Welcome to Egremont
| The historic Norman market town of Egremont is bustling with activity. The main street shops, a mixture of renovated Georgian and Victorian architecture, offer a pleasant experience for shoppers to stroll around. At the heart of Cumbria's beautiful and peaceful Western Lake District, |  |
Egremont offers, enjoyable outdoor leisure activities, interesting local heritage, well stocked outdoor market and shops, two monthly Farmers markets and fantastic scenery to relax in.
The immediate area offers opportunities to our walking and cycling routes, part of the Hadrian's cycleway or our alternative start (or finish) to the popular coast to coast cycle route.
Egremont's treasures include superb rural features at nearby Clintz quarry, with its amazing orchids and the peaceful surroundings of Longlands Lake where the one-mile route around the lake is a haven for wild life of all kinds. Many lovely walks have magnificent views across to the Lakeland fells such as Dent Fell.
To the South of Egremont, in view from the town's historic Norman Castle, is Florence mine, part of Egremont's proud industrial heritage and the last deep Iron Ore mine in Western Europe.
The new gateways, planted with a community apple orchard at the Northern end, leads people into the town whilst theSouthern gateway leads directly past the side of the Castle, home to the legend of the Horn of Egremont immortalised in sculpture by Paul Bainbridge and in poetry by William Wordsworth.
 | The castle is a Mott and Bailey structure standing majestically overlooking theMain Street and Market Place has been the Cumbria winner of the prestigious Green Heritage Site and Green Flag awards on several occasions. |
The town Market Place is the site of the greasy pole that spurs would be contestants to climb it each annual Crab Fair and also where Crab apples, from Egremont's own orchard, are thrown to the crowd.
There are plenty of things to do and see for both visitors and the local community. Lowes Court Gallery is housed an 18th century building with a quaint charm is also home to Egremont's Tourism Information Centre and where its knowledgeable staff can be found.
Reflecting 1,000 years of history the heart of the town remains almost as it was when Richard De Lucy envisaged the original design of the Main Street and Market Place after he inherited the estates in 1165.
Through its regeneration programme the town has undergone a transformation with massive investment in the area bringing buildings back to life and putting the heart back into its community. The Egremont and Area Regeneration Partnership, formed in 2000, became a limited company in 2004 in order to progress the Market Town Initiative.
A master planning exercise was carried out in 2004, and the funding for the Market Town Initiative, which took forward a number of the projects in that plan was agreed for expenditure in autumn 2005. Since then thirty-six projects have been implemented under the Market Town Initiative, with many more under the Partnership's other funding streams through West Lakes Renaissance, European Regional Development Fund and Arts Council England.
| The Farmers Market which is held every third Friday and first Saturday of the month in the Market Hall and all Egremont's other shops all offer a great selection of wonderful crafts complementing those found alongside the paintings and prints in Lowes Court Gallery. Egremont even has a factory outlet shop and ice cream factory with its own sales shop inside. |  |
De Lucy Centre - a new central hub for Egremont the Egremont and Area Regeneration Partnership has levered public and private investment to transform the public realm and given grant funding to renovate disused buildings. Nine buildings have been or are being brought back into economic use, with plans for those few that remain.
The De Lucy Centre is one such scheme that will see Egremont benefit from the creation of a new £640,000 ‘one-stop-shop' offering town residents advice and support on a wide range of social issues.
West Lakes Renaissance awarded a grant of almost £400,000 to renovate two historic buildings at the heart of the town centre in Market Place transforming them into the De Lucy Centre, a community resource centre boasting quality offices for service providers and local businesses; an information centre; computer and internet access for research and self help; facilities for drop-in surgeries, training, conferences and event; and a light refreshment area.
There is a full-time co-ordinator responsible for the day-today operation of the centre. Age Concern North West Cumbria -has invested over £200,000 in the centre - and Community Action for Egremont formed a partnership working with the Egremont and Area Regeneration Partnership and other organisations to develop the centre It provides facilities for participating organisation to deliver integrated services, linking people into training, employment and business opportunities, improving their financial situation, dealing with legal and housing matters, and addressing health and lifestyles issues.
 | They also help maintain independent living and increase involvement in the community through access to social, leisure, educational and volunteering opportunities. In the first three years it aims to help more than 250 people into a job and assist 50 more to complete vocational training courses. |
Egremont Gateways
The complete Gateway scheme has brought a £1.9million pound invested into the town in a variety of projects including business refurbishment, signage, street furniture, roadside and roundabout plantings around the town and other works. £500,000 of the total monies has been spent on the planting schemes that transform the entrances to Egremont on the 595, including a pocket park near the Castle, and a community orchard.
Trees have been planted round the edges of the junctions, and along the sides of theA595 and in keeping with the theme of Egremont's historic crab fair, the trees will be fruit trees, including cherry and apple trees creating a boulevard effect for drivers coming towards the town and providing continuity with the different entrances.
An area below the Castle has been developed as a pocket park, with terracing and fruit trees in keeping with the rest of the planting schemes. In complementary projects, a number of areas have been landscaped, car parking has been improved with improved signage around the town for pedestrians and motorists, a town walk has been created and the Norman Castle has been illuminated.
The project, funded by West Lakes Renaissance and the European Regional Development Fund is implemented by the Egremont Regeneration Partnership with Copeland Borough Council.
The Greasy Pole
The Greasy Pole returns to Egremont Market Square Egremont's new Greasy Pole, a public sculpture by Alan Kane and Jeremy Deller, Turner Prize winner, was officially opened earlier in the year at its permanent site is in the Market Place of the West Cumbrian town of Egremont.
The pole was climbed during the opening event but normally only climbed during the annual Crab Fair when it was traditionally greased to make it difficult for the contestants to reach the prizes placed at the top of the pole.
| ‘Greasy Mutton Pole' climbing in the town has along tradition bound up with the annual Egremont Crab Fair and this commission has brought the Pole back as a permanent feature in the town's Market place, operating as contemporary work of art, heritage artefact, iconic landmark and sporting apparatus to be used at the Crab Fair. |  |
Egremont Castle
The castle recently had evening illumination installed as part of a full illumination scheme in the town. The designers, Sutton Vane Associates were also responsible for another popular lighting project at nearby Muncaster Castle.
Additionally the castle is to have a new all weather outdoor performance structure that will stop bad weather disrupting performance. The Swiss practice Décosterd-Cotting Architects won the international competition to design the demountable pavilion and is now working with engineer Guscetti and Tournier from Geneva to realise the scheme, described by the judges as ‘the most flexible and elegant solution to a very challenging brief'. The competition was organised in conjunction with RIBA.
The demountable structure will provide a weatherproof canopy within the ruined castle keep. A lightweight cover in the form of a parabolic wave shape is suspended from a carbon fibre frame on five pillars to cover most of the internal space providing room for 200 people seated.
Virtual community
Egremont Regeneration Partnership have a new web site. The site offers information for visitors, tourists, the local community and those wanting details on the Regeneration Partnership's work.
A virtual community of businesses is under construction and this will offers free micro sites that will be owned and managed by each trader. The sites will be capable of ecommerce for both established physical business and potentially for virtual business that may be needed to fill gaps in provision. ‘Streetscape's are the virtual visitor experience, travelling the town streets and businesses . The businesses and shops will link to each micro-site.
Virtual leisure route, tours of key attractions such as the Norman Castle and Art Gallery will be developed in the near future.
The site can be viewed at http://www.virtualegremont.co.uk
