Cumbria magazine Feb 2015

Welcome to Cumbria John Manning, Editor

cannot look at the photograph above without thinking of Graham Uney and Jon Bennett. As the Lake District’s felltop assessors, it’s their job to scale Helvellyn every winter’s day, to report on ground conditions for those contemplating nipping up there for fun. As Cumbria went to press, forecasters were warning of the first substantial snows of 2015: Graham and Jon will have their work cut out.

Many will welcome the change. So far, this unseasonably warm and damp winter has been one for coughs and colds, for snuggling up by the fire with a copy of Cumbria and a generous helping of sticky toffee pudding (see page 31). An icy blast will at least clear the air and finish off the bugs.

It will also delight the stalwarts of the Cumbrian ski clubs who’re braced to turn Cumbria into the nation’s premier ski resort. Sarah J L Briggs been sampling the facilities on Raise, and at Yad Moss… and I’m sure she’s been eyeing up a crosscountry line along the slopes between Raise and Helvellyn at the same time!

Finally, I’d like to thank Helen Bromley, whose Farm on the Fell column draws to a close on page 55 after fourteen entertaining years. I hope you’ll join me in wishing her well in her new adventures as an assistant veterinary nurse, a role which sounds to me as though it might itself inspire a column … one for the future perhaps!

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Helvellyn’s summit under snow (photo: Stewart Smith)

Cumbria February 2015 , Vol 64, No 11 EDITORIAL Editor: John Manning Production: John Lynott, Lisa Firth, Peter Evans, Kevin Hopkinson Telephone: 01756 701381 Email: johnm@dalesman.co.uk ADVERTISING Display advertisement sales: Telephone: 01756 701381 Email: ads@dalesman.co.uk Classified advertisements: Telephone: Jo Parkinson 01756 693477 Email: jo@dalesman.co.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS Telephone: 01756 701033 UK yearly rates are £34.80 (12 issues), £69.90 (24 issues) and £104.40 (36 issues).

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See inside for latest subscription offers.

Inside this month 11 A CUMBRIAN SKIING PARADISE Sarah J L Briggs find out that you don’t have to travel to the Alps, or even Scotland, to enjoy the best of winter sport

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16 THE LYON IN WINTER Kent-born Ben Lyon first fell in love with the Lakeland Fells as a wartime evacuee. Tony Greenbank tells how he returned as an adult and founded a business empire

21 RULE BRITANNIA Sebastian Oake visits an Elterwater hostelry that’s small on size and big in popularity

PUBLISHER Country Publications Ltd, The Water Mill, Broughton Hall, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 3AG Telephone: 01756 701381 Fax: 01756 701326 Website: www.countrypublications.co.uk Managing Director: Robert Flanagan Chairman: Matthew Townsend © Country Publications Ltd 2015 ISSN 1743 2456

26 THE CLIMBING TIGER Tony Greenbank meets John Porter, the US-born climber who wrote the prizewinning biography of mountain legend Alex MacIntyre

34 CARRY ON PAINTING Kendal artist Frances Winder tells Andrew Gallon why she feels she needs to be painting all the time

41 LADY ANNE’S LONG FIGHT John Morrison tells the story of the seventeenth-century noblewomen who had to battle against the prejudices of the day to claim her rightful inheritance

Made from recycled paper

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Page 41

Regulars 20 Silvey Jex Cartoon 31 Cumbrian Kitchen 39 Bloggers How 44 Cumbria Curiosities 55 Farm on the Fell 57 Notebook Worth heading for: Side Pike from Blea Tarn – Page 68

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THE WATERS OF LIFE Author Keith Harwood

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78 Cumbria Yesterday

reveals how the great trout of Lakeland have been a big

84 Postbox

draw for anglers down the generations

88 Crossword

LONG-STANDING REMINDERS John Morrison

88 Sudoku

guides us around the stone circles of Cumbria

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76 Organised Walks

ON THE UP Author Matthew Engel strikes out for the

89 A Question of Cumbria

highest point in Cumberland

90 Cumbrian Calendar

THE CALL OF THE RIVER Adrian Rogan reveals

92 Subscriptions

what fascinates him about the sound of running water

98 In My View: Terry Fletcher

WALKING 1: BLEA TARN AND SIDE PIKE Mary Welsh lets the car take the sting out of this visit

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Passes to the 2015 Keswick Film Festival

WALKING 2: LANTHWAITE GREEN Keith Wood gives us one of the best views of along Crummock Water

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VISITING WONDERLAND John Sears enjoys the winter light as he explores Cumbria’s snow-dusted countryside

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See page 30

Cover Winter sunlight on High Cup, by Fran Halsall

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MARCH 2015

OUTDOORS

SARAH J L BRIGGS

Skiing in Cumbria: more than downhill all the way

magine standing at the top of your favourite Lake District fell at sunset.

But it’s not the end of a green and yellow summer day: instead, as the sun sinks, you are surrounded by snow that is turning bluey pink. The hills in the distance aren’t black looming shadows but are alight with warm orange.

This, for skiers, is one of the magical moments of the winter. Jonathan Cook, from Kendal, has been cross-country skiing since he was four years old, and enthuses about the ethereal scenes that meet your eyes in the winter fells: steam rising from icy streams, little tracks through the trees, branches laden with snow… “The tourists have gone home

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and the mountains can seem abandoned,” he says, “but skiers can continue to enjoy them.”

When most people think of skiing they probably think of downhill skiing: the thrilling, rushing sport which gets you from the top of a mountain to the bottom in no time at all. It might come as a surprise to people who associate skiing with the Alps, or perhaps with Scotland, to discover that Cumbria has two downhill skiing areas of its own, complete with mechanical tows and all

Imagine you are flying. Going off-piste in Yad Moss FEBRUARY 2015 11

Trekking over Cross Fell

the facilities necessary for a good day out on the slopes.

The older of the two clubs is situated at Raise, near Helvellyn. It dates back to 1936 when a group of “aristocratic skiers” decided that they wanted to be able to ski in the Lake District. Nowadays, a 1,180ft (360m) tow (drag lift, or button lift) takes you close to Raise’s summit. The piste map, which can be seen on the club’s website, shows a selection of blue, red and black pistes which return skiers to the tow start; when snow conditions are particularly good, a portable tow is also brought into operation, opening up skiing further down into the valley.

Facilities include a members’ hut and the ;Powder Room’ – the second-highest toilet in England. As the club’s Mike Sweeney says, “It’s a proper little ski resort in England: it feels a bit unreal.”

However, while it is a proper little ski resort with good facilities, it’s not as sophisticated as the large commercial resorts. This is a club, run by members for members. It relies on their goodwill and hard work to dig the tow out of 12 FEBRUARY 2015

snowdrifts, to carry out repairs and maintenance. There is no piste basher, no ski hire shop and you’ll need to take a packed lunch. In addition, it’s an hour’s steep climb from the car park at Glenridding. It’s situated in a true mountain environment and needs to be respected as such.

Raise can, however, provide a challenging and exciting day’s skiing with a group of friendly, like-minded people.

The hour’s walk keeps you fit; if you need to dig out the tow when you get there then that will get you nice and warm, and the reward is several hours of glorious skiing on ungroomed pistes.

As Mike Sweeney says, “Every day is a small but perfectly formed adventure.”

No long flights; no boring waits at airports; and you can return to the warmth and comfort of your own home in the evening. Although 2014’s snow didn’t arrive until February, the club still had forty days of fantastic skiing.

Yad Moss, near Alston, is a newer and in some ways more accessible club. It’s just off the B6277 road between Alston and Middleton-in-Teesdale, and roadside parking is available just minutes from the tow. It offers the longest single button lift in England, taking skiers 1,968 feet (600m) up the fellside, from where a choice of well-groomed wideopen pistes allows you to carry out elegant swooping turns gracefully back down, views of mountains and sky

The sunset at Yad Moss bathes the snow in a magical pink light

helping you to imagine you’re almost flying.

While the skiing is more accessible than that at Raise (season tickets sell out well before the snow falls), it is lower than Raise and faces west rather than north/northeast: snow tends not to last so long and 2014 didn’t produce as many days skiing as it did for Raise.

Turning that on its head, however, it’s better to have the opportunity to ski in Cumbria at all than not, and every day is a glorious and exciting bonus.

The Yad Moss club grew out of the Carlisle Ski Club, based at the dry slope in Carlisle and now operated by a separate organisation. Gerard Unthank is one of the ‘Yad Fathers’, or club founders. He tells the tale of how, in the 1970s, he and a group of fellow skiers

were driving along the B6277 one day with the club’s portable tow, saw what looked like a good area for skiing, hopped over the fence, and started.

Eventually they acquired two fixed rope tows but the frustrations of the ropes sometimes getting buried led to their researching the feasibility of acquiring a second-hand Poma lift from a closed commercial resort near Grenoble. In 1988, with help from civil and mechanical engineers who belonged to the club, and with funding from the club, the Lottery and the local authority, seven pylons, a big bull wheel (the top wheel which lets the button lifts turn round to go back downhill) and a generator were erected at Yad Moss. The club also has a piste basher, a Ski-Doo, quad bikes, a garage and a club room, and maintains FEBRUARY 2015 13

Taking the 1,180ft button lift up to near the summit of Raise

extensive ski-fencing to ensure snow accumulates on the pistes.

Where both clubs are similar, of course, is that they are run completely by volunteers, many members belonging to both clubs. Euan Cartwright of Yad Moss laments the drop in the number of volunteers, an issue common to voluntary groups everywhere. For Yad Moss that means many volunteers are in their fifties or older; Raise still has a wide age range and has recently had an influx of younger members, but one gets the impression that a lot of the club administration is carried out by its more mature members. The positive side of that, of course, is that it shows that if you keep fit and healthy you can continue skiing all your life: the late 14 FEBRUARY 2015

Bernie Warriner BEM, who died about a year ago, had been instrumental in building the members’ hut and Powder Room on Raise and was still skiing into his eighties.

Neither location is suitable for beginners: confidence on a button lift is vital, especially at Raise where the ground beneath the lift is initially on a camber and is particularly tricky for snowboarders.

