What to See in Cockermouth - Top Sights and Attractions

Summit in England. Clints Crags is a small fell in the north of the English Lake District near Blindcrake, Cumbria. It has its own chapter in Alfred Wainwright's The Outlying Fells of Lakeland. He describes a circular walk from Blindcrake, and laments that at the time of writing : "This is a walk on public footpaths, but until somebody removes the barbed wire and other obstacles to legitimate progress it can be recommended only to gymnasts." It reaches 804 feet. Since the time of writing the barbed wire has been removed and the path to the summit is clear of obstructions.

Clints Crags offers a pleasant and easy stroll to the summit from the village of Blindcrake. The gradient of the crags is much steeper rising north out of the Isel valley, however there are no footpaths to the crags from the valley bottom. There is an old limestone quarry near the summit of the hill, this is now an SSSI, being home to a rare species of newt that breeds in the old quarry lakes. The summit is a large expanse of limestone outcrops and pavement, which is also a designated SSSI. The fragile limestone habitat supports various rare calcareous species of flora and fauna.^[4]

Brackenthwaite Hows is a hill in the Lake District of North West England.

Crummock Water, Looking Towards Buttermere, a view from the hill was painted by J. M. W. Turner in 1797.

In 2019 the National Trust paid £202,000 for 77 acres of land comprising the site from three different owners. One of the three owners was Ruth and David Hill who had owned part of Brackenthwaite Hows since 1990.

The general manager for the National Trust in the North Lakes, Tom Burditt, said that the trust would "explore ways to improve access routes to the historic viewing station" and "work hard to support this area of high cultural and ecological importance, which neighbours woodland, fells and lakes that we already look after. We plan to maintain its mosaic of veteran and younger trees and heathland habitats which provide a haven for rare birds, bluebells and red squirrels".

It is 208 meters in height.

Alfred Wainwright in The North Western Fells, the sixth volume of his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells from 1964 described the hill as "an insignificant mound in stature and seems hardly worth turning aside to visit. But do it" and drew an illustration of himself admiring the view of High Stile from the hill.^[6]

Jennings Brewery was established as a family concern in 1828 in the village of Lorton, between Buttermere and Cockermouth in the Lake District, England. The brewery was started by John Jennings Snr, son of William Jennings. Jennings brewed exclusively in Lorton until 1874 when its present home, the Castle Brewery in Cockermouth, was purchased. The Lorton brewery closed some five years later.

Jennings Brewery brew a range of ales using lakeland water drawn from the brewery's own well, malted Maris Otter barley from Norfolk and Goldings, Fuggles and Challenger hops from Kent, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The malt used by Jennings brewery is screened and crushed rather than ground into a flour to keep the husks as whole as possible. The hops used are flaked rather than the increasingly popular hop pellets available nowadays.

In May 2005 Jennings Brewery was purchased by the national brewer, Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries,. The purchase was opposed by the Campaign for Real Ale, which feared W&DB would close the Cockermouth brewery. These fears seem to have been unfounded, however, as in June 2005 W&DB announced it would invest £250,000 to expand fermenting and cask racking capacity in Cockermouth, this work had been completed before the end of October 2008

Following the takeover by W&DB, the brewery's distribution centre in Workington was closed and its tied estate of 127 pubs absorbed by the W&DB pub company.

In May 2020, Marston's announced that it would merge its brewing business with Carlsberg UK, into a joint venture valued at £780m. Marston's will take a 40% stake in the merged firm. The deal will involve Marston's six breweries and distribution depots, but not its 1,400 pubs.^[8]