Gosforth, Cumbria

The Gosforth Cross is a tall, slender Viking High Cross, dating to the first half of the 10th century AD in St Mary's churchyard, Gosforth in the English county of Cumbria. It is a remarkable and unique example of early medieval sculpture in the British Isles. The coastal strip of Cumbria was historically part of the kingdom of Northumbria, but was settled by Scandinavians in either the 9th or 10th century. The cross is highly significant in showing a transition from Pagan to Christian beliefs in this area as it carries both Christian and Nordic symbols. The dual symbolism of the Cross was first identified following a suggestion in 1881 by local amateur antiquarian Dr Charles Arundel Parker. Subsequent investigations with Rev. William Slater Calverley, and Professor Dr George Stephens of Copenhagen University demonstrated that the cross showed scenes described in the old Norse narrative poems; the Poetic Edda. Since then the Cross has been a source of great interest because of its insight into a dim and poorly documented period in European history.

St Mary's Church in the village of Gosforth, Cumbria, England, is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Calder, the archdeaconry of West Cumberland, and the diocese of Carlisle. Its benefice is united with those of St Olaf, Wasdale Head, and St Michael, Nether Wasdale. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. It is associated with "a unique Viking-age assemblage" of carved stones.

Wellington is a small village in the civil parish of Gosforth, Cumberland, Cumbria, England, lying north east of Gosforth beside the River Bleng A bridge at Wellington carries the Gosforth to Wasdale road over the river. Hall Croft, Wellington, is a late 18th- or early 19th-century house and a grade II listed building.

Ponsonby is a village and civil parish in the Cumberland district of the county of Cumbria, England. Ponsonby has a church which was constructed in 1840 and had further additions in 1874. Ponsonby is located along and just off the A595. It has a population of 205 according to the 2011 Census Data.

Ponsonby Fell is a hill in the west of the English Lake District, near Gosforth, in Cumberland, Cumbria. It is the subject of a chapter of Wainwright's book The Outlying Fells of Lakeland. It reaches 1,020 feet (310 m), and Wainwright's route is an anticlockwise horseshoe starting at Gosforth, following the River Bleng before striking north for the summit, then descending to Wellington from where he recommends taking a bus back to Gosforth rather than walk along the A595 road ("it is busy, dangerous, and has no footpath"). Wainwright says: "There are no fells not worth climbing, but Ponsonby Fell is very nearly in their category", and describes the summit as "attained with a conviction that nobody has ever been there before", which conviction is then contradicted by the presence of a small cairn.

Holmrook is a linear village in the English county of Cumbria. It lies along the A595 road on the west banks of the River Irt. The B5344 road connects it to Drigg, with its railway station less than two miles to the west. Two miles north-east along the Irt valley is Irton Hall, a large mostly 19th-century house which incorporates a 14th-century pele tower.

Calder Abbey in Cumbria was a Savigniac monastery founded in 1134 by Ranulph de Gernon, 2nd Earl of Chester, and moved to this site following a refoundation in 1142. It became Cistercian in 1148. It is near the village of Calderbridge.

Drigg is a village on the coast of the Irish Sea in the Cumberland district of the county of Cumbria, England. It borders the Lake District National Park. Next to the village is the site of the UK's low-level radioactive waste storage facility.

Drigg is a railway station on the Cumbrian Coast Line, which runs between Carlisle and Barrow-in-Furness. The station, situated 31 miles (50 km) north-west of Barrow-in-Furness, serves the villages of Drigg and Holmrook in Cumbria. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains. The station is unstaffed, but the main station building still stands and is in private commercial use as a cafe and craft shop. At the south end of the station is a level crossing with manually operated gates, controlled from the adjacent signal box. There is step-free access to each platform, however the platforms are lower than the standard ones and are therefore not suitable for mobility-impaired passengers. Waiting shelters and timetable posters are located on each side of the track, train running information for the station can also obtained by telephone. A ticket machine and digital information screens were installed by operator Northern in 2019, so passengers can now purchase tickets before boarding the train. A short distance from the station, heavy secured sidings take special trains carrying nuclear materials from the Sellafield nuclear site (which is located close by) to the Low Level Waste Repository where the material is buried. Paul Merton visited the station en route to the Repository in the first episode of his 2016 travel documentary Paul Merton's Secret Stations.

St Paul, Irton is an active parish church in the civil parish of Irton with Santon, Cumbria, England. It is in the Calder Deanery of the Anglican diocese of Carlisle and is part of the benefice of Black Combe, Drigg, Eskdale, Irton, Muncaster and Waberthwaite. It stands in a commanding position on the low ridge between Wasdale and Eskdale, and the noted 9th century Anglo-Saxon cross testifies to a long history of it being a Christian site. The church is a Grade II* Listed Building.

Irton Cross is an Anglo-Saxon cross in the graveyard of St Paul's Church, in the parish of Irton with Santon, Cumbria, England. Dating from the early 9th century, it lies chronologically between the Bewcastle Cross and the Gosforth cross and has greater affinity with the earlier Anglo-Roman style of Bewcastle.

The Low Level Waste Repository is the UK's central long-term store for low-level radioactive waste located on the West Cumbrian coast near Drigg village and opened in 1959. It is a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.