What obviates the necessity for any lifts at all is cross-country skiing, where the effort put into skiing uphill is rewarded by stunning views at the top in quiet locations, followed by a glorious downhill swoop. The great advantage of cross-country is that you’re not restricted to a particular route; while

downhill skiing is thrilling and exciting, cross-country allows you to see a different, calmer side of things and to venture into realms you couldn’t reach on downhill skis.

Jonathan Cook and his family are all members of the Lake District CrossCountry Ski club. As part of a nationwide chain and affiliated to Snow Sports England, the active club runs frequent training sessions and trips, as well as holidays abroad. It was formed in 1977 and not only includes cross-country or track skiers among its members but also telemarkers. It stores a wide range of equipment – including roller skis – for hire. Whenever there is snow, regular weekend trips, usually on a Sunday, are led out on to the fells.

Jonathan described some of the

club’s most popular routes: “The Howgills provide a stunning landscape to ski over; Helvellyn gives a magnificent view; and on Kendal golf course you can ski from the top of the hill all the way into the town centre when the snow’s good.”

Whichever type of skiing you prefer – and many people who are hooked love both – Cumbria can provide it. Going abroad to ski can cost thousands of pounds. Getting to Scotland takes time – and when there is good snow the roads are sometimes closed or the slopes crowded. Why not just stay in Cumbria and have some skiing day trips? If there’s snow it’s great but, as Gerard Unthank concludes, “It’s a day out in the hills – if you get some snow it’s a bonus.” n

Ski do Lake District Ski Club www.ldscsnowski.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/ groups/ldscsnowski Annual membership: £55 (or £30 for the day) Yad Moss www.yadmoss.co.uk See also vimeo.com/82184755 Annual membership for 2014/15: is sold out (day tickets £20: check availability first).

Skis, poles and boots can be hired at Alston Adventure Centre

(www.alstontraining.co.uk, 01434 381886) but most skiers take their own.

Lake District Cross-Country Skiing www.lakelandxcski.org.uk Annual membership: £5 per house hold, then £12 per adult and £5 per child.

The club has a wide range of equip ment (boots, various types of skis, poles) which can be hired by members for just £10 per day and a refundable deposit.

FEBRUARY 2015 15

PEOPLE

TONY GREENBANK

In the lair of the mountain Lyon H

Ben Lyon crawling through notorious Ibbeth Peril, in Dentdale, and (opposite page) emerging from the pothole to stand in the River Dee 16 FEBRUARY 2015

ead-down against the blizzard, trudging ankle-deep through soft snow and only just managing to keep on course along the crest of the Howgills with map and compass, Ben Lyon is in his element. The harder it snows, sleets or rains, the more he loves it. “So you just keep going?” I ask. “Even though you can hardly see your companion in the white-out and a wrong bearing could send you toppling down hundreds of feet?” “Absolutely,” he says.

“Ha-ha. Absolutely.”

Some of Ben’s exploits might sound like the ravings of a lunatic. But – as Churchill responded “Some chicken!” when Hitler threatened to ring England’s neck like a chicken – “Some lunatic!”

Consider Ben’s achievements. He swivels in his executive chair to check his computer screen as the ninety people he employs at Lyon Equipment in Tebay – many of whom have shares in the £18 million-turnover firm – beaver away under his direction.

When he was a one-year-old, Ben’s home in Sidcup in Kent, which lay in the notorious “Bomb Alley”, was flattened by German bombers and he was evacuated to Leyland in Lancashire. On

FEBRUARY 2015 17

clear days, he could see the Lakeland fells, and yearned to be among them.

Ben started out rock climbing in Snowdonia but, on moving south , found such a paucity of crags that he turned to caving. Before then, his only underground experience had been an air raid shelter that stank of urine, but these caving experiences opened up a new world. He returned north to take on the running of Whernside Manor in Dent, for the Scouts, and opened up new caverns in Dentdale and explored the vast Easegill system beneath the Barbon fells behind Kirkby Lonsdale.

In 1965 he started making caving ladders, commercially, and eighteen years later went into the outdoor gear business full time by setting up Lyon Equipment. Today, the company distributes a serious array of quality caving, climbing, mountaineering and general outdoor equipment – everything from caving ladders to hands-free Petzl headtorches – from a massive £5 million depot on former wasteland opposite Junction 38 on the M6.

He stirs his mug of coffee, and taps his desk with a spoon. “But we are also now a leading provider of training and equipment for work at height and rescue in difficult-to-access environments.

If that sounds a bit of a mouthful, it simply means we provide the knowhow for people dangling off ropes.”

To further that aim his company has bought a field in Tebay that borders where the Lune runs through a limestone gorge. This turbulent stretch of water pours is ideal for stringing ropes 18 FEBRUARY 2015

across, to allow caving and mountain rescue teams – as well as ambulance, fire, police and coastguard rescuers – to practise what Lyon’s tutors preach.

Safety in the hills is very much on Ben’s mind, no more than during his beloved bad weather hill sojourns. To this end Lyon Equipment sponsors the Lake District Mountain Trial (LDMT), a throwback to the 1960s when he was an Outward Bound instructor in Eskdale. Basically, he says, it is running from check point to check point, but the runners don’t know where those points are before they start. They don’t even know where the race is until two weeks before. At the event, everyone is given a map on which to plot routes.

The big difference between the LDMT and similar races is that it is not on paths, nor tracks. Entrants have to devise their own routes over rugged countryside. “This year for instance,” he says, “the first checkpoint after starting from Patterdale was midway up St Sunday Crag. From there the next checkpoint was way down the far western side of Helvellyn, north of the summit.

“We could either go down into Glenridding, up through the various craggy bits of Helvellyn above Red Tarn or maybe up Striding Edge and over the top. I am less good on my feet now at the age of seventy-five and opted to go way round to Grisedale Tarn and up over Dollywaggon Pike, which is an extra four or five miles further.

“I used to run the trial in the ’60s. I think it began in 1956 and I remember running for the Eskdale Outward

Bound Mountain School in 1962. Those were the days! We had to carry old-fashioned waterproof cagoules and a whistle as back-up. We still do! Ha ha. My personal best was coming third in 1966.

It’s been downhill ever since, hah ha.”

When Ben was fifty he had a “bad do” with his heart while caving in China. He thought he was finished but continued to walk and gradually got fitter. Greystoke-based Ken Ledward, the UK’s leading outdoor equipment tester, coaxed him to venture out each week and it has gone on from there.

Ben is proud of the annual twentythree-mile (37 km) Yomp over Wild Boar Fell, Swarth Fell, Mallerstang Edge and Nine Standards Rigg which he organises for the Upper Eden Rotary Club. It’s the club’s big event, starting and ending at Kirkby Stephen. The horseshoe attracts nearly 500 people, of which 200 or so do the half-round, in effect a mini marathon. There is also a

Regular exercising in the Howgills keeps Ben fit for anything

six-mile (10 km) kiddies’ race for those aged five and up – and their parents.

Ben considers Wild Boar Fell a welltidy outing and his walks with Ken, usually switching between Lakeland and Howgills fells, have given him a new lease of life.

One of their favourites, he tells me, is the “round” of Haweswater. Starting from the reservoir cottages near the dam, they climb the northern slopes up on to Raise, then make a slight diversion over Kidsty Pike, seen like a dorsal fin from the M6. High Street then beckons, leading to the col from where Kentmere begins, only for them to press on over Harter Fell, and carry on back along the skyline until they pop out just beyond the farm at the far end of the lake.

“It’s a lovely walk on a fine day,” says FEBRUARY 2015 19

Ben, “though it was snowing when we last did it. We could hardly see ourselves, let alone the view.”

So if it is misty or snowing, you still keep going? “Absolutely. Especially Ken. He loves bad weather for his gear testing! The worse the weather, the more he likes it.”

Carrock Fell is another of their mustdo hills: from near the Carrock Splash ford en route for Hesket Newmarket, they pick a way up the front under craggy ground via a slanting rake, then up a steeper-than-it-looks-gully to heather-clad open ground to the top.

What an eminence!

Ben takes up the narrative: “As you plod on up you eventually reach these massive fallen-down stone ramparts.

They are reputed to be an iron age fort, or even earlier – like Bronze Age. You wonder how they managed up there.

Mind, there is a small spring, 500 feet (152m) below the top.

“It’s an absolutely superb ascent, finishing off with a little horseshoe over High Pike and back to the ford. Will I keep on doing it?

Absolutely,” he says. “I have been seen as being a bit rough and ready, I grant you that. But I am dogged. I don’t give in and just keep plodding on.” n

“Just how hard can this climb be?”

20 FEBRUARY 2015

CLASSIC CUMBRIAN INNS

SEBASTIAN OAKE

The Britannia Inn, Elterwater t’s a dull afternoon at an unfashionable time of year but the Britannia Inn’s front door keeps opening and shutting. The table in the hallway with the fine old wooden rocking chair has long been taken over by a party of walkers who are clearly going nowhere for

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the rest of the day. The rest of the pub is filling up too.

Mind you, it doesn’t take much to pack out this Elterwater hostelry. Leading off from the hallway, the main bar, with its black beams and low ceiling, is small and cosy with just four unevenly

The nine-bedroomed Britannia Inn; modest in size but big in popularity

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Director and co-owner Paul Fry came with his family to the inn in 1978

sized tables grouped around a stone fireplace. Hidden away is a tiny backbar, more of a snug really, with a warming stove and stained glass partition.

More secluded, it’s where Prince William and Kate chose to sit and enjoy some drinks a few years back.

The inn’s modest size but big popularity means things can get pretty busy.

Paul Fry is one of the inn’s directors. He says that at the height of the summer up to twenty-five staff are needed to cope with all the customers, including the thirsty and hungry hikers who unswervingly set their compasses for here. In the evening, up to 180 meals can be ordered – enough to turn the knees of any master chef to soufflé – 22 FEBRUARY 2015

and there are nine letting rooms to service in addition.

Paul explains how his family came to this great little corner of Langdale. “My father David bought the lease in 1978.

He and Mum were both teachers in South Yorkshire but we always came up to the Lakes for holidays. Until then, Dad had never stuck at the same thing for very long. As well as being a teacher, he had also been a soldier, a priest and a part-time fireman.”

