Langwathby is a 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 northern

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 ...

, and in the historic English county 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 ...

, about north east of Penrith on the A686 road. The village lies on the east bank of the River Eden. At the 2001 census the parish had a population of 748, increasing to 866 at the 2011 Census. The village is centred on a large village green next to which stands St Peter's church, the village pub, the shop & post office, and the village hall. There is a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

on the road to

Little Salkeld Little Salkeld is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Hunsonby, in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England, a few miles to the north east of Penrith, Cumbria, Penrith. In 1931 the civil parish had a po ...

and there are two garages. Langwathby is the base of the 'Pride of Cumbria', one of the helicopters run by the Great North Air Ambulance Service

Etymology

'Langwathby' can be translated as 'long' ('lang'), 'ford' ('wath',

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 ...

'vað'), 'village' (

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 ...

'bȳ',

'býr'), referring to the fording of the River Eden which runs along the edge of the village. It is sometimes locally called Langanby.

History

In the 1600s, Langwathby moor was the site of a major racecourse. The last race was held in 1699. The Settle to Carlisle Railway has a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

in the village, built in 1876. The station building is now a cafe. The parish includes the nearby village of Edenhall which was a separate parish until 1934. The ford which gave the village its name was replaced by a three-arched sandstone toll bridge, which was washed away in 1968. A metal girder bridge was erected as a “temporary” replacement. At Langwathby Hall was the visitor attraction and working

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...

farm called Eden Ostrich World, which closed in 2012.

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

in the same name exists. This ward stretches north east to Gamblesby and south to Edenhall with a total population taken at the 2011 Census of 1,562.

Industry

At Langwathby there is a

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

processing factory and an

animal feed Animal feed is food given to domestic animals, especially livestock, in the course of animal husbandry. There are two basic types: fodder and forage. Used alone, the word ''feed'' more often refers to fodder. Animal feed is an important input ...

mill. At Barbary Plains just outside Edenhall, there was formerly a cement block works formerly owned by

Hanson plc Heidelberg Materials UK is a British-based building materials company, headquartered in Maidenhead. Previously known as Hanson UK, the company has been a subsidiary of the German company HeidelbergCement since August 2007, and was formerly lis ...

and later by

RMC Group RMC Group plc (formerly "Ready Mixed Concrete Limited") was a ready mixed concrete, quarrying and concrete products company headquartered in Egham, United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 1 ...

, part of

Cemex CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., known as Cemex, is a Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than ...

. The site is now a depot and head office for a haulage company.

References

External links