APPLEBY-IN-WESTMORLAND

'Appleby', fully 'Appleby-in-Westmorland' is a town in Cumbria in North West England. It is situated within a loop of the River Eden and has a population of approximately 2,500. It is in the traditional county of Westmorland, of which it was the county town.
The town's name was simply Appleby until the local government changes of 1974. When a successor parish was formed for the former borough of Appleby, the council effected a change in the town's name to preserve the historic county's name.
Appleby's main industry is tourism due to its remote location, scenery and closeness to the Lake District. Appleby is on the Settle-Carlisle Railway and is overlooked by the (currently closed) Appleby Castle, a predominantly Norman structure which provided the home for Lady Anne Clifford in the seventeenth century.
Unfortunately, the closure of Appleby Castle during the Summer months means that this lazy backwater remains just that almost all year round. Its main status—with very little industry in Cumbria—is to sell goods to the farming communities round about. Many residents commute to jobs elsewhere, and this means that this town has changed from a centre of rural life to—with rising rural car ownership—a relatively small and unimportant settlement. The bypass around the town does not help as potential passing trade does not even enter the town. However, the annual Horse Fair, held regularly in early June since at least the 18th century, brings Gypsies from all over Britain to the town.

Appleby was a parliamentary borough, electing two members of Parliament, from medieval times; by the 18th century it had become a pocket borough, the nomination of its MPs effectively being in the gift of the Lowther family. Its representatives included William Pitt the younger, who was MP for Appleby when he became Prime Minister in 1783 (although he stood down at the following general election when he was instead elected for Cambridge University). A later member for Appleby was Viscount Howick, subsequently (as Earl Grey) the Prime Minister whose administration passed the Great Reform Act of 1832; but Grey's history as a former MP for the town did not save it from losing both its members under the Act. As the only county town to be disfranchised, Appleby was one of the more controversial cases in the debates on the reform bill, the opposition making unsuccessful attempts to amend the bill so as to save at least one of its MPs.
The town remained a municipal borough until this status was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972 and replaced by Eden District Council based in Penrith. Although having the status of a municipal borough it was never the less a lot smaller in size and population than most urban districts in the country whose councils had slightly less power but incidentally larger in population than some early Westmorland UDCs eg: Grasmere and Shap.
Although Appleby is the county town of Westmorland the former county council sat in Kendal even though the assize courts were in Appleby.

Contents

Trivia

Appleby Dialect

See also

External links

Trivia

The popular BBC weather forecaster Bert Foord was born at Brough near Appleby in 1930.
After being left behind during a holiday to Reading, a dog ran all the way back to Appleby. (BBC News)

Appleby Dialect

The Appleby dialect is a diasystem of the Cumbrian dialect spoken around the Penrith and Eden district area.

See also

Appleby (UK Parliament constituency)

External links

★ town site from the local chamber of commerce.

★ Appleby Horse Fair Appleby is the site of a celebrated horse fair.

★ Information Guide to Appleby