There has surely never been a better background for someone wanting to go into the pub trade. The Britannia flourished. Sadly, David died almost twenty years ago but the inn has remained in safe hands. The business is now

co-owned by Paul, his sister Christine, former manageress Clare and current live-in managers Andrew and Anna.

In his time, Paul’s father did his best to uncover the history of the inn.

Although the building is around 500 years old, it spent its early centuries as a gentleman’s farmhouse. “The first documentary evidence of it being a pub was in the 1860s,” says Paul. “Towards the end of the nineteenth century, a cobbler’s shop was built on the end and this is now the guests’ sitting room.”

Paul assumes the inn was named after the naval ship HMS Britannia and there are plenty of pointers to maritime history here, from the fierce battle scene on the signboard outside, pictured, to the model ship in the hallway to the chart on the staircase listing the ships of the Royal Navy in 1804.

Over time, several ships have borne the name HMS Britannia but one of the most celebrated was the first rate, ship of the line launched at Portsmouth in 1762. On the stairway chart, it’s listed as having 100 guns and a crew of 875, exactly the same as the more famous HMS Victory. In 1805 Britannia joined Nelson’s flagship at the decisive Battle of Trafalgar, which secured British domination of the waves for the rest of the century. The ship itself was broken up in 1825 but a later vessel that carried forward the name was a cadet training ship at Dartmouth in the 1890s and in

1904 the battleship HMS Britannia was launched, later to be sunk by a German U-boat.

Despite the nautical leanings, it’s unlikely the Britannia Inn has ever been frequented by warring seamen though some of its previous customers came from a not-unrelated profession – the local gunpowder works.

For more than 100 years, from 1824, at a wellshielded site nearby, imported saltpetre and sulphur were combined with local charcoal to supply up to twenty tons of gunpowder a week. Much of it was used as blasting powder at local quarries.

Making gunpowder was naturally dangerous and several explosions were recorded at the works, one in 1901 when a man carrying out repairs to machinery was helpfully given a candle to work by. It seems inevitable that the people who took part in such a hazardous operation sought to keep their hopes high and spirits alive at the nearby inn.

They would have been joined by the quarry workers. Slate production took off in the mid-eighteenth century and there were many active workings in the area. Elterwater Quarry, on the hillside above the Britannia, is still in production, turning out green slate as decorative building stone.

Paul remembers one quarryman called Herbert who was a regular in the 1970s. “He was a real character. He FEBRUARY 2015 23

The stained-glass partition by the Britannia Inn’s back-bar

would come in, buy half a pint of mild and then spend the next four hours telling other customers stories and getting them to buy him drinks in return.”

He also recalls that in the late ’70s the pub would frequently be taken over by large groups from the North East. “We would sell more Newcastle Brown Ale in one weekend than we do in a year now.”

Other people have stuck in the mind too, including the German couple who stayed a whole month so they could qualify as local residents, allowing them to get married at Kendal Registry Office. Then there was the famous actor who turned up one day but sadly cannot be named. Paul explains: “He got drunk and became really obnoxious.

We had to throw him out.”

Excepting occasional royalty, today’s custom is more predictable. Although local trade has fallen away as the resident population has dwindled, it has been replaced by holidaymakers and day visitors enjoying Lake District 24 FEBRUARY 2015

scenery that’s second to none.

The old gunpowder works are now a large holiday timeshare, hotel and leisure complex, all traces of gunpowder hopefully removed. The Britannia holds events that draw people too. Each November, there is a firework display , followed by a beer festival, which last year showcased more than thirty Cumbrian ales.

There is no doubt that Elterwater qualifies as a Lakeland honeypot. Paul likes it here very much: “I love this corner of the Lake District. What you see around you constantly changes through the seasons. And there is a formidable view up Langdale towards the Pikes. “It would be very difficult to find anywhere that comes close to this place.”

Presumably that’s why it’s so popular.

Put simply, this is a small but perfectly formed pub that people just love to cram into.

And now there’s another reason to head for the inn, particularly if you’ve been before and still have the bill. Paul

explains: “A couple came in and said they’d spent their honeymoon at the Britannia fifty years before. They’d stayed four nights for a total of £5 16s and produced the bill to prove it. Since they were on a golden wedding celebration, the least we could do was to match that price.”

So here’s the offer: if you stayed at the Britannia twenty-five or more years ago and are back now for a wedding anniversary, you can stay a night for the same price as you did back then. All you

At particularly busy times, staff can be serving up to 180 meals in an evening

have to do is show the original receipt.

It’s good news for archivists, scrapbookkeepers and hoarders but remember: if you want a go in the rocking chair, you’ll need to get there early. n For more information visit www.britinn.co.uk

Competition winner Many congratulations to Elaine Lewis, of Bishop’s Stortford, in Hertfordshire, who won our competition in the December issue of Cumbria for a £1,000 two-night stay for two at Sharrow Bay, by correctly answering that the world-famous hotel stands on the shores of Ullswater. Our thanks to all who entered the competition.

FEBRUARY 2015 25

PEOPLE

TONY GREENBANK

The tiger who came to climb ohn Porter lives at the back of Skiddaw, the Northern Fells sweeping away outside his back door. One of them, High Pike, is so exhilarating that John’s nearest neighbour, Sir Chris Bonington, claims that it grounds him on his return from the Himalaya or Alps. The same goes for John, who has

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also climbed on the biggest Himalayan peaks, including Everest.

A co-founder in 1980 of the Kendal Mountain festival, his much-feted book

John Porter, author of One Day as a Tiger

One Day as a Tiger won the 2014 Grand Prize at the prestigious Banff Mountain Festival. It tells the story of climber Alex MacIntyre who, in 1982, at the age of twenty-eight, was killed by the most appalling piece of bad luck: a falling stone struck him on the head as he descended Annapurna’s south face.

Despite his youth, MacIntyre was one of the leading figures of British mountaineering’s most successful era.

Porter, part of that same group of audacious climbers in the 1970s and ’80s, was himself a top Lakeland rock climber, for decades. In One Day as a Tiger he tells how his friend, like other leading climbers of his generation, grappled with fate.

And how they pushed their luck. One day, driving to Coniston to climb on Dow Crag, MacIntyre overtook a car on a bend on the narrow road between Broughton and Torver, laughing at Porter’s blind panic. Such a stupid thing to do, writes Porter, yet his friend with the vast mop of curly hair said he wanted to become “one of the best climbers in the world”.

It was, John remembers, a poignant day in the Indian summer of 1980. The east-facing buttresses of the queen of Lakeland’s southwest mountains could not have been more inviting, and Blackpool Tower could be seen pin-sharp from the tops. Below the screes, Goat’s Water reflected fleecy white clouds, and

Alex MacIntyre in the Himalayas (photo courtesy of John Porter)

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Still cragging: John Porter

ravens dived over the water. The climbers ticked off a couple of extremely hard climbs up the rough, clean precipice then, as they coiled their rope in the twilight, the sun cast a crimson fire-bar that stretched for miles across the Irish Sea. In view of what was to befall MacIntyre on Annapurna, it bears out the saying “You never know what lies just around the corner”.

Porter, a sixty-eight-year-old Caldbeck business consultant, knows what it is like to meet with crisis out of the blue.

Seven years ago, while he was enjoying a day on Langdale Pikes, his left leg’s quadricep tendon snapped. He still remembers the pain, the shock and feeling of utter despair as he struggled to descended from Harrison Stickle, high28 FEBRUARY 2015

est and best known of the Langdale Pikes.

There was no one to help him on the stony, night-time descent into Langdale. He even fell down a few outcrops along the way. He reached the New Dungeon Gill Hotel at three in the morning. His recovery took a year after which, true to form, he was cragging again, even tackling extreme routes like True North on Shepherds Crag in Borrowdale.

In 2008 the tendon snapped again, this time while he was nearer to home, descending High Pike. A rescue party, comprising John’s wife, Rose, and Sir Chris and his brother Gerald, quickly arrived. This time recovery took between two and three years and now John is content to walk the hills, especially High Pike, which has a welcome seat on the summit.

Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, John had already lived in Philadelphia, Oregon and California by the time he settled in the region around Black Combe in Cumbria in 1974. He read English at Leeds University, and became good friends with MacIntyre and that golden generation of climbers who were changing the face of British mountaineering. They would visit John in the Furness area to climb on crags like Dow. His father, a jet engine designer, had planted the seeds of Lakeland in his

mind and encouraged him to go to England at the time of the Vietnam War. “He would take me into the Appalachian and White Mountains in New England,” he says. “And say ‘These are fine, but they don’t compare with the beauty of the Cumbrian hills rising straight out of the sea to form a paradise on Earth’.

“It was Black Combe he was talking about. I realised that when I first travelled to Millom by the train, known by locals as the Creepy Crawly. As it chugged its way around Morecambe Bay I saw these mountain slopes fall straight into the sea. Like he said I would, I immediately fell for ‘this paradise’.

Thank God dad came from Barrow and knew what he was talking about.”

After leaving university John became the town’s economic development officer and would spend evenings running, walking or climbing on Black Combe, re-living knotty problems and pondering solutions. If not Black Combe, then it might be the crags of the Duddon Valley, like Wallowbarrow, also easily reached for a couple of hours’ climbing from his home near the Green, a village near Millom. All the time he would be

recceing crags to which he would take his university climber friends.

The ’70s and ’80s saw the sport of climbing undergo major change. John is sanguine, and talks of how those young Leeds University hotshots developed the idea of travelling light to tackle the great Himalayan walls. Their approach contrasted with that of climbers like Bonington, who employed siege tactics with fixed ropes, and whose teams of Sherpas had, it seemed, teams of other Sherpas in support.

The Alex MacIntyre way was for a small group of climbers to ascend a peak as quickly as possible, travelling light and pushing the boundaries on remote, dangerous mountains. It was a kind of “Fast Alpinism”, for want of a better phrase. John was with Alex on a number of those ground-breaking Himalayan ascents and was acutely aware of the old Tibetan saying “Better to live one day as a tiger than live for a thousand years as a sheep”. Hence the title of John’s book: One Day as a Tiger.

