With a little over a year since the start of the pandemic the desire to travel has never been stronger.

A recent study to determine which small UK towns and cities British people have been looking for in the last twelve months has revealed that Penrith is among them.

As a bustling market town and the hub of the Eden Valley, Penrith came in eighth place.

Holidu, the search engine for holiday rentals, decided to carry out the research by only adding towns that had less than 20,000 inhabitants with none higher than the amount being considered for the study.

The ranking was drawn up using the average number of monthly searches on Google for these towns with the

terms "what to do" and "things to do” to determine the most popular small towns among holidaymakers.

Penrith was Googled with an average of 1,810 searches per month with only a mere 100 searches off seventh which went to Cirencester in Gloucestershire.

Penrith town councillor, Paul Donald said: “This is great news for Penrith, and as someone who grew up here then moved back to live here, I am really pleased but not surprised we have made a top 10 list.

"To see Penrith alongside such famous place-names is a credit to all the hard work and commitment many people and businesses and organisations have invested in our town.

"It is good for Penrith as a whole to know we are esteemed and championed. It is an incentive to stay safe and keep positive now as we move towards a promising future again. And thank you to all those who searched for our town.”

Penrith charity, Bake4Eden was delighted to hear the news of their town being so popular amongst prospective holidaymakers.

Jackie Taylor who works with the charity said: "There's a really strong sense of the community spirit here and people really value the opportunity to live in such a lovely little town at least in Cumbria with lots of artisans and cafes and bakeries and independent shops that work really hard to attract people into the community."