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 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. ...

, 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 English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...

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 settlers in the mid-5th ...

word from

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

'bȳr' and Swedish or Danish 'by' meaning 'village', 'hamlet').

Geographical aspect

The village overlooks Allonby Bay in the

Solway Firth The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven ...

. The area is within the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the historic county of

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic counties of England, 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 c ...

. Allonby, and the five-mile coastal strip of the bay, has views across the Solway to the

Galloway Galloway ( ; sco, Gallowa; la, Gallovidia) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway. A native or ...

hills of southern

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. 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. 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 tr ...

now known as the Ship Hotel.

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

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 ...

, the Victorian architect, when he was only 32 years old. The building was largely financed by

Joseph Pease Joseph Pease may refer to: * Joseph Pease (railway pioneer) (1799–1872), railway owner, first Quaker elected Member of Parliament ** Sir Joseph Pease, 1st Baronet (1828–1903), MP 1865–1903, full name Joseph Whitwell Pease, son of Joseph Pease ...

who was Britain's first

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

MP.

Governance

Allonby, is part of the

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 ...

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 suprem ...

. 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 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 P ...

, 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 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 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 firs ...

. Before

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time, GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 Central Eur ...

, 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-loc ...

purposes it is in the ''Silloth + Solway Coast Ward'' of Allerdale Borough Council and the ''Aspatria Ward'' 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 respo ...

. 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