Little Clifton is a 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 authorit ...

in the district of Allerdale located on the edge of the Lake District in the county of

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. C ...

, England. In 2001, it had a population of 391 and contained 170 households; increasing to a population of 480 in the 2011 Census with 207 households. The village of Little Clifton is east of Workington. The River Derwent is roughly north of Little Clifton. In 1887, John Bartholomew, whilst writing for the Gazetteer of the British Isles, described Little Clifton as a township of 489 persons next to

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. Locat ...

. Workington was, at that time, a district within the former county of Cumberland.

Governance

Little Clifton, is part of the

constituency of the

UK parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. The current

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

is Sue Hayman, a member of the Labour Party. The Labour Party has 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 ...

has only been elected once in Workington since

the Second World War 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 opposing ...

: 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 fir ...

. For the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

residents in Little Clifton voted to elect MEP's for the North West England 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-l ...

purposes it is in the ''Stainburn + Clifton

Ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

'' of

Allerdale Borough Council 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 Boro ...

and the ''Cockermouth South 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 ...

. Little Clifton has its own Parish Council; ''Little Clifton Parish Council''.

Early area history and Toponymy

is formed of the older counties of Cumberland,

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

, parts of

North Lancashire North Lancashire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was represented by two Members of Parliament. The constituency was created by the Great Reform Act of 1832 by the splitting of Lancas ...

and

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

. There are signs of human inhabitancy as early as 5000 years ago with stone circles discovered under 20 miles east of Little Clifton at Long Meg and

Castlerigg Castlerigg is an area of Keswick, Cumbria, England. Castlerigg is named after a hill in the immediate area. Until the early twentieth century much of the area, comprising a large part of Keswick, was owned by the family living at Castlerigg Mano ...

amongst other places. The early settlements are in areas suitable for crafting tools such as stone axes and became the source for quarrying in the area.

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

immigration began around 500BC and developed in

as Brigantes. Celtic Brigantians had a major settlement at Carlisle and inhabited the area later known as

Rheged Rheged () was one of the kingdoms of the ''Hen Ogledd'' ("Old North"), the Brittonic-speaking region of what is now Northern England and southern Scotland, during the post-Roman era and Early Middle Ages. It is recorded in several poetic and b ...

around 100CE. The Celts flourished following

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

rule after the transitional period of Roman rule to Celtic rule c350-420AD. Anglo Saxon invasion absorbed

into the (now) powerful Anglo Saxon kingdom of Northumbria c.630AD. It is From the Anglo Saxons that Little Clifton gained its name. The suffix 'ton' in Little Clifton is Anglo Saxon or 'old English' for enclosure, estate or homestead.

Mining

Mining in

plays a large role in its history. Lead, copper,

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

, barite, haematite,

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...

graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on lar ...

fluorite Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs sca ...

, and coal have all been mined at different times since as early as the 12th century. Western parts of

, and in particular the

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It i ...

area, proved to contain haematite in large shallow deposits which were exploited by early miners. The first documented mining in the Cumbrian area was in Bigrigg mine roughly 15 miles south of Little Clifton in the parish of Egremont. It is believed that Romans mined this area and later on by early British and Norse settlers. In 1881 31% of the inhabitants of Little Clifton were involved in mineral extraction, the highest single occupation in the parish at that time. Force Crag mine in Keswick was the closest mine to Little Clifton which was mined for lead, zinc and barytes from 1839 to its closure in 1991. Force Crag mine is now run by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

and open to the public.

St Luke's Church

(OSGB36: NY 054 290 00m precisionWGS84: 54:38.8700N 3:28.0354W) Altar screen, St Luke's Church, Clifton - geograph

The site of St Luke's Church dates back to Norman times and has various Norman artefacts such as a Norman archway and Norman cross shaft in the graveyard. The current church dates back to 1901 and contains some superb stained glass windows and other furnishings donated by local families. The church regularly holds concerts, events and open days.

Punderland Farm

Punderland farm featured on the BBC, amongst other British news mediums, due to a 'tragic mistake' which caused the unnecessary slaughter of 200 ewes, 300 lambs and a pet pig. The mishap occurred because of a grid reference error of one digit during the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001. The intended farm for destruction was in Durham away. No more compensation was granted than the standard for loss of livestock at the time and no legal firm would go to court for what would be a costly battle. The farm and its associated barn are the only

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in the parish, being designated at Grade II. It is dated 1739, the farmhouse is

roughcast Roughcast or pebbledash is a coarse plaster surface used on outside walls that consists of lime and sometimes cement mixed with sand, small gravel and often pebbles or shells. The materials are mixed into a slurry and are then thrown at the ...

with a green slate roof, and has two storeys and three bays, and there is a lower right-angled barn to the right.

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Little Clifton
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page) {{authority control Villages in Cumbria Civil parishes in Cumbria Allerdale