John, now in the land of the Herdwicks, can reflect on how fortunate he has been. n One Day as a Tiger, above, is published

by Vertebrate Publishing (£20) FEBRUARY 2015 29

Win passes to the 2015 Keswick Film Festival, with magazine The sixteenth Keswick Film Festival kicks off on Thursday, February 26 – and Cumbria magazine has four passes to giveaway.

Centered on Keswick’s century-old Alhambra Cinema, the festival continues until Sunday, March 1, with films also being shown at the Theatre

By The Lake and on the IMAX screen at Rheged.

2015’s themes are On Yer Bike, (dis)ABILITY and the twentieth anniversary of avant-garde filmmaking movement Dogme 95. There will be the usual Best Of Fests, the Osprey Award for Short films, and Keswick Peace and Human Rights films, along with speakers and documentaries.

On Yer Bike is a collection of documentaries exploring our love of two wheels, and includes three films featuring

bicycles and motorbikes. One Crazy Ride, to be shown on Rheged’s IMAX screen, shows what you can do with a motorbike, a camera and a will that defies explanation. (dis)ABILITY, which features films portraying people with disabilities in ways you do not expect, includes the unforgettable The Tribe, which film critic Peter Bradshaw described as “an intriguing film – I can’t stop thinking about it”.

The programme will also feature locally made films, workshops, guests, screenings and talks arranged by the Keswick Peace and Human Rights Groups, a free family film, and even a late night frighteners.

Whatever your tastes, there is sure to be at least one film for you. You can sign up for regular emails updates at www.keswickfilmfestival.org.

Cumbria magazine has four Film Festival Passes to give away. Each pass, worth £45, grants the holder entry to all films and events over the festival weekend. For your chance to win, simply answer this question: Who is the patron of the Keswick Film Festival?

Festival patron John Hurt

Write your entry on a postcard or on the back of a sealed envelope and send it to: Keswick Film Festival Competition, Cumbria Magazine, Country Publications Ltd, The Water Mill, Broughton Hall, Skipton BD23 3AG, or email linda@dalesman.co.uk.

The first correct entry drawn after February 20, 2015, will win.

If you do not wish to receive promotional material, please indicate on your entry.

Usual Country Publications Ltd rules apply.

30 FEBRUARY 2015

CUMBRIAN KITCHEN

LOUISE FLANDERS

The family favourite that’s covered with love February: Sticky toffee pudding

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ebruary is the month of love, when a good snuggle with the person most dear to you is one way to keep warm on a chilly evening. I am dedicating this month’s recipe to my lovely husband, Richard – my Valentine – and no, I wasn’t paid to write that!

I realised very early on in our marriage that the way to his heart was through his stomach, via a very sweet tooth. His love of desserts and puddings has got me out of many a tricky situation: I remember the day I threw out his dinner suit because it was too small – just one of the times I have had to employ my cooking skills to manoeuvre myself back into his good books.

The bonus of regularly having to get out of the doghouse is that I have developed quite a large collection of dessert recipes. Sticky toffee pudding is his – and our family’s – absolute favourite but it must come with lashings and lashings of sticky toffee sauce.

I serve it in a plain dish, as the scraping of every bit of sauce would take the pattern off my crockery… I just never make enough sauce. This pudding, some say, originated at the Sharrow Bay Country House hotel and restaurant, on Ullswater, in the 1970s; it has since been taken to fame and stardom by the Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding Company: this is definitely a Cumbrian pud, for sure. At this time of the year a visit to your dried FEBRUARY 2015 31

ingredients cupboard (or, if you are lucky, larder), is all that you need to make this wonderful wholesome afters, with the sticky bit coming courtesy of the dried dates. Like most of my cooking, it is fairly simple and quick to make – a needs-must in our busy lives.

So if you are in the mood for some serious romance then make this and you will be definitely the flavour of the month.

Method: Pre-heat the oven to 160°C Sticky toffee pudding ingredients (serves 6) 225g dried dates 175g boiling water 175g self-raising flour 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda 2 eggs 85g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing the tin 140g muscovado sugar 2 tablespoons of black treacle 100ml milk Grated rind of an orange

(fan) or 180°C/Gas Mark 4.

Stone and chop the dates, then pop them into a bowl and soak them in the boiling water. Leave for thirty minutes once cooled, then mash them with a fork.

Grease the tins with butter and sprinkle with a little flour to help prevent the pudding from sticking later.

32 FEBRUARY 2015

While the dates are soaking, you can mix the flour and bicarbonate of soda together.

Beat the eggs in a separate bowl.

Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl but not too much: keep the mixture grainy.

Start adding the egg, a little at a time, beating well with each addition.

Then beat in the treacle. Slowly add the flour and milk, a spoonful at a time, until it has all been used.

Stir in the orange rind and dates.

The batter might look like it has curdled but please don’t worry.

Pop the mixture into one deep tin or six pudding tins and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Method: Pop the sugar and butter

Toffee sauce ingredients 115g butter 115g light brown sugar 140ml double cream

into a pan, with half of the cream.

Boil over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved then turn up the heat and let the sauce bubble for between two and three minutes, until it has a toffee colour. Watch that it doesn’t burn though.

Take the pan off the stove and beat in the rest of the cream.

Once the puds are cooked let them rest for a few minutes before loosening

them out of the pudding tins. You can serve them with the sauce drizzled over them.

Tip: To make them even stickier you can drizzle half of the sauce over the puddings and leave in the fridge to soak for a few days. Then, when you want to eat them, cover the puds with the rest of the sauce and pop them into the oven (160°C [fan] or 180°C/Gas Mark 4) for about 15 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling.

Serve with cream, custard or both. n

Millom-born Louise Flanders runs the Lakes Catering Company, based above the western shore of Windermere. Using locally sourced ingredients wherever possible, she and her team provide home-cooked meals for private functions, corporate events and luxury holiday cottages across the Lake District. www.thelakescateringcompany.co.uk

Next month: hot spicy Cumberland sausage casserole

Swim for the hills A new challenge launched by Ambleside swim company Head to the Hills offers the chance for adventurers to swim in all of the English Lakes over two weekends.

The Great Lake District Swim Challenge is split into two halves – east and west Lake District. Swimmers will have to cross a width, sometimes twice, of each of the swim-able lakes in the allotted time before moving on to the next.

The two weekends are August 8–9 and September 5–6 September. Accommodation is included. Groups are small, as Head to the Hills is keen to minimise any damage to the environment. Details 015394 33826, www.headtothehills.co.uk FEBRUARY 2015 33

PEOPLE

ANDREW GALLON

Capturing nature’s smouldering beauty ainting is in Kendal artist Frances Winder’s blood. With father and grandfather both painters, she was hooked from an early age. “I have a need to paint,” she says. “I want to paint all the time.”

She recalls, with a wry smile, once being advised by a prospective agent to produce just eight paintings a year.

“They really liked my work and thought I could do well but told me to limit my output. I didn’t want to do that. It’s too important to paint, so I carried on painting.”

Frances does about fifty paintings a year, along with small studies and sketches. That’s fairly prolific, especially accounting for time spent on her other creative interests, which include ceramics, gardening, machine embroidery and printing, not to mention regular commitments as a tutor at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, People’s Hall in Sedbergh and – for one week every summer – near Cómpeta, amid the sun-bleached mountains of southern Spain’s Andalucía.

Her paintings, eye-catchingly lit and rich in colour and texture, are

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34 FEBRUARY 2015

(to use her description) rooted in the landscape. Many are inspired by Cumbria’s coast and mountains. Morecambe Bay – notably around Sandside and Jenny Brown’s Point – is a cherished haunt. “I love the changing atmosphere between the light, the water and the landscape. You get sweeping banks of cloud going across. I enjoy the drama.”

Detail from Frosty Grass, a winter scene

by Frances Winder (opposite page)

Frances is also fond of visits to the fells in the Grasmere district. “It’s important for the hills and countryside to be accessible. I prefer the wilder areas of Cumbria, to the north (of Kendal), FEBRUARY 2015 35

rather than our local landscape, which is a bit round, soft and tame.”

Frances tends to paint in autumn, winter and spring. Summer is rather too green and lush for her taste and, besides, it’s a season best reserved for gardening. As well as fashioning pretty much from scratch an impressive home garden, she is a Lakeland Horticultural Society volunteer gardener at Holehird.

“I prefer the harder things. I love wintry landscapes, the boniness of the hills and the moody storms. Autumn is a favourite time. I love the colours and the way the structures of the trees emerge. You’ve often got that smouldering beauty in the colours, particularly when it gets to November. It feels very precious to be out then because it’s ephemeral. It’s all going to blow away with the next gale. I like the water when it’s really dark and reflecting the colours of the trees.”

Frances and husband John are keen walkers. Indeed, walking was one of their reasons for moving to Kendal fifteen years ago. While walking, Frances makes notes in a small sketchbook and takes photographs, creating the paintings in her home studio. “I use photographs to catch the quality of light but prefer to work from my little, scruffy sketches. Working from photographs, I tend to put too much in and I want to be freer and more abstract: to get more of an essential quality in my painting.

I’m disappointed when it ends up too representational.”

She works in various media but at present is using a lot of gesso, a sort of 36 FEBRUARY 2015

paste that’s like a mixture of PVA glue, Polyfilla and white emulsion. “It builds up a textural surface on the paint and I can get brilliant effects with it. Often, my work is very layered. It starts as a simple thing and gradually becomes more complex, especially if I’m using oil pastel and gouache. This is layered, scratched through and distressed, and gets away from the subject; the literal thing I’m trying to do.”

With the gesso beneath, Frances uses rags to wipe on layers of paint then brings into play (of all things) a credit card. It’s the perfect tool for constructing the skeletal framework of trees and the sensuous shapes of wind-tossed grasses.

Frances’s paintings are becoming increasingly abstract. “Representational work is starting to feel old fashioned to me. I don’t want to keep doing it because it’s repeating what I can do too easily.

“My work is changing. I want to challenge myself, to do something that has a deeper, intellectual quality, which may be harder for people to like or appreciate. If I was considering the money, I would do the more representational ones because they sell more easily, but the ones my heart is really in are the more abstract ones. I have been selling my work well recently and have been encouraged that the more modern paintings have sold.

