Cumbria County History Trust: Your Online Resource for the History of Cumbria | Cumbria County History Trust Heron Corn Mill, Beetham Piel Island, from Foulney Bewcastle Sizergh Castle Hexham Abbey Previous Next Cumbria County History Trust: Your Online Resource for the History of Cumbria This site contains a page for every one of the 348 parishes and townships within Cumbria. You can access the place you are interested in via our Interactive Map. But there's much more to the county than that - scroll down this page to see one of more than 100 Interesting Facts we have posted to the site - or click here to find out more about different aspects of the history of the county : or here to look at some of the old maps, old prints and other images in our Gallery If you would like to help our work with a donation, there's a Donate button, below.  Or go to our Support Us page to learn more about Membership or becoming a Friend of CCHT, or a Volunteer NEW!   "The Farming Year".  Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the link for an eye-witness account of farming in the current month in the late 18th Century. VCH NEWS Our long awaited first Red Book, Lonsdale Ward , was published in August 2025, the first instalment in the Victoria County History of Westmorland, covering the 13 townships of Lonsdale Ward. You can purchase a copy here: Victoria County History of Westmorland I - Boydell and Brewer The Cumbria County History Trust (CCHT) was set up in May 2010 with the aim of producing a permanent, detailed record of the history of Cumbria, as part of the Victoria County History project, founded in 1899, which aims to write the definitive history of every place in every county in England. Learn more about VCH Cumbria here From the start,  our work has been co-ordinated and overseen by Lancaster University's Regional Heritage Centre, and has been supported by generous grants from the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society This site contains more than 7000 pages!  If you would like to learn more about how to navigate this wesbite and all that it has to offer, you can download this powerpoint presentation . It contains slides showing each page and how to move through them. You might like to use it to demonstrate available online resources to your local history group. If you spot any problems with the site that need attention, please let us know via See here for our Data Protection and Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy The Farming Year What was April like on a Cumbrian farm in the late 18th century? Mon 2nd April 1759. Ploughing the ley. John Robinson, Pardshow, here helping us. Moderate weather; wind southerly. Mercury 29.2. April 2026 Did you know? Cumbria played its part in providing a safe haven for children from the Basque region of Spain from 1937 -1939.