The Pennine Mountains of Northern England
Typical Pennine scenery of
Saddleworth Moor looking towards the Wessenden valley
The
Pennines are a low-rising
mountain range in
northern England and southern
Scotland. They separate the
North West of England from
Yorkshire and the
North East.
Often said to be the "
backbone of England", they form an unbroken range stretching from the
Peak District in
Derbyshire, through the
Yorkshire Dales, around the northern and eastern edges of
Greater Manchester, the
West Pennine Moors of
Lancashire and
Cumbrian Fells to the
Cheviot Hills on the
Anglo-Scottish border. North of the Aire Gap the Pennines give out a western
spur into Lancashire, the
Forest of Bowland and south of the gap is a similar spur, the Rossendale Fells.
Although the above is a common definition, the
Cheviot Hills are
not strictly speaking part of the Pennines, being separated by the Tyne Gap and the
Whin Sill, along which run the
A69 and
Hadrian's Wall - however due to the Pennine Way route crossing them they are often treated as such. Conversely, although the southern end of the Pennines is commonly said to be somewhere in the
High Peak district of Derbyshire, often
Edale (the start of the Pennine Way); they in fact extend south into
Staffordshire and
Cheshire, as can be seen by looking at a relief map. The true southern end of the Pennines is actually in the
Stoke on Trent area, around south of Edale.
It is an important water catchment area with numerous reservoirs in the head streams of the major river valleys. The region is widely considered to be one of the most scenic areas of the
United Kingdom. The
North Pennines have been declared an
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) as has
Nidderdale, while portions of the Pennines are incorporated into the
Peak District National Park, the
Yorkshire Dales National Park and the
Northumberland National Park. Britain's first
long distance footpath, the
Pennine Way, runs the full length of the Pennine chain and is 429 kilometres (268 mi) long.
Etymology
The first use of the name "Pennines" to describe the mountain range is in
De Situ Britanniae, published in 1749:
This province is divided into two equal parts by a chain of mountains called the Pennine Alps, which rising on the confines of the Iceni and Carnabii, near the river Trivona [ Trent ], extend towards the north in a continued series of fifty miles.
This book purported to contain the account of a
Roman general preserved in the manuscript of a fourteenth century
English monk, Richard of Cirencester, and was considered the premier source of information on Roman Britain for more than a century after it was made available in 1749. It was in fact a forgery created by
Charles Bertram, an
Englishman then living in
Copenhagen. In 1853, Arthur Hussey listed several names in
De Situ Britanniae that he could not trace to another source, including the "Pennine Alps". However, by that time, particularly in the early 19th century, the name "Pennine Chain" or "Pennines" had become widely accepted.
In his 2004 book
Names and History: People, Places and Things, George Redmonds comments at length on the strange omission of the
etymology of the Pennines in the serious literature regarding that area of England, including publications on place-name origins of
Derbyshire and
Lancashire by respected authors, and notes that "nor do we know any name for the whole range before the eighteenth century." He also states that the mountains had been called by various names in the past, and that there were allusional references to the mountains as "our
Apennines" as early as the 1630s, and perhaps before that, so Bertram probably invented a name that was easy for people to accept as fact.
Toponomy
The names of towns and geographical features retain some evidence of the
Celts who were here before, and after, the Romans: for example the town
Penrith, the fell
Pen-y-ghent, the
river Eden, or the name
Cumbria.
More commonly the local names result from the later
Anglo-Saxon and
Norse settlements. And in both Yorkshire and Cumbria many Norse words not commonly used in standard English are part of everyday speech: for example, gill (narrow steep valley),
beck (brook or stream),
fell (hill),
dale (valley).
Geology and landscape
The Pennines form an
anticline which extends in a north-south direction, consisting of
Millstone Grit and the underlying
Carboniferous Limestone. The limestone is exposed at the surface to the north of the range in the North Pennines AONB and to the South in the Derbyshire Peak District. In the Yorkshire Dales this limestone exposure has led to the formation of large underground cave systems and watercourses, known as "gills" and "pots" in the
Yorkshire dialect. These potholes are more prevalent on the eastern side and are amongst the largest in England; notable examples are the chasms of
Gaping Gill, which is over deep and
Rowten Pot, which is deep. The presence of limestone has also led to some unusual geological formations in the region, such as the
limestone pavements of the Yorkshire Pennines. Between the Northern and Southern areas of exposed limestone, between Skipton and the Peak, lies a narrow belt of gritstone country. Here the shales and sandstones of the Millstone Grit form high hills occupied by moors and peat-mosses with the higher ground being uncultivable and barely fit for pastures.
The landscape of the Pennines is generally upland areas of high
moorland indented by the more fertile valleys of the region's various rivers.
Drainage
The Pennines constitute the main
watershed in northern England, dividing the eastern and western parts of the country. The rivers
Eden,
Ribble, and
Mersey all rise in the Pennines and flow westwards towards the
Irish Sea. On the other side of the watershed, the rivers
Tyne,
Tees,
Wear,
Swale,
Ure,
Nidd,
Calder,
Wharfe,
Aire,
Don, and
Trent also rise in the region but flow eastwards to the
North Sea.
