Walton, Cumbria

Coordinates: 54°58′19″N 2°44′59″W / 54.9719°N 2.7498°W / 54.9719; -2.7498

Walton is a village and civil parish in the far north of Cumbria, England. It is located 10 miles (16 km) from Carlisle and is about 2 miles (3 km) north of Brampton, on the north bank of the River Irthing. Nearby villages include Newtown, Banks and Lanercost.

Description

Walton remains an unspoiled part of England and has a historic background as the course of Hadrian's Wall skirts the village to its south. In the past, Walton comprised two separate townships; Low Walton and High Walton. However Low Walton and High Walton have now combined to create a single area.

William Ford mentions Walton in his writing when travelling around the Lake District. He writes "the village of Walton, on the line of the wall, as its name denominates..." It is now believed that the name Walton comes from the settlement/farmstead of Wealas - native Celts described by the Anglo-Saxon speaking peoples. There is strong evidence that in many areas of England taken over by Germanic speaking settlers, the native British (Wealas) remained undisturbed, farming the same land they did when the Romans left.

Cumbria

Cumbria (English pronunciation: /ˈkʌmbriə/ KUM-bree-ə; locally [ˈkʊmbɾiə] KUUM-bree-ə) is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle and the only other major urban area is Barrow-in-Furness on the south-western tip of the county.

The county of Cumbria consists of six districts (Allerdale, Barrow-in-Furness, Carlisle, Copeland, Eden and South Lakeland), and in 2008 had a population of just under half a million. Cumbria is one of the most sparsely populated counties in the United Kingdom, with 73.4 people per km² (190/sq mi).

Cumbria, the third-largest ceremonial county in England by area, is bounded to the north by the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders, to the west by the Irish Sea, to the south by Lancashire, to the southeast by North Yorkshire, and to the east by County Durham and Northumberland.

Cumbria (European Parliament constituency)

Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in Great Britain. The European Parliament constituencies used under that system were smaller than the later regional constituencies and only had one Member of the European Parliament each.

Created for the 1979 European Parliament elections in 1979, Cumbria was a single-member constituency formed from the grouping of numerous neighbouring British Parliament constituencies.

The constituency saw only one election under the chosen boundaries, with the county of Cumbria and electors in Westminster constituencies as far south as the Fylde coast electing its MEP as one constituency in 1979 only. In subsequent elections, the constituency became the expanded Cumbria and Lancashire North.

Boundaries

Cumbria League

Cumbria League is a competitive league at tier 8 in the English Rugby Union System run by the English Rugby Football Union. In the 2011/2012 season the league contains 10 teams competing for promotion in the N.Lancs/Cumbria League. It is currently the lowest competitive league for Rugby Union in Cumbria, with the Cumbria 2 North & West and Cumbria 2 South & East being run as Merit Leagues by Cumbria RFU but with potential promotion and division between these groups. As of 2011, The Cumbria League has 5 first XV teams (Hawcoat Park, Furness, Millom, Silloth, and Windermere) and 4 second XV teams (Carlisle Crusaders 2nd XV, Kendal 2nd XV, Kirkby Lonsdale 2nd XV and Penrith RFC A). Unlike the majority of other leagues, the Cumbria division includes a number of second/A teams.

Teams in the cumbria league play in both the Cumbria Plate (for the 1st XV clubs) and Cumbria Vase (for the 2nd XV clubs).

2009/2010 Season

Whitehaven were champions of the Cumbria league and were promoted to the N.Lancs/Cumbria league. Millom secured second place but failed in their play off game, losing 32-10 to Didsbury Toc H, so remained in the Cumbria League until the following season.