Matterdale is a
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 ...
in the
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
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. Cumb ...
, England. It lies on the northern shore of
Ullswater
Ullswater is the second largest lake in the English Lake District, being about long and wide, with a maximum depth a little over . It was scooped out by a glacier in the Last Ice Age.
Geography
It is a typical Lake District "ribbon lake", ...
. The parish includes the settlements of Dockray, Matterdale End,
Ulcat row,
Watermillock
Watermillock is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Matterdale, on the western shore of Ullswater, in the English Lake District, Cumbria. In 1931 the civil parish had a population of 448. On 1 April 1934 the civil parish was ...
and Wreay. It had a population of 526 in 2001, reducing to 483 at the 2011 Census.
Much of the parish consists of moorland and fells, including
Hart Side,
Gowbarrow Fell and
Little Mell Fell
Little Mell Fell (''Bare hill'', with the later additions of both "Fell" and "Little") is a small fell in the English Lake District. It is an outlier of the Eastern Fells, standing to the north of Ullswater near the village of Watermillock, and ...
. The "Three Dodds" (
Stybarrow Dodd,
Watson's Dodd and
Great Dodd
Great Dodd (meaning: ''big round hill'') is a mountain or fell in the English Lake District. It stands on the main ridge of the Helvellyn range, a line of mountains which runs in a north-south direction between the lakes of Thirlmere and Ullswa ...
) lie on the western boundary of the parish. The western part of the parish is drained by Aira Beck, which falls over
Aira Force to enter Ullswater. The parish is the setting for James Rebank's 2015 autobiographical book ''
The Shepherd's Life''.
Etymology
Matterdale "is probably 'the valley where bedstraw grows' from ON 'maðra' (the cognate of OE 'mæddre') and ON 'dalr'..."
(ON=
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
; OE=
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 ...
).
See also
*
Listed buildings in Matterdale
Matterdale is a civil parish in the Eden District, Cumbria, England. It contains 33 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, three are listed at Grade II*, the middle of the three grades, and ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Cumbria County History Trust: Matterdale(nb: provisional research only - see Talk page)
Matterdale Community Association(local community online resource)
Civil parishes in Cumbria
Eden District