HARRINGTON, a small seaport town, a parish, and a sub-district in Whitehaven district, Cumberland. The town stands on Bellaport harbour, and on the Whitehaven Junction railway, 2¾ miles S of Workington; is of modern origin, and a sub-port to Whitehaven; carries on a considerable trade, chiefly as a focus of export for extensive neighbouring mines; has a ship-building yard and a ropery, and formerly had chemical works; and has a station on the railway, and a post-office‡ under Carlisle. The harbour has a pier and a fixed light; the latter 44 feet high, visible at the distance of 11 miles, and put up in 1797. The parish comprises 2,338 acres of land, and 452 of water. Real property, £5,497; of which £86 are in ironworks. Pop. in 1851,2,169; in 1861,1,788. Houses, 426. The decrease of pop. was occasioned by the discontinuance of the chemical works, and by diminution of coal-working. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Carlisle. Value, £250.* Patron, E. S. Curwen, Esq. The church is a neat edifice, with a tower; and there are chapels for Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists.—The sub-district contains five parishes, three townships of another parish, and an extra-parochial tract. Acres, 51,089. Pop., 6. 765. Houses, 1,384.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))