Reservoirs
Kielder WaterLadybower Reservoirand many other smaller reservoirs
Elevation
The mountains are not very high and are often referred to as
fells. The highest is
Cross Fell in eastern Cumbria, at while other principal peaks include
Mickle Fell ,
Whernside ,
Ingleborough ,
High Seat and
Wild Boar Fell , both in
Mallerstang,
Pen-y-ghent , and
Kinder Scout .
Character Areas of the Pennines
The Joint Character Areas of the Pennines
England has been divided into areas with similar landscape character. These have been called Joint Character Areas (JCAs). The JCAs are a widely recognised national spatial framework but the boundaries of the JCAs are not precise and many of the boundaries should be considered as broad zones of transition.
The Pennines have ten
Joint Character Areas. These are: -
Croasdale Forest of Bowland.
The Bowland area of the Pennines is dominated by a central upland landform of deeply incised gritstone fells. There are vast tracts of heather covered peat moorland and blanket bog on these fells. The lower slopes of the fells are dotted with stone built farms and small villages and are criss crossed by drystone walls enclosing reclaimed moorland pasture. Cloughs, steep sided wooded valleys, link the upland and lowland landscapes. To the south-east of the area are extensive coniferous plantations and the eastern limestone areas support high quality species rich meadows.
Dales
Demography
It is a relatively sparsely populated region by English standards.
Economy
The main economic activities include
sheep farming,
quarrying and
tourism.
Main Settlements
Transport
The three main gaps in the Pennines have always afforded communications links between the areas to the east and west. These gaps are the Tyne Gap between
Carlisle and
Newcastle upon Tyne followed by the A69 road, the Stainmoor Gap and the Aire Gap linking Lancashire and Yorkshire via the valleys of the rivers Aire and Ribble. The Pennines are also traversed by the
Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the
M62 motorway. Elsewhere, the Pennines remain a formidable barrier to be crossed by tunnel or roads which may be blocked by snow for several days in winter.
Rail services are operated along the
Huddersfield line between
Huddersfield railway station and
Victoria and
Piccadilly stations in Manchester. The name of the train-operating company
First TransPennine Express comes from such journeys - its trains connect the North West with the North East.
History
A prehistoric settlement on Harkerside Moor in Swaledale.
Early inhabitants
The area contains many examples of
Bronze Age settlements, and evidence of
Neolithic settlement (including many
stone circles or
henges, such as
Long Meg and Her Daughters.)
Celtic and Roman times
The Pennines would have come under the tribal federation of the
Brigantes. This tribal federation was made up of mainly small tribes who inhabited the Pennines and cooperated on defence and external affairs. The Brigantes later evolved into an early form of kingdom.
During Roman times, the Brigantes came under Roman domination. The Romans exploited the Pennines for the natural resources and wild animals found there.
Early Middle Ages
The Pennines were a major obstacle for Anglo-Saxon expansion west. Even when they were conquered they still retained a distinct
Semi-Celtic identity, which can be traced in place names today. During the Dark Ages the Pennines came under a number of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It is believed that the north of the area first came under the kingdom of
Rheged. There were later three kingdoms which were solely based in the Pennines though. These were: The Kingdom of the Pennines and later the Kingdom of the Pennines broke up and was succeeded by
Dunoting/Kingdom of the North Pennines and
The Peak/Kingdom of the South Pennines.
During Norse times the Pennines were lightly settled by Viking Danes in the east and Norwegian Vikings in the west. The Vikings left a lot of influence on placenames, even though they did not settle in great numbers. When England was unified the Pennines were incorporated into England.
Other history
The Pennines were the major route for the Jacobite attack on England. They also became highly exploited in the Victorian age.
Language
The language used in pre-Roman and Roman times was
British. During the
Early Middle Ages, the
Cumbric language developed. However, little evidence of Cumbric remains, so it is difficult to ascertain whether or not it was a language in its own right or simply a dialect of
Old Welsh. It is also uncertain as to the extent of the region in which Cumbric was spoken.
During
Anglo-Saxon times (the area was settled by Anglian peoples of Mercia and Northumbria, rather than the Saxon peoples of southern England)
Celtic speech remained in most areas of the Pennines longer than it did in the surrounding areas of
England. Eventually, the Celtic tongue of the Pennines was replaced by early
Middle English in the 12th Century.
In
Norse times,
Viking settlers brought their languages of Old Norse,
Old Danish (mainly in the
Yorkshire Dales and parts of the
Peak District) and
Old Norwegian (mainly in the western Pennines). With the eventual consolidation of England by the Saxon
kingdom of Wessex, the pure Norse speech died out in England, though it survived in the Pennines longer than in most areas. However, the fusion of Norse and Old English was an important part of the formation of Middle (and hence, Modern) English, and many individual words of Norse descent remain in use in local dialects, such as
that of Yorkshire, and in local place names.
Norman French had little effect on the language of the Pennines though. All of the above languages have had an influence, either large or small on the modern placenames of the Pennines. The modern language of the Pennines is English.
Folklore and customs
The folklore and customs are mostly based on
Celtic and
Viking customs and folklore. Many customs and stories have their origin in Christianised pagan traditions.
See also
