Original Sources

Boundary Changes

The Local Government Boundary Commission website contains a complete list of orders affecting Cumbria County from 1973 to the present. In some cases there is a link to a copy of the order in pdf: http://www.lgbce.org.uk/records-and-resources/database-of-local-government-orders/north-west/cumbria

Calendar of Patent Rolls

searchable online for period 1216-1452: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/patentrolls/  

Calendar of Fine Rolls

searchable online for reign of Henry III: http://www.frh3.org.uk/  

Cumberland Wildlife Trust

An oral history archive on Farming in the Lake District is available on the Cumbria Wildlife Trust website.

The Corpus of Anglos Saxon Stone Sculpture

Identifies and records English sculpture dating from the 7th to the 11th centuries.  http://www.ascorpus.ac.uk/

English Legal Documents

medieval legal documents held at the National Archives and digitized by the Anglo-American Legal Tradition project (University of Houston):http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT.html

Hearth Tax for Westmorland

http://www.hearthtax.org.uk/communities/westmorland/index.html

Inquisitions Post Mortem (forthcoming)

a major research project is underway to produce a searchable English translation of inquisitions post mortem (IPMs) online. http://blog.inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/

Past Presented

Contains a lot of background information and sources about the history of various places in Cumbria and elsewhere available online, free of charge. http://www.pastpresented.info/index.htm

People of Northern England

searchable database of entries in 13th century plea rolls and pipe rolls for the counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumberland: http://www.pone.ac.uk/

Religious Census of 1851

The National Archives have produced a digital microfilm copy of the 1851 Religious Census [Ref. HO/129]. This is free to view and download.

To view returns for Cumbria, please click here.

Papal Registers

Calendar of entries in the papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, ed. W H Bliss and others, 14 vols. (HMSO, 1893-1960). Now fully on-line at: www.british-history.ac.uk/catalogue.aspx?type=3&gid=150  

Papal Taxation, 1291

Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliae et Walliae, auctoritate Papae Nicholas IV circa 1291, ed. T. Astle and J. Caley (RC, 1802): www.hrionline.ac.uk/taxatio