The Workington Coat of Arms
The Workington Coat of Arms is a symbol for the town and its people. It was granted to Workington Borough Corporation in 1950. The centre has a pattern that looks like the letter ‘W’. The triangles represent coal, the wheatsheaf represents agriculture and the squares represent steel.
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The unicorn’s head at the top of the Shield is taken from the Arms of the Curwen family. An anchor has been added to the unicorn’s mouth to symbolise Workington’s maritime links.
The man on the left is Vulcan, the Roman god of metal workers. The woman on the right is Themis, the Greek goddess of civic rule.
The words at the bottom, ‘Levavi Oculos Meos in Montes’, are from the Book of Psalms and mean ‘I lifted my eyes in the hills’. This refers to the town’s position between the fells of the Lake District and the Scottish hills across the Solway Firth.
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For the History of Workington please click here.
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Workington Town Council
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A Brief History of the Governance of Workington
1. Origins
We know nothing about whatever system of local government existed in Workington before it first came under the crown of England, other than that Orme was the Lord of Workington when the French arrived in 1092. It is unusual for that period that we know more about his wife, Gunhilde, but she was royalty as daughter of Gospatric, Lord of Allerdale (Waver to Duddon) who had governed Cumberland (which then included most of the south of Scotland) on behalf of his cousin Malcolm III. Workington then became a Manor, under the French system (manoir), and Orme and Gunhilde were translated to being the Lord and Lady of the Manor.
2. Manor of Workington (c11thC to date)
2.1 The Manor extended beyond the current town boundaries and included the modern parishes of Little Clifton, Great Clifton, and Winscales, but did not include the three Cloffocks, which were below original high water mark, or any land north of the Derwent, which was in the Manor of Seaton, or land east and south of the River Wyre, which was in the Manor of Harrington.
2.2 The Lord presided over the Manorial Court, through which he ran the Manor. The functions of a late mediaeval Manorial Court were typically: To enquire regularly and periodically into the proper condition of watercourses, roads, paths, and ditches; to guard against all manner of encroachments upon the public rights, whether by unlawful enclosure or otherwise; to preserve landmarks, to keep watch and ward in the town, and overlook the common lands, adjust the rights over them, and restraining in any case their excessive exercise, as in the pasturage of cattle; to guard against the adulteration of food, to inspect weights and measures, to look in general to the morals of the people, and to find a remedy for each social ill and inconvenience.
It was not a “court” as we would use the term today, but it did have jurisdiction in civil matters, mostly property issues, though not in criminal matters.
2.3 Unlike the aristocracy, who were dependent on the crown for their title, power, and status, the Lord of a Manor held his land in his own right, and that freehold ownership was the source of his power and his ability to deploy an armed force. Most Lords of Manors had taken up arms against one king or another during the strife of the 1400s, and Queen Mary and then Queen Elizabeth in the late 1500s took advantage of their father’s (Henry VIII) nationalisation of the church to introduce a parish system of local government to replace the manorial court: Rectors of parishes did not have armed forces and were firmly under crown control. The Parish was also to run and pay for the late mediaeval welfare state after the religious houses, which had provided it, had been privatised.
2.4 Manorial Courts have never been abolished and still function in some places (but not Workington); they are purely ceremonial with no remaining powers. The last action of a Manorial Court for Workington of which there is a record was the allotment of plots of common land to individual landowners after the Inclosure Acts.
2.5 Subsequent changes to the boundaries of other local government bodies did not affect the boundaries of Manors as they are based on the original title to the land.
3. (Civil) Parish of Workington (c16thC to 1974: 1982 to date)
3.1 The French parish system (paroisse) was imported alongside the manorial system as its equivalent in church governance. The Parish covered the same area as the Manor. When it acquired civil governance responsibilities in the 16thC (see above), it was governed by the Parish Vestry, made up of all ratepayers and presided over by the Rector, which met in the Vestry of the Parish church.
3.2 In addition to its church responsibilities, the Vestry took over many of the functions of the Manorial Court. Its responsibilities, at the height of its powers in the early 19th century, included (but were not limited to) the keeping of the peace, the repression of vagrancy, the relief of destitution, the mending of roads, the suppression of nuisances, the destruction of vermin, the furnishing of soldiers and sailors, and the enforcement of religious and moral discipline. It became responsible for appointing parish officials, such as the parish clerk, overseers of the poor, sextons and scavengers, constables, and nightwatchmen.
