Westmorland
Flag
Ancient extent of Westmorland
Geography
Status	Administrative county (1889-1974) Ceremonial county (until 1974)
1831 area	485,990 acres (1,966.7 km2)[1]
1911 area	505,330 acres (2,045.0 km2)[2]
1961 area	504,917 acres (2,043.33 km2)[2]
HQ	Appleby (historic county town) County Hall, Kendal (1889-1974)
Chapman code	WES
History
Origin	Historic
Created	In antiquity
Succeeded by	Cumbria
Demography
1911 population	63,575[2]
1961 population	67,180[2]
Politics
Governance	Westmorland County Council (1889-1974)
Arms of the former Westmorland County Council Arms of Westmorland County Council
Subdivisions
Type	Baronies, Wards (ancient)

Westmorland ( /ˈwɛstmərlənd/; formerly also spelt Westmoreland^[3]; even older spellings are Westmerland and Westmereland) is an area of North West England and one of the 39 historic counties of England. It formed an administrative county from 1889 to 1974, after which the whole county was absorbed into the new county of Cumbria.

Early history[link]

At the time of Domesday Book in 1086, parts of the county were considered either to form part of Yorkshire or to be within the separate kingdom of Scotland, having historically been associated with the Kingdom of Strathclyde. The Normans conquered the area that is now Cumbria in 1092 during the reign of William II and created the baronies of Kendal and Westmorland. These were originally distinct jurisdictions with separate sheriffs, but were formed into a single county of Westmorland in 1226/7.^[4] Before 1226 the Barony of Kendal was connected to the Earldom or Honour of Lancaster while that of Westmorland was part of the Earldom of Carlisle.

The historic county boundaries are with Cumberland to the north, County Durham and Yorkshire to the east, and Lancashire to the south and west. Windermere forms part of the western border with Lancashire north of the sands, and Ullswater part of the border with Cumberland.

The highest point of the county is Helvellyn at 950m (3,117 ft). According to the 1831 census the county covered an area of 485,990 acres (1,966.7 km²).^[1]

Appleby, the historic county town, formed a historic borough and was not reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, although reform came in 1885. Kendal was reformed as a municipal borough in 1835.

Division into wards[link]

Rather than being divided into hundreds, Westmorland was subdivided into the two baronies of Westmorland (or sometimes Appleby) and Kendal.

The baronies were each further subdivided into two wards:

• Westmorland
  • East ward ^[5] - Appleby, Brough, Kirkby Stephen, Orton, Tebay
  • West ward ^[6] - Askham, Bampton, Barton, Patterdale, Shap, Yanwath

• Kendal
  • Kendal ward ^[7] - Ambleside, Burton-in-Kendal, Grasmere, Grayrigg, Kentmere, Kendal, Windermere
  • Lonsdale ward ^[8] - Kirkby Lonsdale

Modern history[link]

In 1889, under the Local Government Act 1888, a county council was created for Westmorland, taking functions from the Quarter Sessions. Westmorland had no county boroughs throughout its history, so the administrative county, the area under the control of the county council, was coterminous with the geographic county. The county council was based at Kendal, rather than the historic county town of Appleby-in-Westmorland.

Aside from the two municipal boroughs of Kendal and Appleby, the Local Government Act 1894 divided the county into urban districts and rural districts:

• 5 Urban Districts: Ambleside, Bowness on Windermere, Grasmere, Kirkby Lonsdale, Windermere
• 3 Rural Districts: West Ward, East Westmorland, South Westmorland

In 1905 a new Shap urban district was formed, while Windermere absorbed the neighbouring Bowness UD.

A County Review Order in 1935 reduced the number of districts in the county:

• A new Lakes Urban District was formed by the merger of Ambleside and Grasmere UDs and adjacent parishes in West Ward and South Westmorland RDs
• East Westmorland RD, most of West Ward RD and Shap UD were merged to form North Westmorland Rural District
• South Westmorland RD absorbed Kirkby Lonsdale UD, at the same time losing an area to Lakes UD.^[4]

Despite their title, many of Westmorland's urban districts, such as Lakes, Grasmere, and Shap, were quite rural in character.