“I started off painting in a much more straightforward way, always for many years using oil pastel and gouache. But I’ve been experimenting,

with watercolour and acrylic paint, which has got better and better. The colours are much more dependable.

Watercolour can look rather thin but I love its freedom: being able to be quite wild with it, which I enjoy.

“The paintings in my head are so good; I wish they’d come out over canvas. I’ve got all the concepts but I’m fighting hard to make it work, to be what I want. I want to capture and share that fleeting, really special moment; the love that I have of being in this environment.”

Leicester-born Frances, who has a fine art degree and a teaching qualification from Manchester Polytechnic, and has exhibited at the Royal Academy, moved to Kendal shortly after marrying John. She did a postgraduate studio ceramics course while living near Manchester. Frances introduced John to

“I want to paint all the time.” Frances captures winter grasses on Tarn Hows

ceramics, and the couple is now what she calls a “three-kiln family”. In 2013, they exhibited together for the first time, at Potfest, Penrith.

Both are members of Green Door, a Kendal-based, not-for-profit artists’ collective with about a hundred members spread across South Lakeland. “It’s a group of people who egg each other on and think, intellectually as well as practically, about what they’re doing. I don’t go for art tips; I go for art concepts and to broaden my vision. The exchange of ideas is very stimulating. I always have too many ideas. My problem is focusing and following something through, not just skittering off on the next mad scheme. Having FEBRUARY 2015 37

exhibitions with the group is good for me because I can see what its members are doing and also focus myself to work on something particular.”

Frances enjoys projects. They have included exhibitions of paintings depicting Holker Hall through the seasons, the Kent from source to sea and Grizedale Forest. “I’ve got a loose idea to do Kendal Yards, perhaps with a slightly abstract, design sense, rather than a literal portrayal. I’d like to do a different river. With projects, I find I get to know a place and fall in love with different aspects of it.”

There are common elements to all Frances’s work. Her paintings, pots, prints, embroidery and even gardening are bound together by colour and texture, fabric and form. Always, she tries to avoid the predictable. Of the printing process, she says: “It removes you. It adds chance and accident to what you’re doing, which makes it very interesting; at least in the experimental way I do it.”

Frances urges a similar approach upon those she tutors. “I encourage people to play, explore and learn from each other. I never like them to end up with something like mine.”

Painting continues to run in Frances’s family. Manchester-born nephew Nigel Cooke has a PhD in fine art from Goldsmiths College, London, and a solo exhibition record that includes Tate Britain. “He does exceedingly well,” says Frances, “but he really relishes the fact that his whole family has always painted.”

38 FEBRUARY 2015

Rich in colour: Grizedale Pines

To the end of March, Cumbria readers can catch two exhibitions of Frances’s work. The Dover Gallery at Farfield Mill, Sedbergh, features her paintings, pots and embroidery, along with John’s ceramics. A selling exhibition, of about thirty paintings, is displayed in the coffee shop at Country Harvest, Ingleton. Frances’s work can be viewed throughout the year at Finestra Gallery, Kirkby Lonsdale, and New Moon Restaurant, Kendal. n For more, visit franceswinder.com and davenportceramics.co.uk

HUMOUR

JOHN MORRISON

The bard of Hurlmere

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ife in Hurlmere isn’t all beer and skittles. Except on Monday, of course, which is beer and skittles night. These are tough times for those in the licensed trade: on winter evenings we need an excuse to put on an overcoat, leave frosty footprints across the village green and stroll into the Feathers. So Tuesday night is quiz night, Wednesday night is darts and dominoes, and I can heartily recommend the pie-and-peas supper on Thursdays. By the time Friday rolls around, the regulars need no inducements to prop up the bar except good beer, inconsequential conversation and a plentiful supply of pork scratchings.

It’s exactly 200 years since Edwin Earnshaw sat by the fire in the Feathers, poking the embers and putting the finishing touches to his epic poem. The Prologue wove together his great obsessions: metaphysics, the Lakeland landscape and the problems of finding a plumber at weekends.

Though never as well-known as the bard of Grasmere, Earnshaw had a small but loyal following – mostly blood relatives – here in Hurlmere. He never wanted for hospitality as long as

he had a raging thirst and a sheaf of poems in his pocket.

Locals were proud, in theory, to have a published poet living in their midst, though, in practice, he could clear a crowded room in minutes.

“Would you like to hear a poem?” he’d say. There was only one thing that locals wanted to hear less, and that was “Would you like to hear another one?” Before anyone could answer – or plead a headache – he would start to recite one of his longer poems in a loud, declamatory voice. If he missed out a verse or stumbled over a line, he would apologise profusely and start again from the beginning. Locals were happy to buy him a glass of porter if that would make him stop.

Edwin lived in the village with his sister Miriam who, literally and metaphorically, supplied the prose to his poetry. She cooked, cleaned their diminutive cottage and looked after Edwin while his head was in the clouds. She acted as his amanuensis, converting his spidery scribble into legible verse. She paid the bills by taking in washing, and would walk across the fells, braving the worst of winter FEBRUARY 2015 39

weather, to renew her brother’s prescriptions. “Another bottle of laudanum,” she would say to the pharmacist, wearily. “It seems that Edwin’s cold is no better.”

It wasn’t easy living with a literary genius: a man who plumbed the human condition in rhyming couplets while being unable, apparently, to make toast, flick a duster round or (the source of much domestic conflict) clear a blocked drain. If she hadn’t been lumbered with all the household chores, who knows, Miriam might have had a literary career of her own.

Instead, she consigned her thoughts to her journal. “Went for a walk with Edwin,” reads a typical entry. “We looked for daffodils, but there weren’t any. Edwin caught a chill and retired to his cot”. Years later this apparently trivial incident would inspire Edwin to write his most famous poem. Down the years, schoolchildren have had to learn it, parrot-fashion, with the result that all they ever remember is the first line: “I wandered about for a bit.”

Planned to be merely an introduction to the major opus he was planning to write, The Prologue grew and grew. On publication, in February 1815, the book attracted muted praise. In terms of critical appraisal it represented the high-water mark of his literary career.

Poetry is a demanding discipline,

and the muse often deserted him.

Edwin wore holes in the carpet as he paced to and fro, composing his verses.

He wore holes in the lawn too, unless that was moles. In search of inspiration, he walked the hills, turning over the verses in his head to the rhythm of his footsteps. From the top of Bloggers How he looked down on the denizens of Hurlmere, who, from that distance, seemed no bigger than ants. To these locals – farmers, blacksmiths, leechgatherers and the like – Earnshaw was just a man who talked to himself.

As the great work continued to elude him, Edwin was forced to turn his hand to more mundane projects.

He produced a Guidebook to Hurlmere and the Less Popular Lakes, under a pseudonym, and instantly regretted the influx of visitors who came to walk the hills… his hills! In terms of financial reward, however, it represented the high-water mark of his literary career.

He could finally afford to engage a reputable plumber. In his declining years he was reduced to penning an irregular column in the Gazette & Advertiser, entitled “Funny things my cat does”.

There’s a copy of The Prologue behind the bar in the Feathers today, wedged between the Good Pub Guide and the Yellow Pages. We remember Edwin every February, by drinking his health and not reciting any of his poetry. n

When t’ day begins to lengthen, the cawld begins to strengthen.

Old Cumbrian saying on the weather 40 FEBRUARY 2015

HISTORY

JOHN MORRISON

Innocent pleasures of a country life ady Anne Clifford was fifty-three years old when she finally claimed her rightful inheritance. She embarked on a long legal battle and overcame many obstacles in the process – defying the judiciary, two husbands, Oliver Cromwell and King James. No wonder the word most commonly used to describe Lady Anne is “indomitable”…

She was born in 1589 at Skipton Castle, the daughter of George Clifford (third Earl of Cumberland, a favourite at the court of Queen Elizabeth) and his wife Margaret. Her brothers died in infancy so, according to long-standing family tradition, the extensive estates should have been bequeathed to her, as the oldest heir. But she was just fifteen when her father died and the properties were willed instead to George’s brother, Francis Clifford, with

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Anne receiving a cash sum in compensation.

Stung by the unfairness of her father’s will, Anne fixated on righting the wrong. Her first husband, Richard Sackville, third Earl of Dorset, took charge of the lawsuits and won the right to inherit half of the properties.

For Anne, however, it was “all or nothing”.

When Richard negotiated another cash settlement, he pocketed the money himself.

The king confirmed Francis Clifford’s right to the family estates and enjoined her to give up her claim but to no avail. After Richard’s death Anne married her second husband, Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, in 1624.

Lady Anne Clifford fought long and hard to claim her rightful inheritance FEBRUARY 2015 41

Brougham Castle where Lady Anne passed away in 1676 at the age of eighty-seven

He was more sympathetic to his wife’s campaign, and provided her with the name – Anne Pembroke – that she was to use for the rest of her long life. But he too failed to aid her cause. There were times when her mother seemed to be her only ally, and still there was no resolution to her claim.

It wasn’t until the death, without issue, of Francis Clifford’s son, in 1643, that Anne finally inherited the family estates, which included 90,000 acres of land, five castles – Appleby, Brough, Pendragon, Brougham and Skipton – and other properties around the North.

The Civil War was still raging, however, and she was living in London. She had to wait another six years before she was able to travel north and assume her new 42 FEBRUARY 2015

responsibilities. By 1649 her monarch was dead, she was estranged from her husband, and her daughters were married. Finally, she was free. Even though she was then sixty years old, it must have seemed like her life was only just beginning. She celebrated by commissioning a painting, in the form of a triptych, which depicts her on the left as a fifteen-year-old girl, and on the right as a matriarch of fifty-six, with the central panel featuring her parents and brothers. The painting now hangs in the Abbot Hall Museum in Kendal.

She came north to find the castles in a poor state of repair – some through neglect, others by intent – and Anne spent the next twenty-six years restoring them to their former glory. Oliver

Cromwell had ‘slighted’ the castles at Brougham, Appleby and Skipton, to ensure that they should never again be used in a defensive capacity. Anne’s renovations met no opposition from Cromwell, despite her support of the Royalist cause. “Let her build what she will,” he is reported to have said. “She shall have no hindrance from me.”

