St Mary's Church, Gosforth

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.

Gosforth is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Lake District, in Cumberland, England. It is situated on the A595 road between Whitehaven and Barrow-in-Furness. It had a population of 1,230 at the 2001 Census. At the 2011 census Gosforth was grouped with Ponsonby and Wasdale giving a total population of 1,396. Adjacent settlements include Whitehaven, Egremont, Ravenglass and Wasdale. It is close to Wast Water, the deepest lake in England, and just a 7-minute drive from Seascale village and beach. The Cumbrian Coast railway can be accessed at Seascale.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Borough of Copeland was a local government district with borough status in western Cumbria, England. Its council was based in Whitehaven. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the Borough of Whitehaven, Ennerdale Rural District and Millom Rural District. The population of the Non-Metropolitan district was 69,318 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 70,603 at the 2011 Census. The name was derived from an alternative name for the Cumberland ward of Allerdale above Derwent, which covered roughly the same area. There are different explanations for the name. According to a document issued at the time of the borough's grant of arms, the name is derived from kaupland, meaning "bought land," referring to an area of the Forest bought from the estate of St Bees Priory. In July 2021 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced that in April 2023, Cumbria would be reorganised into two unitary authorities. On 1 April 2023, Copeland Borough Council was abolished and its functions were transferred to the new unitary authority Cumberland, which also covers the former districts of Allerdale and Carlisle.

Copeland was a constituency in Cumbria created in 1983 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. The constituency was represented in Parliament by Trudy Harrison, of the Conservative Party, from a by-election in February 2017 until its abolition for the 2024 general election. The seat had been held by Labour candidates at elections between 1983 and 2015 inclusive. Copeland was one of five Cumbria seats won (held or gained) by a Conservative candidate in 2019 out of a total of six covering the county. The bulk of the seat was in the Lake District, together with a large proportion of its population. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat was abolished, with the majority being included in a new constituency which also includes the town of Workington, and is named Whitehaven and Workington – first contested at the 2024 general election. Keswick was included in the new constituency of Penrith and Solway, and Millom was transferred to Barrow and Furness.