Hesket, Cumbria

Villages in the parish

Within the parish are the villages and hamlets of High Hesket, Old Town, Low Hesket, Aiketgate, Armathwaite, Plumpton, Plumpton Street, Plumpton Foot, Ivegill (part), Calthwaite, Petteril Green, Southwaite, Morton and Thiefside. (The settlement of Plumpton Head is within the neighbouring civil parish of Penrith.) There are primary schools at Plumpton, Calthwaite, Armathwaite, Ivegill and High Hesket, and roughly halfway between High and Low Hesket is a doctor's surgery.

Governance

An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward stretches south to the boundaries of Penrith and had a total population taken at the 2011 Census of 3,193.

Transport

The Settle and Carlisle Railway runs through the parish with a station at Armathwaite. The West Coast Main Line also runs through the parish at one time there were stations on this line at Plumpton, Southwaite and Calthwaite. The M6 motorway and the A6 road run parallel to each other through the parish with a motorway service area at Southwaite.

Places of interest

At Castlesteads or Old Penrith just north of Plumpton are the remains of a Roman Fort known as Voreda.

In the Middle Ages the area was the heart of the Royal hunting ground known as Inglewood Forest.

The village and former market town of Hesket Newmarket is not within Hesket parish and is situated about 10 miles (16 km) to the west and within Caldbeck parish in Allerdale borough.