We can imagine her making slow and regal progress along rough roads, in the worst of weather, usually in a coach drawn by six horses. She travelled with a retinue of servants and dozens of carts full of furnishings – even her bed – as she moved from one castle to the next.

It must have been quite a sight; no wonder her memory lives on. As one of the wealthiest women in the land, and with no husband to rein in her ambitions, she enjoyed her latter years to the full.

Almshouses in Appleby, an example of Lady Anne’s philanthropy

“I do more and more fall in love with the innocent pleasures of a country life,” she confided in her diary.

Her travels around the North were marked by philanthropy; hand-made locks, bearing her initials, were a favourite gift for her tenants. She built almshouses in Appleby for poor widows. She restored bridges and erected

The triptych Lady Anne commissioned which shows her as a young girl on the left, as a matriarch on the right, with her parents and brothers featured in the centre

FEBRUARY 2015 43

A lock at Dacre parish church bearing Lady Anne’s initials, A P (Anne Pembroke)

monuments. As a devout Anglican she repaired churches and set up trusts to ensure the upkeep of important buildings after her death. She didn’t hide her light under a bushel, marking each restoration with a plaque detailing her contribution. The High Cross, at the top of Boroughgate in Appleby, bears her apt motto: “Retain your loyalty, preserve your rights”.

Lady Anne Clifford died in 1676 at Brougham Castle, at the advanced age of eighty-seven, in the room where her father had been born. Her tomb, which she designed herself, is in St Lawrence’s Church, Appleby. She certainly left her mark, particularly on the old county of Westmorland, even though her castles – apart from Appleby and Skipton – are ruinous again, and many of the buildings associated with her can still be visited today. n

Cumbria curiosities ONE of the most at-risk industrial sites in England with a large part of it declared a Scheduled Ancient Monument, Backbarrow ironworks was in operation for more than two hundred and fifty years. Established in 1711 its main products were gun carriages, cannon and cannonballs.

Its blast furnace (above), fuelled by charcoal, was one of the first to be built 44 FEBRUARY 2015

in the county, and it is believed to be the last remaining example of its kind. Iron ore from Low Furness would arrive at the quays in Haverthwaite and then be transported to Backbarrow by horse and cart. Work ceased at the site in 1967 and it fell into disrepair.

Plans were put forward last year which would preserve the site, incorporating it into a holiday park.

FISHING

KEITH HARWOOD

The voracious Windermere trout

ot surprisingly, perhaps, since the headquarters of the Freshwater Biological Association is situated on its shoreline, the brown trout of Windermere has been the subject of greater study than trout elsewhere in the Lake District.

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Photo by Angela Maynard

Windermere trout, like most other Lake District trout, do not spawn in the lake itself but in the tributaries running into it. Spawning normally takes place in late November, although there is some variation and Windermere trout have been observed

FEBRUARY 2015 45

ascending Trout Beck as early as August.

The spawning migration usually takes place during a spate and the female fish normally spawn and return to the lake within a twenty-four hour period. Male fish, however, often stay in the spawning stream for longer in order to fertilise other females. A study of the genetics of young trout in some of the tributary streams suggests that each stream has its own unique genetic stock of fish.

The young trout hatch in the spring and remain in the stream to feed for up to three years before taking up residence in the lake itself. The majority of trout, however, are two years old when they first enter Windermere. On entering the lake the young trout tend to occupy the littoral zone (the shoreline), although some trout feed in the open water of the lake. Indeed, the Windermere fish that feed around the shoreline appear physically different from the ones that feed in more open water. The shoreline fish are sometimes referred to as “yellow bellies� on account of their yellow colouring and red spots. The trout that feed in open water tend to have silvery flanks and black spots.

The diet of Lakeland brown trout varies from month to month and from water to water. However, studies of Windermere trout show that, for feeding purposes, the year can be divided into three periods: October-February: During this 46 FEBRUARY 2015

period trout largely feed on bottomdwelling fauna, ie, molluscs and crustaceans.

March-July: At this time of year the trout feed principally on insect larvae and pupae.

May-September: During this period the trout feed largely upon terrestrial insects found at the surface of the water.

A good knowledge of these feeding periods is very useful to the fly fisherman in pursuit of his quarry. A number of trout in Windermere and other large lakes, after reaching a foot or so in length, become exclusively piscivorous

Fishermen on Crummock Water in the morning (photo by John Sherwen). Inset, brown trout (photo by Lizzie Harper)

and live on a diet of minnows, perch, charr and even juveniles of their own species. These trout, often referred to as ferox trout, can grow to a large size and fish up to fifteen pounds in weight have been caught in Windermere. James Clarke in his Survey of the Lakes (1787) tells an interesting story concerning the voracity of these Windermere trout: “On the 28th of October, 1784, I was upon the shore about Cunza, when I observed a boat coming towards me, and near the same time perceived it stop and the men in it take something out of the water; on their coming ashore, they told me that in coming they saw two large trouts floating upon the surface of the lake with their bellies uppermost, close

alongside each other, and seemingly dead. On laying hold of one of them they seemed to be entangled, but in lifting it out of the water the other made its escape; then they discovered that they had seized between them a small trout, and each seemed determined to lose its life rather than its prey; they had struggled till life was almost spent, and both might have easily been taken if the fishermen had believed either to be alive; the lesser, which they took, weighed about a pound and a half; the other they supposed to weigh above two pounds.”

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the ferox trout of Ullswater was believed to be a separate species and was often referred to by earlier writers as the “great grey trout”.

James Clarke believed it to be peculiar to Ullswater and Buttermere and stated that it could grow up to thirty or forty pounds (13.6/18kg). He even claimed that a specimen of fifty-six pounds (400kg) had been killed. Since the current British trout record stands at 31lb 12oz (14.4kg), for a fish taken in Loch Awe in 2002, I think Clarke’s fifty-sixpound fish may be nothing more than a fisherman’s tale!

These larger Lake District trout are usually caught by anglers trolling from a boat using Rapala lures or similar FEBRUARY 2015 47

artificial lures. Nowadays they are occasionally taken by anglers trolling for pike. Traditional charr fishers, too, catch a number of large trout as they troll the lakes. In former times, trolling with Devon minnows or natural minnows mounted on a spinning flight was a popular method of catching bigger trout. Both George Foster Braithwaite and John Watson enjoyed trolling for trout on Windermere and elsewhere.

Indeed, in The English Lake District Fisheries (1899), Watson waxes eloquent with regard to trolling on Windermere: “Let me state that there is a great charm about trolling on Windermere, and the angler will never forget a summer night so spent. As the light fades the sounds on the lake become fewer and fewer, and by midnight one is alone on the lake. There is no sound save that of oars in the rowlocks and the soft swish of the water. The experience is pleasant enough in itself, but trout fishing, and with good sport, one realises that life is a delightful thing.”

For the modern fly fisherman, used to fishing waters densely stocked with rainbow trout, fishing on Windermere or one of the other larger lakes can be a daunting prospect. Although fishing from the bank can be productive, the most effective method is to fish from a boat. Unfortunately, unless the angler has his own boat, hiring a boat at tourist rates for a whole day can be prohibitively expensive. The best months for fly fishing on the larger lakes are from April to June and then again in 48 FEBRUARY 2015

September. Again, Watson’s advice on where and how to fish on the larger lakes is as useful today as it was when it was written over a hundred years ago: “The best trout ground is along the shallow margins of the lake, and it is here that the fishing is done. A boat (not too narrow) is almost invariably used, preferably one with a fair amount of stability.

This is kept moving slowly, the angler casting towards the shore. During the day the fish mostly lie just where the bank shelves down to deeper water, and the angler cannot do better than follow this plan. Roughly speaking, the line indicated is about forty yards from the shore. The angler should always fish with the wind – not against it – and if the boat is rowed slowly parallel with the shore a great extent of ground can be covered… A long line is quite unnecessary. When a fish rises, do not snatch the flies away; it is better to be too slow than too quick.

Nearly every good fish will hook itself if allowed.” n Keith Harwood’s new book Fish & Fishers of the Lake District, from which this extract is taken, is published by the Medlar Press (www. medlarpress.com) at £20 hbk (plus p&p of £3.50 within the UK).

Cumbria magazine readers are entitled to a ten per cent discount on the price – £18 plus £3.50 p&p (UK). Telephone 01691 623225 and quote “Cumbria Magazine”. Offer valid until February 28, 2015.

LANDSCAPE

JOHN MORRISON

Moving in ancient circles he setting is spectacular: thirtyeight stones of metamorphic slate arranged in a flattened circle on a grassy plateau above Keswick, surrounded by Skiddaw, Blencathra, Clough Head, High Seat and the Derwent Fells.

Nobody knows who created the circle, or why, though there has been plenty of research – and inspired guesswork – over recent years.

What are we looking at? A temple? A market? A forum? A celestial calendar?

The mystery remains. We can, at least,

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be on firmer ground about when the circle was created: around 3200 BC (defined, by archaeologists, as the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age), which makes Castlerigg one of the earliest stone circles in Britain.

The first written account was by antiquarian William Stukeley. What he described in 1725 was clearly what can ... cont page 52

Long Meg, near Little Salkeld FEBRUARY 2015 49

Castlerigg stone circle framed by a cloud-wreathed Blencathra

From page 49 be seen today, except that he also mentions, in passing, an even bigger stone circle in the next field! Following a visit to the stones with William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge described “a Druidical circle where the mountains stand one behind the other, in orderly array as if evoked by and attentive to the assembly of white-vested wizards”.

Castlerigg’s appeal has only increased in the intervening years, and it is now owned by the National Trust. Visitors include photographers like me, hoping for dramatic light to illuminate the stones, aficionados of ancient sites and people with over-active imaginations who confidently expect the stones to be crackling with neolithic energy!

To the east of Castlerigg – in the Eden Valley, near Little Salkeld – a coven of witches was turned to stone by a Scottish wizard called Michael Scot, for the crime of profaning the Sabbath with their wild and wanton dancing.

