequently found a second brooch. Given the rarity of these brooches in England, funding was secured for an evaluation of the findspot to ascertain whether they came from a grave. A grave was located and found to be furnished; the grave goods included the remains of a wooden box, laid at the feet of the deceased. Several more artefacts, including part of a sword, were found in the surrounding ploughsoil during the evaluation, suggesting that the grave had formed part of a cemetery. A major excavation to record this important site was then funded by
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
, as it was under immediate threat from plough damage. In total, six burials were found, dating to the early tenth century, though almost no skeletal material survived as a result of the acidic nature of the soil. While osteological sexing was not possible, the grave goods suggested these were the burials of two women and four men, the first grave being separated from the rest by about 10 m. The group of five was carefully organised into two closely spaced rows, the central grave of the eastern row being surrounded by a shallow ditch, which suggests that it was once marked by a mound. All the graves were orientated broadly east–west, although how significant this was remains unclear. All the burials were richly furnished, and contained a wide range of artefacts, including swords, spearheads, spurs, knives, and numerous beads and other
grave goods Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are items buried along with a body. They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into an afterlife, or offerings to gods. Grave goods may be classed by researche ...
, implying that they were not Christian. Some of the metalwork from the burials is clearly linked to Scandinavia, and in particular cases, like that of the oval brooches, is highly likely to have been made there. However, other artefacts, such as some of the textiles, seax, folding blades, and spurs, are of probable Insular manufacture. Many of the objects suggest a complexity in their manufacture, with elements derived from a multiplicity of sources. However other items, such as the buckle sets, suggest regional manufacture and provide the first evidence for either an individual craftsman or workshop in the local area. The excavations were published in 2014 by Oxford Archaeology North in their Lancaster Imprints series: Shadows in the Sand: Excavation of a Viking-age cemetery at Cumwhitton, Cumbria, by Caroline Paterson, Adam J Parsons, Rachel M Newman, Nick Johnson, and Christine Howard Davis, Lancaster. It is intended that an exhibition of various artifacts will take place at the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle.


William James Blacklock

The
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...
artist and
lithographer Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German ...
William James Blacklock lived in Cumwhitton from 1818 to 1836 and from 1850 to 1854. He painted scenery in Cumbria, the
Lake District 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 ...
, and the Scottish Borders. In 1818 Blacklock moved from
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
to Cumwhitton.William Blacklock's Biography
Retrieved 26/04/2012
He is believed to have lived in Cumwhitton House with his family. Blacklock moved back to London in 1836; but in 1850 his health deteriorated and he moved back to Cumwhitton. William James Blacklock died on 12 March 1858, and was buried on 16 March 1858 in Cumwhitton. Thirty-three pieces of Blacklock's work are on display at the Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle.Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery
, Retrieved 26/04/2012


See also

* Listed buildings in Cumwhitton


References


External links


Cumbria County History Trust: Cumwhitton
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page) {{authority control Villages in Cumbria Civil parishes in Cumbria Cumberland (unitary authority)