Harrington is a village and former

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 ...

on the

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 ...

n coast south of

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. Loca ...

and north of

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 is th ...

in England.

Historically History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

part of

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a 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 century until 1974. From 19 ...

, its industrial history, which largely ended in the late 1930s, included a shipbuilders, iron works,

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

and steel making. It once had five railway stations. It still has one

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

, on the

Cumbrian Coast Line The Cumbrian Coast line is a rail route in North West England, running from Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness via Workington and Whitehaven. The line forms part of Network Rail route NW 4033, which continues (as the Furness line) via Ulverston an ...

, near the harbour. Today, with a population of approximately 3,800,
Harrington - Ward Profile
', Cumbria Intelligence Observatory measured at 3,167 in the 2011 Census, it is largely a dormitory village for the employees of the shops and offices and light industry found in Workington. Whitehaven, and

Sellafield Sellafield is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning. Former activities included nucle ...

further down the coast. In 1951 the parish had a population of 2303. The parish consisted of Harrington itself, High Harrington and Salterbeck, which is a large housing estate on the Workington side of the parish.

History

The name Harrington, is derived from three Anglo-Saxon words; ''Har'' or ''Harr'' (a man's name), ''ingas'' (people) and ''ton'' (settlement/estate/enclosure). The original settlers were a group of people whose leader called himself Har. The original inhabitants of land would have called themselves ''Haringas'' (Har's people) and the settlement ''Haringa tun'' (estate of the Haringas). Other local place names with similar origins would be Workington, Distington and Frizington.

Governance

Harrington, 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 supremac ...

. 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 of ...

Mark Jenkinson Mark Ian Jenkinson (born 28 January 1982) is a British Conservative Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Workington since 2019. Early life and career Jenkinson was born in Whitehaven and raised in Workington. He was ed ...

, a member of 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 ...

. 2019 marks only the second time 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 opposin ...

that a Conservative has been elected for Workington, the first being at the 1976 by-election. 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 Harrington voted to elect MEP's for 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 ...

constituency. On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished to form Workington

unparished area In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unparish ...

. It is now (in 2022) a ward of Workington Town Council in the civil parish of Workington. The ward includes Grayson Green and

High Harrington Harrington is a village and former civil parish on the Cumbrian coast south of Workington and north of Whitehaven in England. Historically part of Cumberland, its industrial history, which largely ended in the late 1930s, included a shipbuilders ...

Harbour

In 1760, Henry Curwen built a quay at Harrington on the south side of the River Wyre. Coal and limestone were soon being exported from Harrington, and the increase in trade led to the development of the local shipbuilding industry. A decline in manufacturing industry saw the harbour's usage drop dramatically during the latter part of the 19th century. Eventually the harbour was sealed off and used as a reservoir for a nearby magnesium works. The secret "

Magnesite Magnesite is a mineral with the chemical formula (magnesium carbonate). Iron, manganese, cobalt, and nickel may occur as admixtures, but only in small amounts. Occurrence Magnesite occurs as veins in and an alteration product of ultramafic ro ...

" plant at Harrington was set up during the

by the

Ministry of Aircraft Production Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian ...

to extract magnesium from seawater, for use in aircraft components and

incendiary bombs Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, th ...

. At the time it was one of only two plants in the country, making some per annum. The harbour now has a new lease of life as a facility for leisure, with the scope to grow the marine sector in the

Northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

Churches

Harrington had many churches, and four remain as churches today. At St Mary's Church there are recent stained-glass windows, which show much of the industrial and maritime heritage of the area. There is also the Roman Catholic St Mary's Church that was founded by

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monks, built by a Charles Walker of Newcastle, cost £2,3000 and funded by public subscription.

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

Harrington – St Mary
''Taking Stock'', retrieved 5 February 2022

Cycle network

The West Cumbria Cycle Network passes through Harrington on its way from

Distington Distington () is a large village and civil parish in Cumbria, England, south of Workington and north of Whitehaven. Historically a part of Cumberland, the civil parish includes the nearby settlements of Common End, Gilgarran and Pica. The ...

to Workington. It uses the route of the former

Cleator and Workington Junction Railway The Cleator & Workington Junction Railway (C&WJR) was located in West Cumberland in Northern England, serving the towns of Cleator Moor and Workington and intermediate villages. It was mainly used for coal, limestone and iron ore traffic for t ...

through High Harrington railway station.

References

External links

Cumbria County History Trust: Harrington
(nb: provisional research only - see Talk page)

{{authority control Ports and harbours of Cumbria Populated coastal places in Cumbria Former civil parishes in Cumbria Workington