According to the 1971 census, Westmorland was the second least populated administrative county in England, after Rutland. The distribution of population was as follows:^[9]

In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, the county council was abolished and its former area was combined with Cumberland and parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire to form the new county of Cumbria, administered by a new Cumbria County Council. The area now forms parts of the districts of South Lakeland and Eden.

Coat of arms[link]

Westmorland County Council was granted a coat of arms by the College of Arms in 1926. The design of the shield referred to the two components of the county: on two red bars (from the arms of the de Lancaster family, Barons of Kendal) was placed a gold apple tree (from the seal of the borough of Appleby, for the Barony of Westmorland). The crest above the shield was the head of a ram of the local Herdwick breed. On the ram's forehead was a shearman's hook, a tool used in the handling of wool. The hook was part of the insignia of the borough of Kendal, the administrative centre of the county council.^[10]

Legacy[link]

Map of Westmorland, 1824

Westmorland is still used as a place name by organisations and businesses in the area such as:

• The Westmorland Gazette (founded 1818)
• The Westmorland County Agricultural Society (founded 1799), which organises the annual Westmorland County Agricultural Society Show
• The Westmorland Geological Society (formed 1973)
• The Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society (founded 1866)
• The Westmorland Youth Orchestra
• The Westmorland Shopping Centre, Kendal
• The Westmorland Cricket League
• Westmorland services, better known as Tebay services, on the M6 motorway.
• In 1974 the successor parish council formed for the former borough of Appleby adopted the name Appleby-in-Westmorland.
• Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal
• Westmorland croquet club

The southern part of the county, the former Barony of Kendal or that part of Westmorland that is part of South Lakeland, is included in the Westmorland and Lonsdale parliamentary constituency.

In June 1994, during the 1990s UK local government reform, the Local Government Commission published draft recommendations suggesting that Westmorland's border with Yorkshire and Lancashire be restored for ceremonial purposes. The final recommendations, published in October 1994, did not include such recommendations, apparently due to lack of expression of support for the proposal to the commission.

In September 2011, the Westmorland Association, a local society which promotes the county's identity, successfully registered the Flag of Westmorland with the Flag Institute.

Notable people[link]

• Thomas Strickland Esq carried the Flag of St. George at the battle of Agincourt.
• St. John Boste, Roman Catholic priest and martyr

See also[link]

• List of Lord Lieutenants for Westmorland
• List of High Sheriffs for Westmorland
• Custos Rotulorum of Westmorland - List of keepers of the Rolls
• Westmorland (UK Parliament constituency) - List of MPs for constituency of Westmorland

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Westmorland Association

v t e before 1889 ←    Counties of England (1889–1974)   → 1974–1996 Bedfordshire · Berkshire · Buckinghamshire · Cambridgeshire, Isle of Ely · Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely · Cheshire · Cornwall · Cumberland · Derbyshire · Devon · Dorset · Durham · Essex · Gloucestershire · Hampshire · Herefordshire · Hertfordshire · Huntingdonshire · Huntingdon and Peterborough · Kent · Lancashire · Leicestershire · Lincolnshire: Parts of Holland, Parts of Kesteven, Parts of Lindsey · London · Middlesex · Norfolk · Northamptonshire, Soke of Peterborough · Northumberland · Nottinghamshire · Oxfordshire · Rutland · Shropshire · Somerset · Staffordshire · Suffolk: East Suffolk, West Suffolk · Surrey · Sussex: East Sussex, West Sussex · Warwickshire · Westmorland · Wiltshire · Worcestershire · Yorkshire: East Riding, North Riding, West Riding

v t e earliest ←    Counties of England (before 1889)   → 1889–1974 Bedfordshire · Berkshire · Buckinghamshire · Cambridgeshire · Cheshire · Cornwall · Cumberland · Derbyshire · Devon · Dorset · Durham · Essex · Gloucestershire · Hampshire · Herefordshire · Hertfordshire · Huntingdonshire · Isle of Ely · Kent · Lancashire · Leicestershire · Lincolnshire · Middlesex · Norfolk · Northamptonshire · Northumberland · Nottinghamshire · Oxfordshire · Rutland · Shropshire · Somerset · Staffordshire · Suffolk · Surrey · Sussex · Warwickshire · Westmorland · Wiltshire · Worcestershire · Yorkshire

Coordinates: 54°30′N 2°35′W / 54.5°N 2.583°W / 54.5; -2.583

For the organist of the same name, see Ian Tracey (organist)

Ian Tracey (born June 26, 1964) is a Canadian Leo- and Gemini Award-winning actor. Over the years, Tracey has participated in over seventy films and television series. Tracey has starred in series like Da Vinci's Inquest and Intelligence, both CBC television series produced by long-time colleague Chris Haddock. He is also well known for his role as the title character in 1979's Huckleberry Finn and His Friends.

