Arnside

Arnside

Arnside on the River Kent
Arnside
 Arnside shown within Cumbria
Population 2,301 (2001)
OS grid referenceSD4578
Civil parishArnside
DistrictSouth Lakeland
Shire countyCumbria
RegionNorth West
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town CARNFORTH
Postcode district LA5
Dialling code 01524
Police Cumbria
Fire Cumbria
Ambulance North West
EU Parliament North West England
UK ParliamentWestmorland and Lonsdale
List of places
UK
England
Cumbria

Coordinates: 54°11′56″N 2°49′55″W / 54.199°N 2.832°W

Arnside is a village and civil parish in Cumbria, England. It faces the estuary of the River Kent on the north eastern corner of Morecambe Bay, within the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Historically it lay within Westmorland, near the border with Lancashire, and has a population of 2,301.[1]

The village lies on the railway line from Lancaster to West Cumbria, which passes over the River Kent via the Arnside viaduct. Up to the 19th century, the village was a port, but building the viaduct caused the estuary to silt up.

The oldest building in the parish is Arnside Tower, a Peel tower built in the 14th/15th century as a refuge against raids from Scots and the Border Reivers. The town is overlooked by Arnside Knott, a hill that rises out of the estuary.

Arnside Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1906/7. The club disappeared in the 1920s.[2]

Transport

View of the Kent Estuary from Arnside Knott

Arnside railway station, which serves the village, is located on the Furness Line giving connections to Barrow-in-Furness, Ulverston, Grange-over-Sands, Carnforth and Lancaster.

The line was opened in 1857 by the Ulverston and Lancaster Railway, which was taken over by the Furness Railway 26 May 1862. The Furness Railway's Hincaster Branch ran from 26 June 1876, connecting to the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway at Hincaster, which is now part of the West Coast Main Line (WCML). Passenger services ended on the branch on 4 May 1942 and the lines were removed in 1966.

Bus services which run through the village include the 552 and 553.

Arnside viaduct

The railway line is carried over the River Kent on a viaduct 552 yards (505 m) long, with 50 piers. It was built in 1857 and rebuilt in 1915.[3]

Tides

See also: Arnside Bore
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With each high tide Arnside is subjected to a very fast rising tide. Because of the potential danger warning notices are posted at the pier, and an audible warning is sounded before every high tide (in daylight). The sequence of warnings is:-

  1. Eight sounds on the siren - around 2.25 h before high tide
  2. Eight sounds on the siren - around 1.75 h before high tide
  3. Twelve sounds on the siren - around 1.25 h before high tide when the incoming tide is just visible from the Coastguard station (location of the siren 54°11′56″N 2°50′28″W / 54.199°N 2.841°W )

The cause of this fast tide is a combination of the large area of Morecambe Bay, which narrows rapidly at Arnside, plus the second highest tidal range (at Barrow-in-Furness, which can be as much as 32 feet (9.8 m) on a spring tide nearest the spring and autumn equinox: these typically give rise to a tidal bore, which may be as high as 12 inches (30 cm), and are often used by canoeists.[4]

See also

Image gallery

References

  1. ↑ Office for National Statistics: Census 2001 : Parish Headcounts : South Lakeland Retrieved 3 November 2010
  2. ↑ “Arnside Golf Club”, “Golf’s Missing Links”.
  3. ↑ "Arnside station and viaduct". VisitCumbria.com. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  4. ↑ http://www.cameron-site.co.uk/nwsk/main-pages/articles/arnside_bore.htm

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arnside.
 Lake District National Park Kendal
Grange-over-Sands Storth
   Arnside  
Silverdale, Morecambe Bay