Drigg
| Drigg | |
| Cumberland | |
|---|---|
 Drigg railway station and the Victoria Inn | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SD064990 |
| Location: | 54°22’41"N, 3°26’24"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 449 (2011, parish) |
| Post town: | Holmrook |
| Postcode: | CA19 |
| Dialling code: | 019467 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cumberland |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Copeland |
Drigg is a small village in Cumberland, close to the county's coast on the Irish Sea. It is on the wind-scoured coastal plain, a mile from the high-water mark
Drigg sits on the north side of the River Irt, just as it becomes tidal at the head of its long estuary, with Carleton, not even truly a hamlet any more, to the south of the river (the two share a civil parish, along with such hamlets as Stubble Green, Low Moor, Saltcoats, Maudsyke, Wray Head, Hallsenna and Holmrook).. The Irt runs from Wastwater in the fells down to the Irish Sea here. There are three bridges over the river in the parish; the main bridge is in Holmrook which takes the A595 road over the river. The coastal railway line crosses the Irt at the head of the tidal estuary where the Irt joins the River Mite at Ravenglass. There is also an old, small packhorse bridge in the Drigg Holmes, known as Drigg Holme Packhorse Bridge, which carries a bridleway and does not take vehicles.
About the village
The village has a station, Drigg railway station, on the coastal line.
The parish has a number of areas of natural interest: the sandy beach and dunes, Hallsenna Moor and Drigg Holmes. Part of the dunes are an important bird reserve, a Local Nature Reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Low Level Waste Repository
During the Second World War a Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF Drigg) was established at Drigg between the railway line and the sea. This is now the site of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority low-level radioactive waste repository. The site, which was opened in 1959 by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority,[1] covers about 272 acres, and holds about one million cubic metres of radioactive waste, although historic disposal records are incomplete. Much of the waste came from the nearby Sellafield nuclear complex.[2][3]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Drigg) |
References
- ↑ "Low Level Waste Repository". NDA. http://www.nda.gov.uk/sites/llwr/. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
- ↑ 'Can anyone recall what we put in our nuclear dump?' Terry Macalister in The Guardian, 14 February 2009
- ↑ 'Cumbrian nuclear dump 'virtually certain' to be eroded by rising sea levels' Rob Edwards in The Guardian, 20 April 2014
