introduction to penrith...
Located at an important intersection of routes between Scotland and England and a cross-Pennines road, Penrith has reaped the benefits of good transport links for centuries. Today, with easy access from the M6, A66 and with a mainline railway service, the town is a perfect base for exploration of the dramatic northern Lakes, the beautiful Eden Valley and the rolling Pennine hills.
This distinctive red sandstone town, with its popular markets and abundance of specialist, family-run shops, has become the regional centre for trade, industry and services in the Eden Valley. Penrith is noted for its Toffee Shop (‘the best fudge in England'), Bluebell Bookshop (one of the largest independent booksellers in Cumbria) and James & John Graham (est. 1793) - a traditional food emporium in the heart of Penrith, among many other specialist shops.
The settlement of Eamont Bridge, clustered around the bridge over the River Eamont, developed at the point where several drovers' routes converged to cross the river (formerly the boundary between Cumberland and Westmorland. Further south is Clifton, a village steeped in history, from its pele tower at one end to the Rebel Tree at the other.
With no natural stream or river to supply water to the town, a ditch four miles long (6.4 km) was dug by hand from the River Petteril around 1400. This watercourse, known as Thacka Beck, flows under much of Penrith towards the River Eamont, but is visible behind the Tourist Information Centre. The townsfolk were allowed to take as much water from the Petteril ‘as would flow through the eye of a millstone'.
Percy Toplis, known as the ‘Monocled Mutineer', was a flamboyant soldier of the First World War, who supposedly led thousands of British troops against their superiors in the Étaples Mutiny of 1917, although this has never been documented. Once he had deserted from the army, he went on the run, committing a string of felonies including suspected murder, before he was hunted down and shot dead at Plumpton near Penrith in 1920. Penrith Museum has an interesting display on this infamous character, along with his monocle!
Oddities
The Giants Thumb, a badly worn Norse cross in St Andrew's churchyard, is thought to date from the 10th Century.
The Plague Stone is in the forecourt of the Greengarth home for the elderly in Bridge Lane. Its hollowed out centre would have held vinegar or some other disinfecting agent and here the townsfolk would place their money in exchange for food brought in by farmers from outside the town.
In 1829, Penrith had 57 pubs for its population of 5,383 - one for every 94 residents!
Bull baiting used to occur in Sandgate and Great Dockray. The bulls were tethered to an iron ring and set upon by bulldogs. The belief was that every bull should be baited before slaughter to make the meat ‘wholesome'.
Samuel Plimsoll (1824-1898) lived at Page Hall on Foster Street. He became an MP and also devised the 1875 Merchant Shipping Act, which required every ship owner to paint a horizontal line on the hulls of their ships to indicate the maximum depth to which a vessel could be loaded - known as the Plimsoll Line.
Clifton Moor was the site of the last battle on English soil between Scottish and English armies on the 18 December 1745. The dead are buried in the village of Clifton - the English in the churchyard, and the Scots under an oak tree (known as the Rebel Tree) at the end of Town End Croft, where a plaque marks the spot.