The story might be fanciful but the stones are still standing; if you can count them twice, and come to same total both times, you will either break the spell or get bad luck… or possibly both. Long Meg and her Daughters is the second largest stone circle in the country – at least in terms of diameter, at 330 feet (100m) – and dates back to around 1500 BC. Meg, named after a seventeenth-century witch, Meg of Meldon, is a tall (12ft/3.6m) sandstone monolith, deco-

Worth the effort to visit: the stone circle at Swinside

52 FEBRUARY 2015

The circle at Birkrigg Common overlooks Bardsea and Morecambe Bay

rated with cup and ring markings, which stands sixty-five feet (20m) outside the circle. Her “daughters”, by contrast, are granite boulders. Wordsworth was a devotee. “Next to Stonehenge,” he wrote, “it is beyond dispute the most notable relic that this or probably any other country contains.” I don’t share the poet’s certainty but, even with a farm track driven through the circle, it’s still an impressive earthwork. Look out for the signpost to the “Druids Circle”…

The circle at Swinside – five miles (8km) north of Millom on Swinside Fell, and 1.5 miles (2.4km) from the nearest road – requires visitors to put in a little more legwork. The effort is worthwhile. More compact than Long Meg, with a diameter of 100 feet (30m), the circle also goes by the name of Sunkenkirk. According to local folklore,

the stones had been used in the building of a church. However, the plans were regularly thwarted by the devil, who created the stone circle instead.

Last – and least impressive – is a stone circle on Birkrigg Common, near Ulverston, at a junction of paths through the bracken. Though the circle is small, the view is splendid: overlooking the village of Bardsea and the glistening sands of Morecambe Bay. There are other circles and standing stones in Cumbria but these four represent the best examples, with most of their stones still intact. Perhaps this is the biggest mystery of all: how these intriguing creations have survived the millennia unscathed. n l Map references: Castlerigg NY292236, Long Meg NY571372, Swinside SD171881, Birkrigg SD292739.

FEBRUARY 2015 53

FARM ON THE FELL

HELEN BROMLEY

May all your dreams come true

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ccording to the way I work out the year, this is the last month of winter. I know there are plenty who say it has to be the equinox of March 21 but so many spring stirrings have happened by then that it seems a little ridiculous to leave it as late as that. By then the daffodils are in full swing, the snowdrops have been and gone, the sloes are in flower along with the early bullaces, and the witch hazel has long finished.

Here on the farm there will be lambs everywhere and the cow shed will be starting to fill with new arrivals. It’s the same come summer: why say it is just starting on the June 21, when this is the height of the daylight hours and is traditionally called “Midsummer’s Eve”?

The truth is that the seasons blend seamlessly into each other, and vary with each year. There is no set day on which winter becomes spring or summer becomes autumn – it just somehow happens, and can be heralded by something as simple as a change in the robin’s song or a certain tang in the air. Trying to order nature is, as I have learned, futile. It is better just

to go along with her and be as prepared as possible!

As the final month of winter is counted down, and the promise of spring over the horizon becomes ever closer, it is a time for thinking about new things, changes, new directions. It could be that the wonky patio which has annoyed you ever since you clapped eyes on it just has to go; or, now that there is a glimmer of extra light in the evenings, it’s time for a fitness regime that will enable you to scale our best fells and mountains with ease come the summer. Or perhaps it’s time you resolved to never put that bloody cow in calf again as, once again, you had to assist it at calving after which it chased you around the pen and rammed you in a corner. Any which-way, now is the time to start the changes; to let your new plans and dreams gain momentum with the stirrings of a new year.

I for one will be doing just that. My elder son, William, is fourteen. I started writing Farm on the Fell sometime during his gestation/infancy – I am unsure exactly as to when – but I have enjoyed relaying my thoughts on many things FEBRUARY 2015 55

rural, and in general, to you every month. Marking events that occur cyclically in the farming calendar as well as other events like foot and mouth in 2001, which was an horrific time. The seasons have waxed and waned; two more children were born; sheep were bought and sold; we acquired our first Blonde d’Aquitaine bull, tractor and, of course (still much to my husband and father-in-law’s intense irritation) bought the first ponies.

A constant in Farm on the Fell has been an admiration for our simply lovely county, an appreciation of which, of course, draws people to visit Cumbria in their thousands and yet, sometimes, that brings its own bag of troubles…

The other constant has been the vagaries of the weather. I would love to say that over the last fourteen years the weather has improved somewhat – and yet that would be a lie. As I type now, it is absolutely bucketing it down and has been all day. My hens are looking most cheesed off – they always blame me for inclement weather – and there is nothing more pitiful looking than a soaking wet, bedraggled hen.

We have tonnes of rain but, fortunately, we live on a hill so the flooding that inflicted so many was not our fate: we just have all the nutrients

in our soil leached away instead and seem to be cultivating some impressive and expanding bottomless bogs. A friend has recently passed on to me a pair of size eight mid-thigh length waders – James thought they looked mildly kinky (only he would) – and I am seriously considering wearing them when fetching the horses in tonight, as a safety precaution.

Anyway, to stop beating around the bush (I’ll leave that to the gale that is also inflicting us today), my time at Cumbria magazine has drawn to a close. My new job as assistant veterinary nurse takes up a huge amount of time and, though I enjoy it immensely, my brain is exhausted when I get home! The three offspring demand more and more of our time (and money), and my responsibilities regarding my various livestock have not diminished in any way. In order not to disappoint you with writing utter drivel, I have decided to call it a day.

Many thanks to all those of you who have read and enjoyed Farm on the Fell – I hope these last fourteen years have given you an insight into a fairly normal farming family and the ins and outs of what goes on in a South Lakeland mixed livestock farm from month-tomonth.

Best wishes to you all, Helen and family. n

No tufted verdue graces its banks, nor hanging woods throw rich reflections on it surface; but every form, which it suggests, is savage and desolate.

William Gilpin on Thirlmere, 1772 56 FEBRUARY 2015

NOTEBOOK

JOHN MANNING

Photo by Hermione McCosh

Sticky business

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armalade’s in the public eye at the moment, what with the recent box office success of the Paddington Bear movie… don’t be surprised, therefore, if Dalemain’s tenth annual homemade marmalade awards have a huge spread of entries.

The award ceremony – more of a festival – will be held at Dalemain Mansion and Gardens, near Penrith, over the weekend of February 28 and March 1.

Last year’s competition attracted more than 2,400 golden jars from as

far away as Australia, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, New Zealand and Alaska (though not darkest Peru) and the categories this year are as diverse as the mix of nationalities that enter. As well as the traditional Seville variety, there are opportunities for “merry marmalade, “The Stirring of the clans” and even a “Marmalade MacNab” (a citrus marmalade to be eaten with savoury food). Other classes include children, clergy (all denominations welcome), military,

... cont overleaf FEBRUARY 2015 57

Terry’s Wainwright date The Wainwright Society has announced that filmmaker and photographer Terry Abraham, below, will give its annual memorial lecture.

Terry’s award-winning

film Life of a Mountain: Scafell Pike, recently received its network television debut, in an abridged form, on BBC4. He is currently preparing the follow-up, a epic based on Helvellyn, and clips will be shown during the Wainwright Memorial Lecture, set to be given on October 17 at 6pm, at Rheged, near Penrith.

Tickets will be available from Rheged (01768 868000) from April 1.

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From page 57 campanologists (to tie-in with a global bell ringing celebration to mark international marmalade week, March 1–8) and even a man-made marmalade. My favourite though has to be the “Peers & Political Marmalade” class… I wonder whether those contestants will come away without sticky fingers?

Even those in the beginners’ category are in with a chance of pulling one out of the hat (to borrow a Paddington analogy) and lifting the festival’s top prize, the Double Gold Star. The winner’s marmalade recipe will be produced commercially and sold at the world-renowned Fortnum & Mason store in London for a year, with some of the proceeds going to charity.

The closing date for entries is February 15; entry forms and full details are available at the website www.marmaladeawards.com.

Over the last ten years the event has raised more than £150,000 for charities; last year alone £20,000 was raised. Beneficiaries in 2015 will again include Hospice at Home Carlisle and North Lakeland, a charity which provides free nursing for people at the end stages of life in their own homes, within rural North and East Cumbria and the city of Carlisle.

As for Paddington Bear, the world’s most famous marmalade connoisseur, well, he’ll be at the festival of course, presiding over a marmalade tea party and a special screening of his film, which my own children heartily recommend! n

A mystery solved?

Many thanks to everyone who suggested possible locations for last month’s mystery photo.

The image, sent in by John Austin of Durham, was taken by the late Ulverston GP Dr Tom Watkins while walking with his granddaughter Sarah.

Wynne Cliffe emailed to say he thought it might have been taken “from the slopes of Wetherlam, overlooking Tilberthwaite Gill and beyond?”

Chris Bullard, of Kendal, pinpointed a similar area, suggesting that the photograph might have been taken looking northeast, from just below Wetherlam’s southern ridge “The hilltop to the left would be Blake Rigg, with Hawk Rigg just behind in shadow to the left, both above the clearly seen deep gash of Tilberthwaite Gill,” said Chris.

“The rounded hills in the centre of the picture are the extensive Coniston Moor with part of Yewdale Moss below the gully, with a red berried rowan tree on the right.

“In the far distance Helvellyn is behind Hawk Rigg and, centreleft, the Fairfield–Hart Crag–Dove Crag ridge.”

If anyone’s snapped a recent image there I’d love to see it (if not, I’m thinking I have the perfect excuse to slip out of the office for a few hours…)

A welcome on the fellside Of all our official bodies, national agency Visit Britain perhaps ought to know its Cymru from its Cumbria.

Still, it used a photograph of one of the best-known, classic Lakeland views – Ashness Bridge above Derwent Water – on its website, in a bid to tempt Americans to book day trips to the Brecon Beacons.

Ashness Bridge is a 250-mile, fivehour drive away from the Welsh hills.

The hiccough brought a rash of chuckles from Cumbria’s hoteliers and tourism chiefs, along with national press coverage, and was blamed on how the image was tagged – presumably with such identifiers as ‘Lake’, ‘Mountain’ and ‘National Park’. I can sympathise: at Cumbria Towers we occasionally do a double-take when confronted with Grizedale and Grisedale, Troutbeck and Troutbeck, Harter Fell and Harter Fell, and even Staveley (in Westmorland, near Windermere) and Staveley (in Cartmel, practically on Windermere).

