Hackthorpe

Leath was one of the wards of the historic county of Cumberland in north west England. Unlike most other English counties, Cumberland was divided into wards rather than hundreds. The ward was bounded on the south by Westmorland, the north by Cumberland and Eskdale wards, the east by the counties of Northumberland and Durham and on the west by the wards of Allerdale above Derwent and Allerdale below Derwent. In the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870–72) John Marius Wilson described Leath: LEATH, a ward in Cumberland; bounded by Northumberland, Durham, and Westmoreland, and by the wards of Eskdale and Allerdale; and containing Addingham parish, twenty other parishes, and part of another. Acres, 216,296. Pop. in 1851, 29,103; in 1861, 28,675. Houses, 5,819. The ward largely corresponds to that part of the modern Eden District that lies within Cumberland that is the former Penrith urban and rural districts and the Alston with Garrigill Rural District. Market towns in the ward were Penrith (the largest settlement and seat of local government), Kirkoswald and Alston. At one time, the village of Greystoke had held markets. A large part of the ward once made up the main part of the Royal hunting ground known as Inglewood Forest, which was subject to Forest Laws up until the reign of Henry VIII. The manors of Penrith, Langwathby, Castle Sowerby and Great Salkeld and at times Glassonby and Gamblesby were part of the royal estate known as the Honour of Penrith, which eventually passed into the hands of the Dukes of Devonshire.

Clifton & Lowther railway station was a station on the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (L&CR) south of Penrith near to the village of Clifton. Although it was the original terminus to cross Pennines rail traffic on the Eden Valley Railway, it was rapidly by-passed by a new line and junction. The station, which was on the West Coast Main Line, was treated as a private stop by the Earls of Lonsdale.

Great Strickland is a village and civil parish in the Eden Valley between the Cumbrian mountains in the west and the Pennines in the east. It is 5 miles (8.0 km) south east of Penrith, and is in the former county of Westmorland. At the 2011 Census Great Strickland was grouped with Little Strickland, itself enlarged to include Thrimby after 2001, to give a total population of 370. The equivalent figure from the 2001 census was 342.The sandstone village church is dedicated to Saint Barnabas and was constructed in 1872. It has a bell turret.To the west of the village lies the River Leith, the West Coast Main Line and the M6 Motorway. To the south lies the small settlement of Little Strickland.

Lowther is a civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria. Within the parish are the settlements of Lowther Village, Newtown or Lowther Newtown, Hackthorpe, Whale, and Melkinthorpe. At the 2001 census the parish had a population of 402, increasing to 465 at the 2011 Census.The parish council meets at the Lowther Parish Hall in Hackthorpe. Lowther Endowed Primary School is also at Hackthorpe. Most of the land in the parish belongs to the Lowther family estates. The family seat of the Lowthers was formerly Lowther Castle which is now a ruin but set in spectacular parkland. Hackthorpe once had its own magistrates' court which is now part of the village's pub. A large part of the parish is within the Lake District National Park.

Melkinthorpe is a hamlet in the civil parish of Lowther, in the Eden district, in the county of Cumbria, England. It is near the villages of Hackthorpe and Cliburn. Circa 1870, it had a population of 99 as recorded in the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales.

Thrimby is a hamlet and former civil parish, now in the parish of Little Strickland, in the Eden district of Cumbria, England. In 2001 the population of the civil parish of Thrimby was 30. The population measured at the 2011 Census was less than 100. Details are included in the parish of Great Strickland. It has a Grade 2* farmhouse called Thrimby Hall, as seen in series 4 of the BBC Two fly-on-the-wall farming documentary "This Farming Life".

Clifton Moor railway station was situated in England on the Eden Valley Railway between Penrith and Kirkby Stephen East. It served the village of Clifton. The station opened to passenger traffic on 1 August 1863, and was originally named 'Clifton'. The 'Moor' suffix was added on 1 September 1927. The station finally closed on 22 January 1962. On one of the station's platforms a private waiting room was built for the "Yellow Earl of Lonsdale" who lived at nearby Lowther Castle. To the west of the station was Eden Valley Junction where the Eden Valley Railway joined the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway (now part of the West Coast Main Line), south of the junction was at one time Clifton and Lowther railway station.

The Clifton Moor Skirmish took place on the evening of Wednesday 18 December during the Jacobite rising of 1745. Following the decision to retreat from Derby on 6 December, the fast-moving Jacobite army split into three smaller columns; on the morning of 18th, a small force of dragoons led by Cumberland and Sir Philip Honywood made contact with the Jacobite rearguard, at that point commanded by Lord George Murray. Murray ordered his baggage train to continue its retreat towards Penrith while he delayed Cumberland's force. The action did not begin until late afternoon, in failing light and heavy rain; while technically a draw, it enabled Murray to retreat in good order and escape into Scotland. Sometimes suggested as the last battle on English soil, there are numerous other claimants, such as the 1940 Battle of Graveney Marsh on the Kent coast.

Wetheriggs Pottery is a former pottery on the C3047 road, east of the hamlet of Clifton Dykes, in Clifton, Cumbria, 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast of Penrith in England. It opened in the mid 19th century providing farm and housewares for local consumption, later the business diversified into craft pottery. The property is Grade II listed.

Lowther Castle is a crenellated country house in the historic county of Westmorland, which now under the current unitary authority of Westmorland and Furness, in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, England . The estate has belonged to the Lowther family, latterly the Earls of Lonsdale, since the Middle Ages. It is a fully managed ruin, open to visits by the public to the shell of the castle and some of the gardens since 2011. Additional work was completed since that time, most recently on the extensive gardens. Francis Knollys escorted Mary, Queen of Scots to Lowther Hall (as the house was then known) on 13 July 1568 on her way to Wharton Hall and Bolton Castle. In the late 17th century, the 1st Viscount Lonsdale rebuilt the family home, then known as Lowther Hall, on a grand scale. The current building is a castellated mansion which was built by Robert Smirke for the 1st Earl of Lonsdale between 1806 and 1814, and it was only at that time that the site was designated a "castle". The family fortune was undermined by the extravagance of the 5th Earl of Lonsdale, a famous socialite, and the castle was closed in 1937. During the Second World War, it was used by a tank regiment. Its contents were removed in the late 1940s and the roof was removed in 1957. The shell is still owned by the Lowther Estate Trust. George Macartney, when visiting the summer retreat of the Chinese emperor in Chengde in 1793, could compare the magnificence of what he saw only with Lowther Hall: “If any place in England can be said in any respect to have similar features to the western park, which I have seen this day, it is Lowther Hall in Westmoreland, which (when I knew it many years ago) from the extent of prospect, the grand surrounding objects, the noble situation, the diversity of surface, the extensive woods, and command of water, I thought might be rendered by a man of sense, spirit, and taste, the finest scene in the British dominions.”In the 19th century, an East India Company ship, HCS Lowther Castle, was named after the estate.

Clifton is a small linear village and civil parish in Cumbria, England. Historically part of Westmorland, it lies 3 miles (4.8 km) south east of Penrith.

Whale is a hamlet in the Westmorland and Furness unitary authority area, Cumbria, England. Historically in Westmorland, it is about a mile south of the village of Askham. In the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 it had a population of 53.