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Cumberland is an area of north west England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974 (excluding Carlisle from 1915) and now forms part of Cumbria.
Early history At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 the county was considered to form part of Yorkshire. The historic county boundaries formed by the 12th Century were with Northumberland and County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south, the Furness part of Lancashire to the south-west, Dumfriesshire in Scotland to the north and Roxburghshire in Scotland to the north-east. Ullswater formed part of the border with Westmorland. The highest point of the county was Scafell Pike at 978 m (3,208 ft); it is the highest mountain in England. Carlisle is the historic county town. Division into wards The county was divided into five wards, rather than the hundreds found in most English counties. The wards were: Modern history In 1889, under the Local Government Act 1888, a county council was created for Cumberland, taking over administrative functions from the Quarter Sessions. The Local Government Act 1894 further divided the county into urban districts and rural districts. Carlisle was created a county borough in 1915 and no longer formed part of the area under the control of the county council, or administrative county. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, the administrative county and county borough were abolished and their former area was combined with Westmorland and parts of Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire to form the new county of Cumbria. The area from Cumberland went on to form the districts of Carlisle, Allerdale, Copeland and part of Eden. The distribution of population in 1971 was as follows: Legacy The name continues in use as a geographical and cultural term, and survives in Cumberland sausages and various organisations and companies, such as the local newspapers The Cumberland News, and The West Cumberland Times and Star, and the Cumberland Building Society. In June 1994, during the 1990s UK local government reform, the Local Government Commission published draft recommendations, suggesting as one option a North Cumbria unitary authority (also including Appleby, the historic county town of Westmorland). It also suggested that Cumberland could be reinstated as an independent ceremonial county. The final recommendations, published in October 1994, did not include such recommendations, apparently due to lack of expression of support for the proposal to the commission. As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity Plantlife chose the Grass-of-Parnassus as the county flower. Parnassus flowers had been associated with the county since 1951, when they were included in the coat of arms granted to the Cumberland County Council. They subsequently featured in the arms granted to Cumbria County Council and Copeland Borough Council, in both cases to represent Cumberland. See also | ||||||||
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