Little Town, Cumbria

Little Town is a hamlet in the civil parish of Above Derwent, in the Allerdale district of Cumbria, England. It is in the Workington constituency of the United Kingdom Parliament. Prior to Brexit in 2020 it was part of the North West England constituency of the European Parliament.[1]

Little Town
Little Town seen from Catbells. Newlands Church is just visible at the top left edge of the photograph.
Little Town Location in Allerdale, Cumbria Little Town Location within Cumbria
OS grid reference	NY233196
Civil parish	Above Derwent
District	Allerdale
Shire county	Cumbria
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Keswick
Postcode district	CA15
Dialling code	01768
Police	Cumbria
Fire	Cumbria
Ambulance	North West
UK Parliament	Workington
Website	Above Derwent

Little Town is in the Lake District National Park. It is in the Newlands Valley, separated from Derwent Water to the east by the summit of Catbells. The hamlet is about 5.5 miles (9 km) by road from Keswick.[2]

History

The tiny 16th-century Newlands Church is about 500 yards (460 m) west of Little Town. William Wordsworth visited this church in 1826 while on a walking tour of the fells, and that he was so impressed by his first glimpse of the church through half-opened leaves that he wrote a stanza in his poem To May.[3]

Children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter set The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (1905) in and around Little Town. The tale's child heroine Lucie was inspired by the real world one-year-old Lucie Carr, the daughter of the vicar of the Newlands Church. In the tale, Lucie lives at Little-town farm, although the real Lucie lived at Skelgill.[4]

References

1. "Election Maps". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
2. "Newlands Valley, Cumbria". Visit Cumbria. Archived from the original on 24 January 2010. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
3. "Newlands Church, Cumbria". Visit Cumbria. Archived from the original on 3 January 2010. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
4. Taylor, Judy; Whalley, Joyce Irene; Hobbs, Anne Stevenson; Battrick, Elizabeth M (1987). Beatrix Potter, 1866–1943: The Artist and Her World. F. Warne & Co and The National Trust. pp. 120–3. ISBN 0-7232-3561-9.