Shap Rural

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shap Rural is a very large but sparsely populated civil parish in Eden District, Cumbria, England covering part of the Lake District National Park. Within the parish are the hamlets and settlements of Wet Sleddale, Hardendale and Swindale.

The parish was created in 1906 with the splitting of the former civil parish of Shap into urban and rural parts. Shap Urban or now simply Shap was governed by an urban district council from 1906 to 1935. Shap and Shap Rural today have a joint parish council.

Within the parish are most of the Shap Fells range and the reservoirs of Haweswater (part) and Wet Sleddale.

The village of Mardale Green which disappeared when Haweswater was converted into a reservoir in the 1930s was within the parish.

Major landowners in the parish are the Lowther Family Estates [1] and United Utilities.

Junction 39 of the M6 motorway lies within the parish.

Shapbeck Limestone quarry owned by Hanson plc is in the northern part of the parish though the Hardendale Corus limsestone quarry and works and the famous Cemex (formerly RMC) Shap Granite quarries and works are within both Shap Rural and Shap parishes.