100 Interesting Facts
OK, so there aren't 100 Interesting Facts here yet, but bear with us, we're getting there! These Facts have been submitted by our volunteers and friends. Click on a 'fact' for more Backgound information. If YOU have a Fact you'd like to share, please Contact Us , giving us references so we can check - as before posting anything, our team of historians have to be sure it REALLY IS a fact, not a myth!
Reveal Facts by:
The antiquary William Camden could not visit Housesteads while in the area in 1599 for fear of the Moss Troopers living there
Tarn Wadling, now drained, was famous for many things, including a floating island that mysteriously appeared one night in 1810
The Guide to the Lakes (1778) thought the best way of looking at scenery was by viewing it through a mirror called a Claude Glass
Reginald Bainbrigg, a 16th century schoolmaster, collected Roman inscriptions which he displayed at his home in Appleby
On 22nd February 1822 a great flood destroyed five bridges in the Eden Valley. The water was three feet deep in Appleby church
Blackmail originated in Cumbria and the borders as the name for the protection racket that the Border Reivers ran for centuries.
From 1881 the Corkickle Brake waggonway ran to one of the Earl of Lonsdale's collieries. Later it was used for hauling sulphuric acid
There was a pearl fishery at Drigg in the 17th century, in the mussel beds of the Irt estuary.
The name Cumbria comes from the same root as Cymry, the Welsh word meaning ‘fellow countrymen'
Piel Island was the scene of a failed invasion on 5 June 1487, when Lambert Simnel, claiming to be ‘King Edward VI’, landed there.
Mardale Green, a hamlet in the parish of Shap, was drowned in the 1930s when Haweswater was extended to provide a reservoir for Manchester
Kirkby Stephen Church contains a 10th century carved stone block depicting the Norse God Loki, often referred to as The Bound Devil.
Dunmail Raise is the supposed burial site of Dyfnwal ab Owain, 10th century King of Stratchclyde; may mark the kingdom's southern boundary
Cumbria contains both the highest mountain in England (Scafell Pike, 3209 feet) and also the deepest lake (Wastwater, 243 feet)
The only part of Cumbria to be included in Domesday was the part around Ulverston and Dalton. The rest was not considered part of England.
St Bees is named after St Bega, reputed to have been an Irish princess who fled from the Vikings in 850AD - but who may not have existed
When St Cuthbert visited Carlisle in the 7th century, he was shown the city walls - and a Roman fountain, still working after 300 years
England's highest market town is Alston and St John the Evangelist, Nenthead is the highest parish church.
Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy from Hutton Roof near Kirkby Lonsdale won the VC, DSO and MC in nine months and did not carry a gun.
The Bewcastle Cross is one of the finest examples of Anglo-Saxon sculpture and features Old English runic inscriptions.
