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:
Wigton's market cross burnt down during celebrations of Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21st October 1805.
Seathwaite was once the world’s leading supplier of ‘black lead’, plumbago or ‘wad’ Before the c.16th it was just used for marking sheep.
An early 15th century manuscript poem, probably written at Carlisle, claims that King Arthur’s court was at Merry Carlisle, not Camelot
Mary Noble of Bampton was the first woman in the country to be elected to a county council (Westmorland).
In 1713 Jane Alderson found 118 oz of silver in a wall belonging to the lord of the manor of Brough
Kings Meaburn was forfeited to the Crown by Sir Hugh de Morville for his role in Thomas à Becket’s murder in 1170
Flookburgh was chosen as a safe place to build airships during the First World War, and Ravenstown was built to house the workers
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
