In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Wasdale like this:
WASDALE, the vale of Wast-water, in Cumberland; extending 7½ miles southwestward, from the foot of Styhead pass, to a point 5 miles NE of Ravenglass. It forms a bare, gloomy, profound mountain-trough, engirt by Yewbarrow, Kirk Fell, Great Gable, Lingmell, and the Screes; and, as seen from Scaw Fell, is called by Wordsworth "a den;" yet, though the wildest of all the Cumberland lake-basins, it is the grandest. ...
Wast-water occupies much of its bottom; is 3 miles long, and almost everywhere about ½ a mile broad; has a surface-elevation of 160 feet above sea-level; is so deep as to be popularly pronounced unfathomable; and contains plenty of trout, and a few char.
Wasdale through time
Wasdale is now part of Copeland district. Click here for graphs and data of how Copeland has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Wasdale itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Wasdale, in Copeland and Cumberland | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/2589
Date accessed: 19th May 2024
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