In 1916, at the time of the Society's golden jubilee, the world was at war, andthe event was limited to a dinner, a 'lantern lecture' by the President and a visit to Hadrian's Wall. At the time of the Centenary in 1966, the Society sponsored an excavation at the Roman fort at Maryport and organized an ambitious celebratory three-day meeting based in Carlisle. This involved a dinner at the Crown and Mitre Hotel, and a series of visits to Tullie House Museum, Carlisle Cathedral and Castle, Maryport Roman Fort (to examine the excavations), Birdoswald Roman Fort, Naworth Castle and Lanercost Priory. For the 150th anniversary in 2016, the Society planned a series of celebratory events, completed a project to digitize Transactions, and commissioned this book, the first full history.

For 150 years the Society has tried to remain true to the vision of the founders despite the disappearance in 1974 of the counties of 'Cumberland and Westmorland' and significant changes to the concepts 'antiquarian and archaeological' and to the methodologies underlying the study of the past. From the beginning the area of Lancashire North of the Sands was considered part of the region covered by the Society's interests, so with the local government reorganization of 1974 which created Cumbria County Council covering Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire North of the Sands and the area around Sedbergh and Dent the administrative boundaries in effect caught up with the area traditionally covered by the Society.

Part 1 begins with a chapter which charts the history of the Society in the context of changes in how the past has been studied and the role of county societies in the development of regional history. Perhaps the most significant contribution of the Society to an understanding of Cumbria's past has been as a publisher both of Transactions and of a diverse range of books. This is explored in Chapter 2. The focus of all the chapters in Part 2 is the role the Society has played in developing our understanding of Cumbria's past.

Given the timespan and the range of publications this is necessarily selective. Archaeology has been a significant part of the Society's activities since it was founded. Chapter 3 explores the varied interests of archaeologists, alongside the use of changing methodologies, that have characterised Cumbrian archaeology during the Society's lifetime. Some of the sub-disciplines of local history over the 150 years are explored in chapters 4-8. These include longstanding areas of interest such as political, religious and social history as well as more recent contributions on industrial history/archaeology and the development of vernacular buildings. As an illustration of the antiquarianism of the early years we have included a chapter exploring the nature of the Society's early interest in customs and folklore, but for reasons of space we have had to exclude studies of the early enthusiasm for genealogy, manorial descents and ecclesiastical buildings. The concluding chapter (Chapter 9) considers the significance of the Society, both regionally and nationally, over its first 150 years. Biographical summaries of the Presidents and a complete list of publications are incorporated as appendices as is a short history of the Society's Library. A major anniversary project has been the complete calendaring of the Society's records including the archives of CWAAS, the affiliated groups and key members of the Society. A brief summary of what exists is set out in a further appendix and a detailed list can be consulted on the Society's website.

Orders for in print publications to the Publications Officer, email: publicationsofficer@cumbriapast.com , queries on download electronic publications to the Webmaster on webmaster@cumbriapast.com