Camerton is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

, historically part 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 ...

, near the

Lake District National Park The Lake District National Park is a national park in North West England that includes all of the central Lake District, though the town of Kendal, some coastal areas, and the Lakeland Peninsulas are outside the park boundary. The area was desi ...

in England. According to older maps, it was originally called "Camberton". The village is situated about north-east of Seaton, north-east of

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Loca ...

and west of Cockermouth. It's linked by road to Great Broughton and Flimby, and there was a small footbridge over the river to Great Clifton however this was destroyed by the floods of November 2009. It has a population of 172, increasing slightly to 174 at the 2011 Census.

Governance

Camerton is part of the

parliamentary constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

. In the

2019 United Kingdom general election The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 12 December 2019. It resulted in the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party receiving a Landslide victory, landslide majority of 80 seats. The Conservatives made a net gain of 4 ...

, the

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

candidate for Workington, Mark Jenkinson, was elected MP, overturning a 9.4 per cent Labour majority from the 2017 election to eject Shadow Environment Secretary

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 ...

by a margin of 4,136 votes. Until the December 2019 general election, the Labour Party had won the seat in every general election since 1979.The

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

had only been elected once in Workington since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, at the 1976 by-election. Historically the village has been a Labour-supporting area. Before

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

, 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 Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

purposes it is in the ''Seaton + Northside Ward'' of Allerdale Borough Council and the ''Seaton Division'' of

Cumbria County Council Cumbria County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Cumbria in the North West of England. Established in April 1974, following its first elections held the previous year, it is an elected local government body respon ...

. Camerton has its own Parish Council; ''Camerton Parish Council''.

Railways

Two railway lines once served Camerton. The line and

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in the valley bottom were built by the Cockermouth and Workington Railway (CWR) which was eventually extended eastwards to , giving national connections and even the "Lakes Express", a through train to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, though this passed straight through Camerton. The station closed in 1952 and the line in 1966. In 2013 the station master's house was still in use as a private residence. The former railway embankment could still be seen, but the supports and pier of the former bridge over the river were washed away during the

2009 Workington floods During the twenty-four hours before Friday 20 November 2009, rainfall of over was recorded in Cumbria. Flooding along the Borrowdale and Derwent Valley meant that some areas were up to deep in water. The surge of water off the fells of the La ...

, leaving no trace. A second line ran on higher ground to the north of the village, this was the

Cleator and Workington Junction Railway The Cleator & Workington Junction Railway (C&WJR) was located in West Cumberland in Northern England, serving the towns of Cleator Moor and Workington and intermediate villages. It was mainly used for coal, limestone and iron ore traffic for the ...

's (C&WJR) "Northern Extension" which was part of a wider venture to connect west Cumbrian ironworks with Scotland. Camerton never had a public station on that line, the nearest being at and , though their lives as passenger stations were very short. Although this line lost its meagre passenger services past Camerton as early as 1908 and was closed and lifted north of Buckhill Colliery in the 1930s, trains still passed Camerton along it until 1992 to serve the RNAD Broughton Moor.

Collieries

Camerton once had two pits, both of which mined both coal and clay. Camerton No. 2 Colliery was north of the village next to the C&WJR line where an unadvertised workmen's halt was provided. This colliery appears to have been abandoned in 1908. Camerton No. 1 Colliery was next to the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

. It was connected to the CWR line. It is unclear when it was abandoned. Both pits had associated brickworks.

Etymology

'Tūn' is

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 ...

for 'homestead' 'village'. The first element in the name might be a personal name (possibly 'Cāfmǣr') or else Welsh 'cym(m)er' 'confluence' that might refer to nearby stream and river, "but the phonology would offer difficulties, and the stream running into the Derwent is insignificant." So, the name means perhaps 'the village of Cāfmǣr', or 'the village by the confluence of waters'.

St Peter's church

St Peter's church is located south-east of the village on a

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...

of the River Derwent. The church building partly dates from the mid-19th century, but "parts of the structure could be medieval, for instance, the transept arch with its step and chamfer." The church contains the tomb of 'Black Tom', an old 'lord' of Camerton. According to local legend, Black Tom's ghost haunts the churchyard. ''Black Tom'' is also the name of the village pub. Legend has it that a blue pig was seen one night by someone leaving the pub.

Walking

There are walking opportunities in the area including the nearby Scaw Bank wood. Scar Bank wood.jpg, Scaw Bank Wood, Camerton

References

St Peters church Camerton.jpg, St Peter's Church, Camerton

External links

The village, railways, river and collieries c1908, via ''National Library of Scotland''
* ttp://www.cumbriacountyhistory.org.uk/township/camerton Cumbria County History Trust: Camerton(nb: provisional research only - see Talk page)
St Peter's churchCamerton Hall
{{Cumbria Villages in Cumbria Allerdale Civil parishes in Cumbria