Langwathby

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Langwathby
Cumberland

Langwathby village green
Location
Grid reference: NY569336
Location: 54°41’45"N, 2°40’12"W
Data
Population: 866  (2011)
Post town: Penrith
Postcode: CA10
Dialling code: 01768
Local Government
Council: Westmorland & Furness
Parliamentary
constituency:
Penrith and the Border

Langwathby is a village in northern Cumberland, about five miles north-east of Penrith on the A686 road. The village sits on the banks of the River Eden.

The village is centred on a large village green next to which stands the village pub, post office and village hall. There is a primary school on the road to Little Salkeld.

Name

'Langwathby' can be translated as 'long ford' (the Old Norse lang vað or Old English lang wæð), 'village' (Old Norse by), referring to the fording of the River Eden which runs along the edge of the village.[1]

About the village

The village is by the famous Settle to Carlisle Line, which has a railway station in the village that has become a visitor attraction.

The parish includes the nearby village of Edenhall which was a separate civil parish until 1934.

Langwathby is also the base of the 'Pride of Cumbria', one of the helicopters run by the Great North Air Ambulance Service

Langwathby Station

Train at Langwathby

Langwathby railway station serves the village with passenger train services. The station was built by the Midland Railway and opened in 1876. It closed when local stopping trains over the Settle-Carlisle Line were withdrawn in May 1970, but was reopened by British Rail in July 1986.

The Carlisle-bound ('down') station building has been converted into the Brief Encounter Tea Rooms and an antique shop. An enclosed bus-shelter style waiting room has been provided at the Carlisle end of the platform.

The relatively high usage passenger figures for the station may be explained by its proximity (5¾ miles) to Penrith.

Industry

At Langwathby there is a chicken processing factory and an animal feed mill.

At Barbary Plains just outside Edenhall there was formerly a cement block works formerly owned by Hanson plc and later by RMC Group, part of Cemex. The site is now a depot and head office for a haulage company.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Langwathby)

References

  1. Armstrong, A. M.; Mawer, A.; Stenton, F. M.; Dickens, B. (1950). The place-names of Cumberland. English Place-Name Society, vol.xxi. Part 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 218–219.