Cartmel

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Cartmel
Lancashire
Cartmell Village.jpg
Cartmel village by the River Eea
Location
Grid reference: SD380786
Location: 54°11’56"N, 2°57’4"W
Data
Post town: Grange-over-Sands
Postcode: LA11
Dialling code: 015395
Local Government
Council: Westmorland & Furness
Parliamentary
constituency:
Westmorland and Lonsdale

Cartmel is a village in Lancashire, on the Cartmel Peninsula of Lancashire North of the Sands, two miles north-west of Grange-over-Sands. The delightfully named River Eea runs by the village.

The village was originally named Kirkby in Cartmel, as the churchtown of the area, and its mediæval church was the foundation of the village. This was once known the centre of the power which dominated the peninsula and much of its hinterland, as the location of Cartmel Priory, which was the major landowner in this district until the Reformation. The priory took its name from the peninsula.

While the monastery is long since gone, its church survives as the parish church.

Parish church

Main article: Cartmel Priory

The dominating presence in the village is its parish church, known as Cartmel Priory. This 12th century church was in the Middle Ages the monastery church of Cartmel Priory, whose great wealth dominated this part of Lancashire and beyond, and which explains the size of the church relative to the smallness of the village it served.

The church survived the dissolution of the monastery under King Henry VIII as it served as the village church also, and so it remains.

About the village

Cartmel Fell is a hamlet, and one of Wainwright's Outlying Fells of Lakeland, about seven miles north of Cartmel village.

Cartmel Racecourse hosts popular meetings two or three times a year, traditionally in Whit Week. The ancient parish was traditionally known as the Land of Cartmel - an area quite separate from the Furness peninsula.

Holker Hall, a seat of the Cavendish family, Dukes of Devonshire, is located within the original boundaries of the parish.

Cartmel has more recently become known as the "home of sticky toffee pudding". This can be purchased in various sizes from the Cartmel Village Shop. There are also several gift shops through the village including Hales Chocolates and Perfect English. In Unsworth's Yard there is a new micro brewery, Cartmel Cheeses and an artisan bakery.

The village is served by the nearby Cark and Cartmel railway station opened in 1857 by the Ulverston and Lancaster Railway and which is currently served by the Furness Line.

Cartmel Park in the village runs Segway tours,[1] and has a horse-drawn carriage ride.

Outside links

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("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Cartmel)

References