Penrith, Cumbria

Penrith is a market town in the county of Cumbria (historically Cumberland), England. It is sited in the Eden Valley just north of the River Eamont, and lies less than 3 miles outside the boundaries of the Lake District National Park. Other local rivers bounding the town are the River Lowther, and the River Petteril. The Rivers Petteril and Eamont are connected by a partially man-made watercourse flowing through the centre of the town known as Thacka Beck which, for many centuries, provided the town with its main water supply.

The local authority is Eden District Council, which is based in the town and was formerly the seat of both Penrith Urban and Rural District Councils. Penrith has no town council of its own, and is the second least populated unparished area, after Berwick-upon-Tweed. See below for a short history of the Penrith UDC.

Architecture & geology

The main church is St. Andrew, built 1720/1722 in an imposing Grecian style, abutting an earlier 13th century tower. The church yard has some (possibly early Anglo-Saxon) standing stones in it, known now as the "Giant's Thumb" and "Giant's Grave".

The ruins of Penrith Castle (1300s-1500s) can be seen from the adjacent train station. The castle is run as a visitor attraction by English Heritage. To the south-east of the town are the more substantial ruins of Brougham Castle, also under the protection of English Heritage.

To the south of the town are the ancient henge sites known as "Mayburgh Henge" and "King Arthur's Round Table". Both are under the protection of English Heritage.

In the centre of the town is the Clock Tower, erected in 1861 to commemorate Philip Musgrave of Edenhall.

Penrith has been noted for the number of wells in and around the town, and well-dressing ceremonies were commonplace on certain days in the month of May. Three miles south-east of the town, on the River Eamont are the "Giants' caves", where the well was dedicated to St. Ninian. The caves are enlarged out of Lower Permian sandstones and their associated breccias and purple shales.

Just to the north of the town is the wooded signal-beacon hill, naturally named Beacon Hill. It last use was probably in 1804 in the war against Napoleon. Traditionally, the Beacon Pike was used to warn of approaching danger from Scotland. Today, the hill is a popular local and tourist attraction. On a clear day the majority of the Eden Valley, the local fells, Pennines and parts of the North Lakes can be seen. It is almost certain that the Beacon Hill gave Penrith its name - in Celtic - of "red hill". The modern Welsh name for Penrith is Penrhudd. This also means "red hill" and is pronounced almost the same.

Transport & travel

The town is on the M6, and also the junction of the A66, A6, and A686.

Penrith has a mainline railway station (dating from 1846) called 'Penrith North Lakes', which is served by express inter-city trains from London, Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester and Glasgow.

The National Cycle Network's major National Route 7 runs through the town, and National Route 71 stops just short of the southern edge of the town.

Famous people

Penrith was the home town of William Wordsworth's mother, and the poet spent some of his childhood in the town, attending the local school with Mary Hutchinson his later wife.

The MP and social reformer Samuel Plimsoll spent part of his childhood living at Page Hall in Foster Street. The row of houses at Townhead called Plimsoll Close is named after him.

Mary, the wife of the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson lived in Penrith for part of her life whilst her father was minister at the Congregational Church in Duke Street.

The feature film Withnail and I features the real Penrith very briefly, but most of the filming locations were actually in and around nearby Shap. The famous "Penrith Tea Rooms" scene was filmed in Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes.

Charlie Hunnam, British actor, attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS) Penrith and lived locally in the area during his teenage years. He has since been very critical of local people during his time spent in the area.

The Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope's mother lived for a while at a house called Carleton Hill (not be confused with Carleton Hall) just outside the town on the Alston road.

Penrith Urban District Council

Penrith Urban District Council was the local authority for the town between 1894 and 1974 when it was replaced by Eden District Council.

The authority's area was coterminous with the civil parish of Penrith although when the council was abolished Penrith became an unparished area.

The area had previously been an urban sanitary district presided over by the Local Board of Health.

As well as the town of itself the district also contained the hamlets of Carleton (now a suburb of Penrith), Bowscar, Plumpton Head and part of the village of Eamont Bridge.

The district was divided into 4 wards namely: North, South, East and West whose boundaries remained the basis of local government divisions in the town until the 1990s.

From 1906 the council was based at Penrith Town Hall which had previously been 2 houses believed to have been designed by Robert Adam.

In the 1920s the council came into the possession of Penrith Castle, the grounds of which it turned into a fine public park and also built the Castle Hill or Tyne Close Housing Estate nearby. Further pre-war council housing was built at Fair Hill and Castletown and after World War 2 at Scaws, Townhead and Pategill.

The district was surrounded on 3 sides by the Penrith Rural District, the fourth boundary was with Westmorland marked by the River Eamont.

Nightlife

Being a small town which relies heavily on agriculture and associated trades, the nightlife in Penrith could be described as somewhat 'crude'. There are two nightclubs 'Blues' and 'Toppers'. They are generally quite safe (but rowdy and smoke-filled) and in need of renovation. A police van usually heads down to the clubs just before closing. If the Penrith New Squares development (see below) goes ahead Blues and possibly Toppers will have to relocated to new premises.

'The Warehouse' is a large late-license pub which has a slightly more upmarket appearance, and has taken some of the older clientele from the nightclubs.

