Welcome to the website of the Lorton & Derwent Fells Local History Society (L&DFLHS). This site introduces you to the Society and its activities and publications. The site provides a focus for local history in our area. Whether you live locally or not, you can join the Society as a member for £10. The new subscription year starts on 1st November. The Society has nearly 200 members.

Society visit to Wreay Church and Hutton in the Forest - 7th June 2013

This visit will be by own or shared transport for tours of St Mary's Church at Wreay, designed for Sarah Losh, in the morning and Hutton in the Forest in the afternoon. Visitors welcome, See details

VCH group completes its Jubilee Digests

30th November 2012. The Society's VCH group has now completed its Jubilee Digests for the 21 VCH places which we undertook to do. Most of these are now on the CCHT website as short basic histories of the places. See our VCH page.

2013 project - History of Derwent Fells through objects

For our 20th anniversary Exhibitionon 19th & 20th October 2013 we are running a project to describe the history of our area through objects. Can you think of an object with a history? Why not get involved? See our objects page.

New venture on 11th October 2012- quiz

At the Yew Tree Hall, a light hearted team quiz based on local history and environment - but not too difficult (actually not at all difficult, mostly multiple choice answers ). Puddings and prizes in abundance. See the Poster

Did you miss it? Ten teams of four competed and had a great evening. If you would like another on next year please contact John Macfarlane and let him know.

 

New VCH page

Visit our new page which describes our activity and holds the extracted sources for our work on the Victoria County History for Cumbria

Allan Bank visit, March 29

Click to see a pictorial report of our recent outing to Allan Bank, courtesy of the National Trust

Journals and Newsletters

All Journals and Newsletters now on our Journals page

Lorton in 1811

Following requests the talk given on Lorton 200 years ago is now here and you can download the slides here and the text here. Please respect the copyright. Read the text of John Bolton's lecture on Lorton and Loweswater 80 years ago, given in 1891 (out of copyright)

Setmurthy

Click to see a pictorial report of our recent outing to the historic houses of Setmurthy and Isel

Our area

The Society has its principal focus in the area of the English Lake District to the west of Keswick and the south of Cockermouth. The map shows this area of Cumbria, formerly Cumberland. The old townships covered are Brackenthwaite, Buttermere, Embleton, Lorton, Loweswater, Mosser, Pardshaw, Whinfell and Wythop. The Society and its members are also interested in Cumberland families and the history of Cumbria generally.

An image depicting the county of Cumbria.
Our area in the county of Cumbria

What does the Society do?

  • The Society is a membership organisation, run by an elected Committee.

  • It organises a programme of events for its members and visitors, primarily a series of bi-monthly talks.

  • Additionally it organises historical visits, walks and occasional exhibitions.

  • It publishes a Journal, a newsletter called 'The Wanderer', several books, and other occasional publications.

  • It runs participatory historical and archaeological projects.

  • It keeps an archive of historical material for the area and provides support for other local and family historians.

  • The Society is a member of the Cumbria Local History Federation the Cumbria County History Trust and the British Association for Local History.

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