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Cumbria

County of northwest England, created in 1974 from Cumberland, Westmorland, the Furness district of northwest Lancashire, and the Sedbergh district of northwest Yorkshire.

Area

6,810 sq km/2,629 sq mi

Towns and cities

Carlisle (administrative headquarters), Barrow, Kendal, Penrith, Whitehaven, Workington

Physical

Scafell Pike (978 m/3,210 ft), the highest mountain in England; Helvellyn (950 m/3,118 ft); Lake Windermere, the largest lake in England (17 km/10.5 mi long, 1.6 km/1 mi wide), and other lakes (Derwentwater, Grasmere, Haweswater, Ullswater); the rivers Eden and Derwent

Features

Lake District National Park; Grizedale Forest sculpture project; Furness peninsula; western part of Hadrian's Wall

Agriculture

in the north and east there is dairy farming; sheep are also reared; the West Cumberland Farmers is England's largest agricultural cooperative

Industries

the traditional coal, iron, and steel industries of the coast towns have been replaced by newer industries including chemicals, plastics, marine engineering, electronics, and shipbuilding (at Barrow-in-Furness, nuclear submarines and warships); tourism; salmon fishing

Population

(2001) 487,600

Famous people

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Stan Laurel, Beatrix Potter, Thomas de Quincey, John Ruskin, Robert Southey, William Wordsworth

The county's divisions Cumbria is divided into six districts, which are (from north to south): Carlisle, the city and its surrounding area up to the border with Scotland; Allerdale, the northwest coastal lowland with the coastal towns of Maryport and Workington, and the inland towns of Cockermouth and Keswick; Eden, from Helvellyn to the boundary in the Pennines with Northumberland, Durham, and North Yorkshire; Copeland, the western valleys and coastlands, including Whitehaven; South Lakeland, stretching from Grasmere and Ambleside to the shores of Morecambe Bay; and Barrow-in-Furness, which covers the town and neighbouring Dalton-in-Furness. Barrow, Carlisle, and Copeland have been given the status of borough.

History Varied history is reflected in historic remains, which include barrows, stone circles, the western section of Hadrian's Wall, and a number of castles. In the 7th century it was part of Northumbria. In the 10th and 11th centuries it alternated between Scottish and English rule, until taken by the English in 1157.

Power Permission was granted in 1992 to build fifteen 24 m/80 ft-high wind generators. There are nuclear power stations at Calder Hall (1956) and Sellafield (formerly Windscale, the first to produce plutonium in the United Kingdom). British Nuclear Fuels' THORP nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield began operating in 1994.

Baillie Scott, Hugh Mackay Bassenthwaite

Carlisle (UK) Furness

Keswick Lake District

Loweswater Windscale