Aside from these three venues there are a wide assortment of pubs concentrated in the heart of the town.

There are a few late-serving kebab shops located near the town centre, and 24 hour garages on the outskirts of town.

Penrith Dialect

The Penrith dialect known as Penrithian, is a diasystem of the Cumbrian dialect spoken around the Penrith and Eden district area.

Media

The local newspaper, the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald, goes on sale every Saturday. The Herald is independently owned, with offices on King Street, but is printed at the CN Group's printing works in Carlisle, where the weekly Cumberland News and daily evening paper the News and Star are also printed.

A separate edition of C & W Herald is published for the Keswick area, and is known as the Lake District Herald.

Penrith lies with the ITV Border region and the BBC's North East and Cumbria region.

There are two local radio stations serving the Penrith area, both based in Carlisle. These are BBC Radio Cumbria and the independent station CFM.

Education

Penrith has the following schools:

PRIMARY

Brunswick Infants (formerly County Infants)

Beaconside C.E. Infants (formerly Scaws Infants School)

Beaconside C.E. Junior

North Lakes School (formerly Wetheriggs Junior) ^*

St Catherines Roman Catholic Primary

Hunter Hall, Primary (independent)

SECONDARY

Ullswater Community College (formerly Ullswater High School)

Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (selective)

FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION

The University of Central Lancashire has a campus just outside the town at Newton Rigg.

Ullswater Community College has a large further or adult education centre

Former schools in the town include:

Girls National School (now housing)

Boys National School or St Andrews School for Boys (now demolished)

National Infants School (now Penrith Playgroup Nursery School)

Robinsons School (infants) (now the towns museum and tourist information centre)

County Girls School (now part of Brunswick Infants)

County Boys School (now QEGS Sixth Form Centre)

Tynefield Secondary Modern (originally co-educational but later girls only)

Ullswater Secondary Modern (boys only)

Ullswater & Tynefield merged to create Ullswater High in 1980.

Shopping in Penrith

As a small market town relying quite heavily on the tourist trade Penrith benefits from a mix of some high street chain stores and many small local specialist shops. Though as has happened with many towns of a similar size a lot of shops have given way to business such as banks, building societies and travel agents

Market days are Tuesday and Saturday. On Tuesdays there is a small outdoor market in Great Dockray and Cornmarket, once a month this is expanded to include a Farmers' Market in the Market Square as well. On Saturdays at the Auction Mart alongside the M6 motorway Junction 40 takes place Cumbria's largest outdoor market. A free bus service is provided between the Auction Mart and the town centre on Saturdays.

The main shopping areas in the town centre are Middlegate, Little Dockray, Devonshire Street/Market Square, Cornmarket, Angel Lane and the Devonshire Arcade and Angel Square precincts with some shops in Burrowgate, Brunswick Road, Great Dockray and King Street.

Soem of the more widely known of the small specialist shops are J & J Graham Grocers and Delitectessan, Arragons Cycle Centre, Arnisons Ladies and Gents Outfitters, Confectioners The Toffee Shop and Cranstons Butchers who have a shop in King Street and also operate the Cumbrian Food Hall on Ullswater Road on the outskirts of the town.

In Middlegate are branches of Woolworths, Argos, Savers and Burtons Menswear. While Clintons Cards, Boots the Chemist, W H Smith and Dorothy Perkins are in Angel Square. There are 2 branches of Greggs the baker who also own a large bakery in the town.

The Penrith Co-operative Society has a large department store and supermarket in Burrowgate close to the bus station. Other supermarkets in the town are Morrisons (formerly Safeway), just outside the town centre on Brunswick Road, Aldi on Ullswater Road and Somerfield (formerly Kwik Save) in King Street; there is also a branch of Spar oppisite the Co-op store.

Next to Aldi are branches of Halfords and Focus DIY. The town's branch of B&Q is on Bridge Lane oppisite the hospital and health centre.

Past and present national or regional retailers who at one time had shops in Penrith include Fine Fare, Dewhursts, Gateway, Iceland, Presto Foodmarkets, Greenwoods Menswear, Fosters Menswear, Liptons, Norweb, British Gas, Walter Wilson, Freeman, Hardy and Willis and Currys.

Penrith New Squares

For the past few years controversial plans have been proposed to expand the town centre of Penrith southwards into the Southend Road area which is currently used as car park and sports fields including ones used by Penrith and Penrith United Football Clubs. The first stage of this development has been achieved with the expansion of the swimming pool into a modern leisure centre complex.

The plans for the rest of the scheme have been developed by the property company Lowther Mannelli and include a new supermarket (most likely to be a branch of Tesco), new shopping streets, car parking and housing. The name of the scheme is Penrith New Squares as the new shops will be centred around 2 squares which will provide parking and places for public entertainment.

If the plans are approved the developers hope to see the first shops open in 2010. Retailers Next and New Look are believed to be interested in renting units within the scheme.

Location of Penrith

External links

Eden District Council
Illustrated Guide to Penrith
Area profile based on 2001 Census Details
Local Tourist Information
Old Photos of Penrith made by the photographer Francis Frith in 1893.

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