Life and career[link]

Tracey was born on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. He grew up in British Columbia's Port Coquitlam. A performer at a young age, Tracey started working at the age of 11, playing in the 1976 film The Keeper starring Christopher Lee.^[1] He is also the father of actor Keenan Tracey.

Tracey's recent feature film credits include Prozac Nation, Owning Mahowny, with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kevin Costner's western Open Range and Christopher Nolan's 2001 thriller Insomnia. In 1999, Tracey won the Leo Award for Best Performance by a Male in a Feature Length Drama for Rupert's Land.

Tracey has appeared in a number of movies-of-the-week, including starring in the title role of Milgaard, for which he won both the Gemini Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series^[2] and Leo Award for Best Performance by a Male in a Picture^[3] in 1999. Other television film include The Rookies, for which he received a 1991 Gemini nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He was nominated for a Gemini Award in 2000 for his portrayal of the talented Homicide Detective Mick Leary in the Canadian TV series Da Vinci's Inquest. He also directed two episodes in that television series, as well as two in Intelligence.

Tracey was a series regular on Sweating Bullets (also known as Tropical Heat) and had a recurring lead on The Commish. He was also seen in Taken and has guest starred on Smallville, Dark Angel, The Sentinel, The X-Files, The Outer Limits, Highlander: The Series, The Collector and Mom P.I.

In 2005, Tracey was in the TV miniseries Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story and Intelligence, a CBC television series about the interactions between organized crime and government intelligence services. In Intelligence, Tracey plays the head of a third-generation crime family that built its fortune on rum-running before turning to heroin and weed. He also appeared as Nova Group leader Daniel Armand in season three of the science fiction series The 4400 and guest-starred as Lincoln Cole in Smallville. In 2010 he began the recurring role of villain Adam Worth on Sanctuary. In spring 2007, he filmed the Chinese-Canadian historical miniseries Iron Road with Sam Neill and Peter O'Toole and narrated the making-of documentary for the DVD release of the series Huckleberry Finn and His Friends.

Filmography[link]

• In Praise of Older Women (1978)
• Dream Speaker (1979)
• Eureka (1984)
• The Journey of Natty Gann (1985)
• Fire with Fire (1986)
• Stakeout (1987)
• Trust in Me (1994)
• Timecop (1994)
• Stargate(?)
• The War Between Us (1995)
• Man with a Gun (1995)
• Carpool (1996)
• Rupert's Land (1998)
• Milgaard (1999) (TV)
• Touched (1999)
• Dangerous Attraction (2000)
• Prozac Nation (2001)
• Insomnia (2002)
• Do Not Disturb (2003)
• Cellmates (2003)
• Owning Mahowny (2003)
• Open Range (2003)
• Emile (2003)
• Ice Men (2004)
• Elektra (2005)

Major television roles[link]

• Huckleberry Finn and His Friends (1979) (Huckleberry Finn)
• Conspiracy of Silence (1991) (Dwayne Johnston)
• The Commish (1991) (Officer Jon Hibbs)
• Sweating Bullets (1991) (Spider Garvin)
• Fly by Night (1991) (Berry the Rat)
• The X-Files: "The Walk" (TV) (1995)
• Da Vinci's Inquest (1998) (Detective Mick Leary)
• Taken (2002) (Bill Walker)
• Da Vinci's City Hall (2005) (Coroner Mick Leary)
• Intelligence (2006) (Jimmy Reardon)
• Sanctuary (2010 - 2011) (Adam Worth)
• Hell on Wheels (2011) (Bolan)
• Supernatural (2012) (Lee)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ian Tracey at the Internet Movie Database
• Ian Tracey at AllRovi
• Tracey interview video