Shap Rural is a very large, but sparsely populated,

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 Eden district 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 ...

in England, covering part of 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 ...

. It had a population of 119 in 2001, increasing to 130 at the 2011 Census. Within the parish are the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

and settlements of Wet Sleddale, Hardendale and Swindale, most of the Shap Fells range and the reservoirs of

Haweswater Haweswater is a reservoir in the valley of Mardale, Cumbria in the Lake District, England. Work to raise the height of the original natural lake was started in 1929. It was controversially dammed after the UK Parliament passed a Private Act ...

(part) and Wet Sleddale. The village of Mardale Green, which disappeared when Haweswater was converted into a reservoir in the 1930s, was in the parish. The parish was created in 1904 with the splitting of the former civil parish of Shap into urban and rural parts. Shap Urban, (since 1935 just

Shap Shap is a linear village and civil parish located among fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, England, in the historic county of Westmorland. The parish had a population of 1,221 in 2001, increasing slightly to 1,264 at the 2011 ...

), was administered by an

urban district Urban district may refer to: * District * Urban area * Quarter (urban subdivision) * Neighbourhood Specific subdivisions in some countries: * Urban districts of Denmark * Urban districts of Germany * Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (hist ...

council from 1905 to 1935. Shap and Shap Rural today have a joint parish council. Major landowners in the parish are the

Lowther Family This article summarises the relationships between various members of the family of Lowther baronets. *Sir Christopher Lowther **Sir John Lowther, of Lowther (d. 1637) *** Sir John Lowther, 1st Baronet (1605–1675) **** John Lowther (of Hackthorpe ...

Estates and

United Utilities United Utilities Group plc (UU), the United Kingdom's largest listed water company, was founded in 1995 as a result of the merger of North West Water and NORWEB. The group manages the regulated water and waste water network in North West Englan ...

. Junction 39 of the

M6 motorway The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at t ...

lies within the parish. Shapbeck Limestone quarry owned by

Hanson plc Hanson UK, formerly Hanson Trust plc, is a British-based building materials company, headquartered in Maidenhead. The company has been a subsidiary of the German company HeidelbergCement since August 2007, and was formerly listed on the London S ...

is in the northern part of the parish though the Hardendale Corus limestone quarry and works and the famous

Cemex CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., known as Cemex, is a Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than 50 countries. ...

(formerly RMC) Shap Granite quarries and works are within both Shap Rural and Shap parishes. The cottage owned by Uncle Monty in the cult 1986 film ''

Withnail & I ''Withnail and I'' is a 1987 British black comedy film written and directed by Bruce Robinson. Loosely based on Robinson's life in London in the late 1960s, the plot follows two unemployed actors, Withnail and "I" (portrayed by Richard E. Gran ...

'' is located by the reservoir at Wet Sleddale.

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Shap
(nb: provisional research only – see Talk page) * Civil parishes in Cumbria Eden District {{Cumbria-geo-stub

See also

References

External links