Shap Rural

Coordinates: 54°30′07″N 2°43′16″W / 54.502°N 2.721°W / 54.502; -2.721

Shap Rural is a very large, but sparsely populated, civil parish in the Eden District of Cumbria in England, covering part of the Lake District National Park. It had a population of 119 in 2001, increasing to 130 at the 2011 Census.

Within the parish are the hamlets and settlements of Wet Sleddale, Hardendale and Swindale, most of the Shap Fells range and the reservoirs of Haweswater (part) and Wet Sleddale. The village of Mardale Green, which disappeared when Haweswater was converted into a reservoir in the 1930s, was in the parish.

The parish was created in 1906 with the splitting of the former civil parish of Shap into urban and rural parts. Shap Urban, or now simply Shap, was administered by an urban district council from 1906 to 1935. Shap and Shap Rural today have a joint parish council.

Major landowners in the parish are the Lowther Family Estates and United Utilities.

Junction 39 of the M6 motorway lies within the parish.

Shap

Coordinates: 54°31′44″N 2°40′34″W / 54.529°N 2.676°W / 54.529; -2.676

Shap is a linear village and civil parish located among fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, England. The village lies along the A6 road and the West Coast Main Line, and is near to the M6 motorway. It is situated 10 miles (16 km) from Penrith and about 15 miles (24 km) from Kendal, in the historic county of Westmorland.

Etymology

Early (12th- and 13th-century) forms such as Hep and Yheppe point to an Old Norse rendering Hjáp of an Old English original Hēap = "heap", (of stones), perhaps referring to an ancient stone circle, cairn, or to the Shap Stone Avenue just to the west of the village.

Description

The village has three pubs, a small supermarket, a fish and chip shop, an antique book shop, a butcher's shop, a primary school, a newsagent's, a coffee shop, a ceramic art studio called Edge Ceramics, a fire station, a shoe shop (New Balance factory shop) an Anglican church and 3 B&B/ Hostels. There is also a small library, this is in the process of being relinquished from local council control and being adopted by the community as part of a budget cutting measure.