Allonby is a village on the coast of the

Allerdale Allerdale is a non-metropolitan district of Cumbria, England, with borough status. Its council is based in Workington and the borough has a population of 93,492 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 96,422 at the 2011 Census. The Bor ...

district in Cumbria, England. The village is on the B5300 road north of Maryport and south of Silloth. The village of Mawbray is to the north, and to the east is the village of Westnewton. The county town of

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

is located to the north east. Other nearby settlements include Crosscanonby, Edderside, Hayton, and Salta.

Etymology

'Allonby' is " 'Alein's bȳ'...'Alein' is a French personal name of Breton origin." ('Bȳ' is a late

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

word from Old Norse 'bȳr' and Swedish or Danish 'by' meaning 'village', 'hamlet').

Geographical aspect

The village overlooks Allonby Bay in the Solway Firth. The area is within the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the historic county of

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

. Allonby, and the five-mile coastal strip of the bay, has views across the Solway to the Galloway hills of southern Scotland. Both the South Saltpans beach and the West Winds beach were awarded the Blue flag rural beach award in 2005. The village is located on the Cumbria Coastal Way long distance footpath.

History

From the late 18th century until the mid 19th century, Allonby was home to a small fishing fleet. The main catch was

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

. Fish yards were built where these were salted and packed in barrels made on the premises. There was also a smoke house where kippers were produced. In the early part of the 19th century Allonby was a popular sea-bathing resort. Baths were built in 1835. The buildings still survive as private residences in the Market Square. The village has a 17th century

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of tra ...

now known as the Ship Hotel. Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins stayed overnight at the hostelry in 1857 (due to Collins' illness) while they were touring northern Cumberland, Dickens subsequently described Allonby as a 'dreary little place'. The Reading Room, opened in 1862, was designed by

Alfred Waterhouse Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known f ...

, the Victorian architect, when he was only 32 years old. The building was largely financed by Joseph Pease who was Britain's first

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

MP.

Governance

Allonby, is part of the Workington constituency of the UK parliament. The current Member of Parliament is Mark Jenkinson, a member of the Conservative Party, who unseated

Sue Hayman Susan Mary Hayman, Baroness Hayman of Ullock (''née'' Bentley; born 28 July 1962) is a British politician and life peer who served as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2017 to 2019. A member of the Labour ...

, a member of the Labour Party, at the 2019 General Election. The Labour Party had previously won the seat in every general election since 1979; the Conservative Party had only been elected once in Workington since the Second World War: in the

1976 Workington by-election The 1976 Workington by-election was a parliamentary by-election held in England for the House of Commons constituency of Workington in Cumbria on 4 November 1976. It was won by the Conservative Party candidate Richard Page, who became the first n ...

. Before Brexit, it was in the

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

European Parliamentary Constituency. For Local Government purposes it is in the ''Silloth + Solway Coast Ward'' of Allerdale Borough Council and the ''Aspatria Ward'' of Cumbria County Council. The village also has its own Parish Council; ''Allonby Parish Council''.

Notable residents

* Joseph Huddart was born here in 1741.

References

External links

Allonby Cumbria Website Cumbria County History Trust: Allonby
(nb: provisional research only - see Talk page)
Solway Coast AONBAllonby
{{authority control Villages in Cumbria Allerdale Populated coastal places in Cumbria Civil parishes in Cumbria