Grayrigg 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 authorit ...

in the South Lakeland 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. C ...

, England. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 223, increasing at the 2011 census to 242. It lies on undulated and partly mountainous land, north east of Kendal, on the north side of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

, and west side 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 ...

History

Historically a part of

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 ...

, Grayrigg and its surrounding area have provided evidence of an ancient

Roman camp In the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, the Latin word ''castrum'', plural ''castra'', was a military-related term. In Latin usage, the singular form ''castrum'' meant 'fort', while the plural form ''castra'' meant 'camp'. The singular and ...

. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

Grayrigg formed a chapelry and

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

centred on the chapel dedicated to St John the Evangelist, which is still in use.

Railway accidents

Grayrigg's 20th and 21st century history is marked by two high-profile major train crashes. VirginPendolinoDerailment

On 18 May 1947, a 13-carriage

London Midland & Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

service from Glasgow Central to

London Euston Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city rail ...

failed to stop at the signals for Lambrigg Crossing and collided with a locomotive with 33 people injured, three seriously. On 23 February 2007, Lambrigg Crossovers (54.358507,-2.655958), south of Grayrigg was the site of the Grayrigg derailment, a fatal derailment involving a

Virgin Trains West Coast Virgin Trains (legal name West Coast Trains Limited) was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by Virgin Rail Group, a joint venture between Virgin Group and Stagecoach, which operated the InterCity West Coast franchise fro ...

service from London Euston to Glasgow Central."Rail crash report blames points"
BBC News, 26 February 2007

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Grayrigg
(nb: provisional research only - see Talk page) Villages in Cumbria Westmorland Civil parishes in Cumbria {{Cumbria-geo-stub

History

Railway accidents

See also

References

External links