With only a few days left of the year to go, we put together a list of Cumbria’s 10 biggest news stories.
It’s been an interesting year for news in the county – we’ve covered everything from snowstorms and grand openings to big cultural events and more.
But some stories had a greater hold on readers than others and it’s not always the stories you immediately expect to be big hitters.
It’s a big part of our job to notice what you enjoy reading and while it’s true that big crime stories and tales of rescue and woe are often popular – we do regularly see positive stories break the mould.
So we’ve put together a list of 10 of our most-read stories in no particular order for you to read through before the year comes to an end.
1. A first look inside Cumbria’s new £4.5 million luxury cinema
Workington got a new luxury £4.5 million Parkway Cinema in March after the former Plaza Cinema moved out of the premises to a new home.
Owned by brothers Richard and Gerrard Parkes, we were invited for an exclusive first look at the state-of-the-art venue.
Complete with a café space, cocktail bar and £1,000 luxury leather electronic recliners, it also boasts some of the best cinema technology on the market.
2. Plans to transform major South Lakes landmark into food and retail heaven
Spinning Jennies made headlines with their plan to breathe new life into a Kendal town centre landmark.
The ambitious project looked to redevelop the former Beales store on Finkle Street into a multi-use food and retail hub with an emphasis on Cumbrian produce and makers.
Geri Ward, who with her partner, William Smith, is behind the Spinning Jennies project, said construction work was progressing smoothly and the first phase was due to open early in 2024.
3. Snow updates on roads, crashes, power cuts and school closures
Cumbria saw heavy snowfall at the start of December that some areas of the county hadn’t seen in decades.
Drivers were left stranded and some faced widespread power cuts that resulted in food trucks being rolled out to help keep people fed.
We shared round-the-clock updates on the multi-agency operation that involved emergency services, the council’s highways team and volunteers on the ground to clear roads and make sure everyone was safe.
4. Thousands descend on Kendal Calling
This year’s Kendal Calling saw thousands of people descend on the county’s major music festival.
We shared readers photos from the event across the weekend – which even saw one couple arrive straight from getting married.
Oliver Hodgson also attended the event for us and chatted with people from across the festival.
5. Uppies and Downies 2023
The Downies won this year’s Uppies and Downies games in Workington which took place over Easter on Good Friday, Easter Tuesday and the following Saturday.
The traditional no-rules mass football games has been played in the town for hundreds of years.
Thousands of people turned out to watch the games, which start on the Cloffocks when the specially-made leather ball is thrown off. The first ball thrown this year was by 13-year-old Darcie Saffill.
6. Lake District restaurant named among world’s best
A Lake District hotel’s restaurant was named among the world’s best by a leading luxury travel website.
The Samling at Windermere featured in Elite Traveler’s Readers’ Choice list of 2023, alongside venues including Le Gavroche, the Hand and Flowers, the Ritz and the Fat Duck at Bray.
It was the only restaurant in the north of England to feature – and certainly left an impression on readers.
7. Workington’s most wanted: Missing Tegu lizard returns home
A lizard who went missing for 10 days – and who sparked a national frenzy – left the internet chuffed after she found her way back home.
Echo, a Tegu, dug her way to freedom from her back garden in Moorclose, Workington, when her owner popped out with her meerkat to the vets.
Echo is part of the Pet Encounter family, who provide animal experiences across the county.
Her distraught owner Siobhan Harkness issued a plea for help and dozens of people searched high and low for the missing lizard.
But it turns out Echo hadn’t strayed very far at all – and was safely reunited with her owners after she was found behind the garages near their home.
8. Kray twins’ old Cumbrian haunt being brought back to life by new owners
Major renovations began on a Cumbrian stately home which was visited by the Kray twins.
Kirklinton Hall, near Carlisle, was put up for sale in 2022 for £450,000 and was quickly snapped up by husband and wife duo Jessica and George Palmer.
The pair shared with us their big plans for the site that aim to respect the hall’s history while also giving it a new lease of life.
In the 20th century, it functioned as – to name a few uses – a country house, RAF base, a school, a hotel, a nightclub, a casino and a gangsters’ gambling den as well as a hide-out for infamous gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray.
9. Shopper buys £1,000-worth of Prime drinks at Workington petrol station
Cumbria was no stranger to the Prime craze that swept the nation at the start of the year.
Euro Garage’s Lillyhall Service Station near Workington even saw one shopper buy £1,000-worth of bottles in one go.
The service station said youngsters had been running in to get their hands on a bottle, with its first stock of 3,000 bottles selling out in just six hours at £2.99 per bottle.
10. Specialist divers enter Sellafield’s oldest pond for first time in 64 years
A team of specialist divers helping to clean up Sellafield’s oldest legacy pond made history and headlines in March.
Josh Everett, of specialist US nuclear diving team Underwater Construction Corporation Ltd, became the first person in 64 years to start work.
The last time a human entered Sellafield’s Pile Fuel Storage Pond was in 1958, when records show a maintenance operator and health physics monitor dived into the newly constructed pond to repair a broken winch.
