Stanwix is a district of Carlisle, Cumbria in North West England. It is located on the north side of River Eden, across from Carlisle city centre. Although long counted as a suburb it did not officially become part of the city until 1912 when part of the civil parish of Stanwix became part of the parish, city and municipal borough of Carlisle. Further areas were added to the city, which was by then a county borough, in 1934 and 1951. The remaining part of the parish was eventually renamed Stanwix Rural in 1966.[1]
Stanwix is built on the site of a Roman fort known as Petriana or Uxelodunum.
The former village of Stanwix was centered around its church St Michael's [2] at the top of a steep bank rising from the Eden close to the junction of the main road north (now the A7) with the road to the east (now the B6264). In the mid nineteenth century the district grew with many large houses built for Carlisle's expanding middle classes. Today Stanwix includes the areas of Edentown, Whiteclosegate, St Anne's Hill and Belah and may be said to include Moorville, Lowry Hill and Kingstown but these districts are usually thought to be separate and were formerly part of Kingmoor parish and added to the city in the 1950s.
Near the church today is a small parade of shops and other businesses. A Morrisons supermarket is located in the area as well. A little further north at Kingstown is a large Asda superstore. The University of Cumbria has a campus on Brampton Road (formerly the main campus of the Cumbria Institute of the Arts). There is also a Roman Catholic private school called Austin Friars St Monica's School located at St. Anne's Hill. The course of Hadrians Wall runs through the suburb and the area around the church is built on the site of the Fort of Petriana.
A single Bridge, Eden Bridge, crosses River Eden to connect Stanwix and other northern reaches of the district to Carlisle city centre. Numerous households in low lying areas in Stanwix were badly affected by the flooding of the River Eden during the Carlisle Floods of January 2005.
The main road running northwards through Stanwix is Scotland Road and has the dubious distinction of carrying the same daily volume of traffic as the nearby M6 motorway.