Greenodd
Greenodd is a village in the
Furness area of the
county of
Cumbria. For local government purposes the village is also within the area of
South Lakeland District. It is located three miles (five kilometres) north-east of
Ulverston at the junction of the
A590 trunk road and the
A5092 trunk road. The village is just outside the boundary of the
Lake District National Park at (
OS grid ref. SD 315825). Greenodd is within the Crake Valley area of South Lakeland District. The
2001 UK census gives a population of 1823 for the Crake Valley. Greenodd and adjacent
Penny Bridge are the major neighbourhoods in the Crake Valley. The
River Crake flows into the estuary of the
River Leven at Greenodd.
The name
Greenodd is of Scandinavian origin, the
odd meaning
ness (headland) in this case. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Greenodd was a significant port; a
creek-port of
Lancaster. Exports included
copper ore from
Coniston, locally-quarried
limestone, and gunpowder from the nearby settlement of
Backbarrow. Sugar, raw cotton and coal are listed in historical documents as some of the imports. Greenodd was also a shipbuilding centre with vessels up to 200 tons being constructed. On the darker side it is likely that Greenodd was involved in the North American
slave trade. Today there are no signs of the former commercial activities. The
Ship Inn, previously a warehouse on the quayside, is one of the few reminders of Greenodd's illustrious past.
Until the 1980s Greenodd was on the A590 trunk road from
Barrow to
Levens Bridge. Traffic volumes were a major problem for the small village. These problems were alleviated by the building of a bypass to take the traffic over a new bridge across the River Crake. The village is now effectively a cul-de-sac. Greenodd was served by the
Lakeside branch of the
Furness Railway until its closure in
1965. Today there is no trace of the railway, the station having been demolished to make way for a dual-carriageway road.Greenodd is now also on the
W2W Cycle Route between
Walney and
Wearmouth.