3.3 As the population grew, a meeting of all ratepayers became an impossible way of doing business, so “Select Vestries”, committees made up of a few co-opted propertied individuals, took over the functions. Separate committees could be established for different townships within a Parish and we have the minutes (in the Whitehaven Record Office) for the select vestry committee for the township of Workington from 1815 to 1830; most of its business was the administration of the old Poor Law. There would be Vestry Committees also for the “townships” of Stainburn, Winscales, and Great and Little Cliftons. An Act of 1866 constituted these separate townships and their vestry committees as parishes and vestries in their own right (all over the country). The term “Ancient Parish” is used to describe the bigger original parishes that existed before the 1866 Act.
3.4 As industrial towns grew in the late 18thC and early 19thC without regard for the old geography of rural parishes, and Vestries were incapable of dealing with the challenges of the industrial revolution, residents of some towns began to promote private Acts of Parliament to establish Town Commissioners or Improvement Trustees which would take over most of the functions of a Parish Vestry. Workington got its Act in 1840.
3.5 Parish Vestries continued to be responsible for the Poor Law Rate and some other functions, until they were replaced in rural areas by elected Parish Councils under the 1894 Local Government Act. In urban areas, the remaining parish functions were transferred to the Local Government District Boards which had been established under the 1858 Act (next section) where they existed, which were reconstituted as Urban District Councils under the same Act: but where a Municipal Corporation existed, it took over the parish functions. Workington remained a Parish, but without a Parish Council as the Corporation’s Town Council was responsible for Parish governance matters.
3.6 Responsibility for remaining Poor Law functions was transferred to County Councils by the Act of 1929.
3.7 Most parishes continued largely unaffected by the changes made under the 1972 Local Government Act. Urban Districts lost their status as local government districts but mostly remained parishes with a Parish Council that they were able to call a Town Council. However the Act abolished most, but not all, parishes which were also Boroughs. Not all, because for example Kendal and Appleby Boroughs were still parishes after the Act, and so could have Parish Councils, which they were able to call “Town Councils”, just like before the Act, although they now had Parish and not District powers. But in Cumberland, the parishes of Carlisle, Whitehaven and Workington were abolished and those areas became “unparished” and were not able to have a Parish Council. Its not clear why some Boroughs remained parishes but others lost their parish status; it seems to have been decided by the Secretary of State at the time. We dont know why; we can only speculate as to the political motive.
3.8 However, the 1972 Act did provide for parishes to be re-established by the new District Council in such cases, and so in 1982 Workington became a parish again after a gap of eight years, and then acquired a Parish Council, which it was able to call a Town Council once more.
4. District of Workington
4.1 The Workington Improvement Act 1840 established “Improvement Trustees” for the township of Workington, which was the built up area, known as the Improvement Commission District (ICD) and therefore smaller in extent than the Manor and Parish. The functions of the Trustees were focussed on urban development, public health, and community safety; and they took over responsibilities of that type from the Vestry, which retained responsibility for social functions, especially the Poor Law.
4.2 The Lord of the Manor owned most of the land and property in the District, so he was always to be a Trustee and appointed three other Trustees, while another seven were to be elected by the ratepayers (of whom there were not many at this time, and most of them leaseholders from the Lord). So the balance of power swung back from the Parish to the Lord of the Manor again.
4.3 The powers of the Improvement Commissioners included the provision of streetlights, the making and supply of gas to the town, the appointment of constables, watchmen and beadles for keeping good order and the execution of warrants, the establishment of a lockup, operation of a fire service, making and repair of streets, highways, footways, lanes, passages, and public places, laying of drains and sewers, street cleansing, collection of refuse (by “scavengers cart”), issue of penalties for littering (40s), regulation of slaughterhouses, penalising bad driving, penalising criminal damage to property, regulating building works and dangerous structures, naming of streets, numbering of houses, impounding stray animals, controlling anti-social behaviour, regulating weights and measures, controlling street vendors, prosecuting for graffiti and public nuisances, regulating the market, enforcing food safety, and levying a rate to fund its activities.
4.4 The minutes (from inception in 1840 to replacement by the Town Council in 1888) of the Improvement Commissioners (called “Local Board” from 1858) are in the Public Record Office in Whitehaven.
4.5 One of the first acts of the new Commissioners for Workington was to advertise in Liverpool and Whitehaven for a Chief Officer of Police. “Police” didnt carry the meaning it does now: it comes from the Greek polis, a self-governing town. This job was the chief officer of the town, responsible for carrying out the instructions of the commissioners across all their activities, including collecting the rates. As such he was also in charge of the constables, now police (town) constables not parish constables. Town police forces in the modern sense, overseen by the Watch Committee, weren’t established until later.
4.6 The Workington Harbour Act, also of the same day in 1840, established separate Trustees for the Harbour, with similar powers, within the Harbour limits, to the Town Improvement Commissioners, and additional responsibilities for navigation and the provision of a “safe haven”. A separate body was required because the north bank of the Derwent was in the Manor of Seaton. Both Lords of the Manors, Workington and Seaton, were always to be Harbour Trustees and appoint some trustees, while other trustees were elected by the ratepayers of Workington (but not Seaton) and owners of shipping registered in the harbour. Older residents of Workington might remember the uniformed Dock Police. The Harbour Authority, which is now Cumberland Council which has replaced the Harbour Trustees, still has its own public heath authority.
4.7 Eventually there were over 300 “Improvement Commissioner Districts” (ICD : the generic title) across England, plus another 400 Public Health Districts formed under the 1848 Public Health Act in towns which were not already Improvement Commissioner Districts. The 1858 Local Government Act (the very first Act of that title) converted all Public Health Districts into “Local Government Districts” governed by a “Local Board” and allowed ICDs to adopt the Act and also become Local Government Districts. The Workington Commissioners did so and thus became the Board of the Workington Local Government District.
4.8 Whereas Improvement Commissioners’ powers had varied with the individual Act establishing them, Local Boards all had the same standard set of minimum powers and duties. Where there was a municipal corporation in existence, its Town Council was responsible for the Local Government District rather than a Local Board ; that wasnt the case in Workington until 1888.
4.9 Harbour Commissioners were not covered by the 1858 Act and remained separate bodies.
4.10 What we might recognise as “local government” starts with the 1858 Act. It should be noted that “local government” was only for towns: rural areas remained under the administration of Parish Vestries and the county’s Sheriff and grand jury until Local Government Acts in 1888 and 1894 established County Councils and Rural District Councils respectively.
4.11 Workington remained a Local Government District, although the Municipal Corporation replaced the Local Board in 1888 as its governing body, until all Local Government Districts in England were abolished by the Local Government Act 1972 and replaced by new Counties, Districts, Water Authorities, and Health Authorities.
5. District of Harrington (1891 to 1934)
5.1 The Parish of Harrington (which was east and south of River Wyre) also became a Local Government District in 1891 under the 1858 Local Government Act, with a Local Board which took over most of the functions of the Parish Vestry. Poor Law functions were also transferred to the Harrington Local Board when the 1894 Local Government Act finally abolished Parish Vestries, and transferred their remaining functions to Local Boards where they existed; the same Act turned Local Boards, including Harrington, into Urban District Councils.
5.2 In 1934, the Local Government (Urban) District and civil parish of Harrington, with the exception of Lowca which became a separate Parish, was absorbed into the Borough, District, and Parish of Workington
6. Borough of Workington (1888 to date)
6.1 The Municipal Corporations Act of 1883 established a standard procedure by which residents of a Local Government District could apply to the Privy Council for a Charter to incorporate them and thus become a Borough as well as a Local Government District and Parish.
6.2 Workington was granted a Royal Charter in 1888, and the Corporation of townspeople (acting by their Town Council) then took on the functions of the Local Board, as envisaged by the 1858 Act. The first Mayor of Workington was the Lord of the Manor, who had chaired the Local Board.
6.3 The additional powers and privileges granted by a Royal Charter are largely ceremonial and honorary: a Mayor, Aldermen, a Mace and bearer, Freemen, and other Local “Offices of Dignity”; in all other functional respects a Borough remained simply a Local Government District. The distinction is symbolic: the Council is the “sovereign” legal entity in a District or new (post-74) borough; but in an original pre-74 borough, the people were the “sovereign” legal entity. (There were a very few ancient Boroughs which were not Local Government Districts but were parishes with Borough status – but none in Cumberland)
6.4 The boundaries of the Borough were the same as those of the Parish since 1866, but now also included the Cloffocks, which remained a separate parish within the borough until abolished in 1934.
6.5 The 1899 Workington Corporation Act expanded the Borough, District, and civil Parish across the Derwent to include West Seaton, the original name for the Northside ward. Although the area governed by the Harbour Authority was now wholly within the Borough, it was left as a separate body.
6.6 The 1934 Local Government Act incorporated Stainburn parish into Workington, along with Harrington Urban District and Parish with the exception of Lowca which became a separate civil parish.
6.7 The Local Government Act 1972 abolished the local government District and Parish of Workington, but made specific provision to preserve the ceremonial powers, privileges, rights, and charter property of all existing cities and boroughs under their charters. They could be
i) vested in the new District Council if it applied for a Royal Charter before 31 March 1974 (cf Carlisle and Whitehaven); or
ii) vested in the Parish Council if the Parish had not been abolished by the Act (cf Kendal and Appleby;
or, if neither of the above provisions applied,
iii) vested in Charter Trustees who were the new District Councillors for the area of the existing Borough.
The Charter Trustees of Workington were given legal advice at their first meeting on 29 April 1974 (chaired by the outgoing Mayor) that they were the custodians of the civic dignity of the Borough of Workington.
6.8 Although the Charter Trustees were made up of the new District Councillors for the Borough area, they were a separate legal body which could raise its own precept on the rates and was subject to many of the laws governing Parish Councils. Charter property was owned by the Charter Trustees but they could not hold title to real estate, for which the District Council acted as “property holding trustee” for the Charter Trustees – and still does in some cases.
6.9 There were only some 50 or so Boroughs in England where the ceremonial functions needed to be vested in Charter Trustees after 1974, and Workington was the only one in Cumbria, so these arrangements are not well-known outside of the town. That number fell as parishes were re-established and by 2020 was in the 20s. But its going up again as unitarisation wipes out many post-74 “Boroughs” (eg Carlisle).
6.10 The legislation had allowed for the re-establishment of parishes in unparished areas and for the ceremonial responsibilities of the Charter Trustees to preserve the powers, privileges, and rights of the Borough to be transferred to the Parish Council (as per 6.7 ii) above).
6.11 Workington became a parish again in 1982, and a new Parish Council was elected, which took the title “Town Council” again and replaced the Charter Trustees as custodian trustee of the preserved powers, privileges, and rights of the Borough; but not yet all of the property for which the District Council was “property-holding trustee”: that remains unfinished business.
6.12 Currently (2025) Workington is a ceremonial Borough, and a Parish, and is part of three Manors; but isnt, since 1974, a District.
7. Note:
The Council of a Borough was always called a Town Council: a Borough was by definition a town, and always had been, and only towns could be Boroughs. When Districts that werent towns started getting royal charters in 1974, the Privy Council decided to call them “Boroughs” too, which made no sense and still doesn’t. But they couldnt call their councils “Town Council” : Allerdale Town Council would have been too obviously daft. They had to call the Council something else, and the term “Borough Council” was made up in 1974 to cover this anomaly; it still causes confusion.
Mayors of the Town Council
2023 - Cllr Beth Dixon
2022 - Cllr Denise Rollo
2021 - Cllr Herbert Briggs
2019-2020 Cllr Janet King (term in office was extended by a year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic)
2018 Cllr Barbara Cannon
2017 Cllr Ann Bales
2016 Cllr Joan Wright
2015 Cllr Carole Armstrong
2014 Cllr Mary Bainbridge
2013 Cllr Konrad Hansen
2012 Cllr Andrew Lawson
2011 Cllr Nik Hardy
2011 Cllr Mel Pettit (died in office)
2010 Cllr Margaret Jones
2009 Cllr Bill Reville
2008 Cllr Bill Bacon
2007 Cllr Nik Hardy
2006 Cllr Judith Glynn
2005 Cllr Alan Barry
2004 Cllr Joan McDowell
2003 Cllr Richard Jones
2002 Cllr John Bechelli
2001 Cllr Mel Pettit
2000 Cllr Theresa Fryer
1999 Cllr Joe Robertson
1998 Cllr Margaret Winter
1997 Cllr Barbara Weir
1996 Cllr Roland Postlethwaite
1995 Cllr David Crawford
1994 Cllr Anne Ferguson
1993 Cllr Peter Bales
1992 Cllr Barbara Cannon
1991 Cllr Rita Fulton
1990 Cllr Tony Cunningham
1989 Cllr Charlotte Thompson
1988 Cllr John Timney
1987 Cllr Joan McKeown
1986 Cllr Ian Ferguson
1985 Cllr JMercia Haughan
1984 Cllr Mary Kirkwood
1983 Cllr Joan Minto
1982 Cllr William Whalley
The first Mayor of Workington was Henry Curwen in 1888.
Charter Trustee Mayors
1981 Joan Minto
1980 Spencer Bromley
1979 Alice Findlay
1978 Jack Fryer
1977 Robert Spedding
1976 James Jackson
1975 Ann Carigiet
1974 Peter Bentley