Grayrigg 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 ...

in the

Westmorland and Furness Westmorland and Furness is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Cumbria, England. The economy is mainly focused on tourism around both the Lake District and Cumbria Coast, shipbuilding and the Royal Port of Barrow, Royal ...

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. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 223, increasing at the 2011 census to 242. It lies on undulated and partly mountainous land, north east of

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Westmorland and Furness, England. It lies within the River Kent's dale, from which its name is derived, just outside the boundary of t ...

, on the north side of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

, and west side of the

M6 motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 motorway, M1 and the western end of t ...

History

Historically a part of

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland''R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref>) is an area of North West England which was Historic counties of England, historically a county. People of the area ...

, Grayrigg and its surrounding area have provided evidence of an ancient

Roman camp ''Castra'' () is a Latin language, Latin term used during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire for a military 'camp', and ''castrum'' () for a 'Fortification, fort'. Either could refer to a building or plot of land, used as a fortified milita ...

. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

Grayrigg formed a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

and

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

centred on the chapel dedicated to St John the Evangelist, which is still in use.

Railway accidents

Grayrigg's 20th and 21st century history is marked by two high-profile major train crashes. VirginPendolinoDerailment

On 18 May 1947, a 13-carriage London Midland & Scottish Railway service from Glasgow Central to London Euston failed to stop at the signals for Lambrigg Crossing and collided with a locomotive with 33 people injured, three seriously. On 23 February 2007, Lambrigg Crossovers (54.358507,-2.655958), south of Grayrigg was the site of the Grayrigg derailment, a fatal derailment involving a Virgin Trains West Coast service from London Euston to Glasgow Central."Rail crash report blames points"
BBC News, 26 February 2007

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Grayrigg
(nb: provisional research only - see Talk page) Villages in Cumbria Westmorland Civil parishes in Cumbria {{Cumbria-geo-stub

History

Railway accidents

See also

References

External links