Melmerby, Cumbria

Melmerby is a village in Cumbria, England. It is a small village with a population of around 200. The village is 9 miles to the east of Penrith, a thriving community with immediate access to Junction 40 of the M6 motorway and a main line railway station serving London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Melmerby is a quiet backwater with excellent links to other parts of the UK. Surrounded by beautiful countryside it sits between the North Pennines with its highest point, Cross Fell to the east and the World Heritage Lake District National Park 10 miles to the west. It is relatively quiet because the area is not as popular with tourists as other parts of Cumbria. It has ample facilities to support visitors who choose to travel outside the Lake District National Park which can sometimes become congested in high season. The River Eden is bridged about 4mi away at Langwathby, and Long Meg and Her Daughters, the 3,500-year-old stone circle—the second largest in the country—is nearby at Little Salkeld.For the purposes of local government Melmerby is within the civil parish of Ousby, informally known as Ousby and Melmerby, in the District of Eden with Penrith at its heart.HistoryMelmerby is supposed to have taken its name from the residence of Máel Muire, a presumed Norse-Gael who lived nearby in the 9th century. The most significant historic buildings surviving in the village today are the 13th century church of St John the Baptist and the Grade II Listed Melmerby Hall, begun as a defensive structure in the early 14th century. A petition received by Edward II between 1320 and 1326 reads: