Mother’s Day is fast approaching, so we have decided that now would be the perfect opportunity to take a trip down memory lane, via our photograph archives, to see how Cumberland has appreciated their mothers over the years.

It doesn’t have to be Mother’s Day to take time out of our day to appreciate our mums, but setting a day aside each year to dedicate to them lets them know just how appreciated they are.

It’s not just a day to celebrate your own mother though, it is a day to venerate all mothers, and motherhood overall.

Plenty of celebrations of this kind have been observed throughout history, with them all happening on various dates.

However, the United Kingdom’s tradition of Mother’s Day, which was and still to some extent is called Mothering Sunday, dates back to medieval times.

Back then, it was a Christian tradition to spend mid-lent and was a day of much-needed respite from fasting.

Falling out of fashion somewhat, it was revived in 1913, during which a play entitled ‘In Praise of Mother’ was published by a woman named Constance Penswick Smith, whose more influential work, ‘The Revival of Mothering Sunday’, outlined the different aspects of motherhood the day should honour, beyond mere biology.

By the 1950s, the tradition was an occasion celebrated across the UK, and still the Church of England uses it as a way to invite people to visit the parish church or cathedral where they were baptised.

However, truly the origin of our contemporary celebrations comes from across the pond.

‘Mother’s Day’ as we now understand it is American influenced, yet our version still happens during lent, and following in the USA’s footsteps, the tradition is open to all faiths, becoming secularised.

Now, it's less church, and more boozy brunch, for some at least.

So take this article as a reminder that Mother's Day is approaching sooner than you think.

After all, she deserves it, she wiped your bum, cleaned your undies, undermined your father when he said no, and told you every single partner wasn't good enough for you.

She picked up the mountain of clothes both clean and dirty, washed them, ironed them, and put them away.

She loved you unconditionally, so make this Sunday a proper Mother's Day.