Dent is a 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, England, within the historic boundaries of the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

. It lies in Dentdale, a narrow valley on the western slopes of the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of highland, uplands mainly located in Northern England. Commonly described as the "Vertebral column, backbone of England" because of its length and position, the ra ...

within the Yorkshire Dales National Park, south east of

Sedbergh Sedbergh ( or ) is a town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Cumbria. It falls within the historic boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Since April 2023, it has been administered by Westmorland and Furness local authority. Th ...

and north east of Kirkby Lonsdale. At the 2011 census, Dent and Middleton had a total population of 785.

History

Dent is part of the Ewecross wapentake in the

. From 1894 to 1974 it was part of Sedbergh Rural District in the West Riding. From 1974, for administrative purposes, it was treated as part of the South Lakeland District in the new administrative county of Cumbria, which was abolished in April 2023. The origin of the name is debated. Older forms include ''Denet'' (1200). It may have been taken from the hill now known as Dent Crag (2,250 ft), to be compared with another hill named Dent near Cleator in Cumberland, in which case it would derive from a pre-English Celtic term related to

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...

''dinn, dind'' "a hill". Alternative derivations see the name preserving the memory of the dark age kingdom known in Latin as ''Regione Dunutinga'', founded and named after King Dunot the Great of the North Pennines. Both place name and dialect evidence indicate that this area was settled by the Norse in the

10th century The 10th century was the period from 901 (represented by the Roman numerals CMI) through 1000 (M) in accordance with the Julian calendar, and the last century of the 1st millennium. In China, the Song dynasty was established, with most of C ...

. Geoffrey Hodgson, in 2008, argued that this invasion accounts for the high frequency of the Hodgson surname in the area. Dent was the birthplace of Thomas de Dent, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, in the early 14th century. Dent was the birthplace of the geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1785. Dentdale was one of the last Yorkshire Dales to be enclosed, Dent's Enclosure Award being made in 1859. Whilst fishing on the Dee at Dentdale in the 1840s, William Armstrong saw a waterwheel in action, supplying power to a marble quarry. It struck Armstrong that much of the available power was being wasted and it inspired him to design a successful hydraulic engine which began the accumulation of his wealth and industrial empire. Dent, then in Yorkshire, was one of the sites for the Survey of English Dialects in the 1950s. A recording of the broadest local speec
is available
on the British Library's website.

Governance

Dent is part of the Westmorland and Lonsdale parliamentary constituency, of which Tim Farron is the current MP representing the Liberal Democrats. Before

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

for the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two 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 ...

its residents voted to elect MEP's for the North West England constituency.

The village today

The Dent Brewery is an independent microbrewery in Cowgill, just above Dent. Dent was the original site of the Dent Folk Festival and is now the site of the Dent Music and Beer Festival at the end of June. The first event was held in 2009 and was hailed as a great success. Dent railway station on the Settle and Carlisle Railway is about above the village at Denthead. Despite its name, it is actually in Cowgill. Nearby, the railway goes over a

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...

. It is the highest mainline station in England at 1150 feet above sea level. The long distance footpath the Dales Way passes through Dent, with various types of accommodation available to walkers.Accommodation on the Dales Way
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The parish

The parish of Dent includes the whole of Dentdale and the side valley of

Deepdale Deepdale is a football stadium in the Deepdale area of Preston, England that is the home ground of Preston North End. Built in 1875 and in use since 1878, Deepdale is recognised as being one of the oldest continuously used football stadium ...

. In addition to the village of Dent settlements in the parish includes the hamlets of Lenacre, Gawthrop, Cowgill and Stone House.

References

External links