Flimby is a coastal village and former

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 ...

, now in the parish 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 ...

, 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, in the ceremonial county 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 was historically in

. It is included in the Maryport South county division of Cumbria County Council. In 1951 the parish had a population of 2066.

Governance

The village is in the

parliamentary constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

of Whitehaven and Workington. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished and merged with Maryport.

Geography and flooding

Flimby is located on Cumbria's coast between the towns of Maryport to the north and

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town is at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast, south-west of Carlisle and north-east of Whitehaven. At the 2021 census the ...

to the south. It is drained by streams from nearby hillsides, some of which pass under the village in culverts. These have caused period flooding. However, woody debris dams, as a form of natural flood management, have been built in the Penny Gill forest by the West Cumbria Rivers Trust, as a way of storing water temporarily upstream and reducing what the culverts need to carry.

Amenities

Flimby railway station on the Cumbrian Coast Line has served the village since 1846. Trains stop only by request. The village is also served by regular buses between Maryport,

and beyond. The

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church of St Nicholas is in the

Diocese of Carlisle In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. It holds services on the second and fourth Sundays of the month. The site of the successive former Flimby Methodist churches in West Lane (built in 1862 and about 1929) is now occupied by a house. The village has a primary school with about 150 pupils. There is a convenience store and also a working men's social club. Flimby's amateur

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

club, the Vikings, plays in the Iggesund Cumberland League. The shoe manufacturer New Balance has a factory on the outskirts of the village. Flimby Wind Farm opened in June 2013.

Heritage

The name of the village was recorded as ''Flinbi'' in 1056 and ''Flemyngeby'' in the 12th century, and seems to come 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 ...

''Flæminga bý'', meaning "the village of the

Flemings Flemish people or Flemings ( ) are a Germanic ethnic group native to Flanders, Belgium, who speak Flemish Dutch. Flemish people make up the majority of Belgians, at about 60%. ''Flemish'' was historically a geographical term, as all inhabita ...

". Flimby has three Grade II historic buildings listed 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 ...

. Flimby Cottage in Main Road is an early 19th-century pebble dash lodge in

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style. Flimby Hall is a three-storey country house completed in 1766. Flimby Lodge is a mansion dating from the late 18th or early 19th century, derelict at the time it was listed in 1977.British Listed Building
Retrieved 12 February 2016.
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Notable people

*The Scottish novelist and poet Helen Craik lived at Flimby Hall from 1792 until her death in 1825 and has a memorial in the parish church. * Dick Huddart (1936–2021), a professional rugby league player, was born in Flimby. *The birth of John McKeown, the professional rugby league international, was registered in Flimby in 1926. * Tee Ritson, rugby league player.

References

External links

*
Cumbria County History Trust: Flimby
(nb: provisional research only - see Talk page) {{authority control Villages in Cumbria Former civil parishes in Cumbria Maryport