FEBRUARY 2015 59

CUMBERLAND

MATTHEW ENGEL

The ascent of Mount Toebang ne morning in early June I awoke in Rosthwaite on the edge of Derwent Water. It is just a couple of miles from Seathwaite, the wettest habitation in England. The sound outside was that of incessant rain, mitigated only by interruptions from the cuckoo, a bird now increasingly confined to damp corners.

Obviously our plans would have to be aborted. That was agreed: if the weather was ridiculous the mission was off.

Slowly I opened the curtains. The sun blazed in. The supposed rain was the water in the beck tinkling over the rocks.

There was no possible excuse now. After kippers, we drove – my old school friend Anselm and I – to the car park at Seathwaite, which was another national landmark ticked off. I had already been to the southernmost and westernmost place in England, the easternmost, the northernmost and the lowest. To come: the driest.

Ahead of us, though still far out of sight, was the highest: Scafell Pike.

“C’mon,” said Anselm gently, in the fatherly tone he would use when I was nine and he was ten. He had always done mountains, including this one, several times; I didn’t. He was a lawyer; but I was a great respecter of the Law of Gravity.

My back and right knee had been hurt-

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60 FEBRUARY 2015

ing for days, but I had been desperate not to cancel even though I was quite petrified.

Scafell Pike is an odd record-holder: everyone in Britain knows about Ben Nevis and Snowdon. But the highest mountain in England is strangely anonymous. Many people – and even the memorial at the summit – call it just “Scafell”, which is another mountain entirely. This certainly confuses the walkers and may cause occasional chaos at Mountain Rescue HQ. Even most of those who know the name pronounce it “Scaffle Pike”, while the aficionados go for “Scawfell Pike”. It is a very English kind of confusion.

In his Pictorial Guide to the Southern Fells, the sainted Alfred Wainwright is ambivalent. He also doesn’t make it sound attractive – “tarns are noticeably absent on the arid, stony surface … the landscape is harsh, even savage, and has attracted to itself nothing of romance or historical legend. There is no sentiment about Scafell Pike.” But he adds, “The ascent of Scafell Pike is the toughest proposition the ‘collector’ of summits is called upon to attempt, and it is the one above all others that, as a patriot, he cannot omit.”

Seathwaite did not look as though it gets 140 inches of rain a year. There was even a sign by the campsite banning ground fires, as though this were the Australian bush in a drought. And indeed it hadn’t rained in a week. You could spend a hundred summers in the Lake District and hardly find such an ideal day for climbing: we had layer after layer in our rucksacks but we never needed more than a T-shirt.

There are at least half a dozen routes to the summit, but Wainwright called the route up Borrowdale “pre-eminent”.

So we marched along the narrow valley.

Even now I was nervy. But it was not just a commitment, it was evidently my patriotic duty. Onwards.

At first, along the valley, the view was dominated by the green mass of Great End ahead of us. It was Great, but very far from the End. All this time, Scafell Pike, instead of dominating the landscape, was maintaining its distaste for publicity, remaining totally invisible. But then we reached the mountainside Piccadilly Circus of Esk Hause. Anselm pointed to an outcrop beyond a stony

plateau. “There it is,” he said.

Herein lay my one bleak but indisputable triumph. I knew nothing of the terrain, but consider myself expert in identifying the too-good-to-be-true. I seized the Wainwright: “Ill Crag is prominently in view from the section between Esk Hause and Calf Cove. It is the highest thing in sight, and wishful thinkers will assume it to be the summit – until the Pike itself is finally revealed, indisputably higher and still far distant across a waste of stones.” Moral superiority was some compensation for the hour that preceded the final ascent, which comprised mostly what Wainwright called “delectable clambering”.

Someone had told me you could always find the summit of Scafell Pike, even in thick mist, by the sound of cheering and popping champagne corks. But it wasn’t like that. There were thirty or forty people up there, and a few dogs (on leads, as per the only instruction). The mood was contented, excited even, but A winter view of Scafell Pike.

Photo by Simon Miles FEBRUARY 2015 61

not triumphalist. There was a pervading sense of respect for the place: hardly any graffiti on the stones even – one said “dean & ste”, as though the writer had been caught in the act and urged to desist.

There was also, very touchingly, a framed wedding photo, late 1940s at a guess, placed on the flat-topped cairn which is much favoured for souvenir pictures and takes the 3,209 feet of the summit to about 3,213. Otherwise there were just a few windbreaks, roughly constructed from the stones, and the trig point. No information, other than the misleading sign built into the cairn, which serves as both a First World War memorial and a record of the land being given to the nation by Lord Leconfield.

No café, no railway station – the English leave such fripperies to Snowdon – not even a guide to the view: Wainwright’s monopoly of the wisdom is unchallenged.

So everyone just ate their sandwiches and pointed to the panorama. There was a touch of heat haze rendering Mont Blanc, Everest and Australia invisible, but still: Skiddaw and Derwentwater to the north; Windermere and the Pennines to the east; Morecambe Bay and the real Scafell to the south; Sellafield and the Isle of Man to the west. Then people began pointing upwards, puzzlingly, towards the few fluffy clouds. And there, way, way above us, was a lone paraglider. Bloody typical. No matter how high you get, there will always be some swine who outdoes you.

The descent was very untriumphant.

62 FEBRUARY 2015

I queried Anselm’s navigation, this time wrongly, thus forfeiting the moral high ground while still hugging the actual high ground by lagging behind. I had long stopped worrying about my back and knee but everything else was hurting, most particularly my left big toe.

There seems to be some kind of mountain truism here: the descent is always harder. Mentally, you’ve done it and imagine yourself home. The world starts to intrude on your thoughts. And, gravitationally, a slight stumble is now more likely to be disastrous, as suggested by the fate of the satsuma. We took longer going down than up.

But, as Sir Edmund Hillary put it in more trying circumstances, “we knocked the bastard off”. Anselm was congratulatory. No one back home seemed impressed by what I had done; I was, though. Next morning I sat, achey but self-satisfied, in the garden by Crummock Water belonging to the Lakesman and writer Hunter Davies, who once published three bestsellers in a year. I mentioned the difficulties of descending.

“It’s a metaphor for fame and life,” he said sagely. “The fun and satisfaction is getting there. But coming down is hard.” n This edited extract is from Matthew Engel’s book Engel’s England: Thirtynine Counties, One Capital, One Man, described as “the guidebook for people who don’t think they need a guidebook”. It is published by Profile Books (www.profilebooks.com) at £20 (hardback). Next month: Westmorland.

RAMBLING WITH ROGAN

ADRIAN ROGAN

Spawn to be wild e are flying south from Carlisle on a Pendolino train, travelling towards the rivers of the Lake District peninsulas: the Lune, the Kent, the Leven, the Duddon. Within what seems like moments we glimpse the tilted summit of Kidsty Pike in the west, flanked by High Street with ragged remnants of snow and, in the steep-walled valley below them, unseen, lies Haweswater.

Then with tremendous velocity, the train hurtles into the long curves of the Lune Gorge, tilting and swaying to such

W

an extent that one second we see the river frothing among the rocks and the next the bowls of sky above the brown Howgills, sweeping upwards from hilly farms and myriad sheep. And back down to earth, seeming to swing between the heavens like a shooting star, or meteor guided by its very power.

There is something about rivers deep in our consciousness that calls, or rather

Lakeland light on the Duddon. Photo by Mark Laird FEBRUARY 2015 63

echoes, because it resounds in us. People say the sound of running water is the most perfect in the world because it is perfectly peaceful and harmonious.

In fact, falling blissfully asleep by a summer’s day riverbank is something I’ve done once or twice in my life. But it’s not a good idea, or even possible, when the river is running a flood, a raging torrent, or when it is almost silent, as near to death as can be, in the ice and snow of winter.

At this time of year, on the cusp of spring, the weather is unpredictable.

Candlemas Day, on February 2, is the old Celtic feast of Imbolc which celebrates the coming of spring and the new lactation of ewes. The seasons are turning, even if in February we can still get a good blast of winter. Rivers begin to lose that dead winter-look and become alive again; we can imagine the young trout growing in the deep pools and streaming water. The river assumes, almost imperceptibly, a lovely sheen of colour that was absent before.

The river Duddon in Dunnerdale is a wonderful stream, rising in the high craggy country beneath Cold Pike. It runs by the roadside along the bottom of Wrynose Pass where the Three Shire Stone stands, marking the meeting point of the counties of Lancashire, Cumberland and Westmorland. Two other streams rise near here: the Brathay, which flows east into Westmorland and the Esk which rises beneath Scafell and runs west through Hardknott and into the sea at Ravenglass. The Duddon itself mends its way 64 FEBRUARY 2015

southward and its entire length of about fifteen miles (24 km) was once the boundary between Lancashire and Cumberland.

Below Duddon Bridge the river becomes tidal and it seems to fill and surge into the estuary between Askam and Millom and the wide expanse of Duddon Sands at low water. We alighted there that day from our journey of trains, at low tide, on the Askam side, and strolled down to a little car park on the headland, and walked out.

We could see the steeples of Millom and the far shore quite clearly and, standing out, Duddon Villa, the big house that looks out over the estuary. People were walking on the sands with dogs running about, and we passed a man with a kite who was flying something that looked like a dragon; red and white against the high clouds and blue sky.

“Coo!” said one of the children as she stood staring at the fabulous creature.

“I’d like a dragon kite.”

We could hear the dragon’s wings cracking and straining against the wind, as though eager to be free and soar away.

“Perhaps a smaller one,” I said, spoiling the moment.

If we looked out south and west away in to the breeze and the ever-widening sands we thought we could glimpse the sea: a silvery blue surface rippling in the sunlight, mirage-like, a long way off.

What an extraordinary flat and level place this is, within the bowls of mountain and sky. Black Coombe is massive and dark in the north west.

Sahara on Sahara, brown ripples of dune.

Photo by Trevor Ronson FEBRUARY 2015 65

There seems to be two main channels in this stretch of the Sands, and it’s up these tidal channels later in the year that the salmon and sea trout make the journey to their spawning grounds in the clear pools and gravelly beds of the river. The first channel is very shallow with occasional deeper pools that are fringed by hard, tide-rippled beds of sand. The poet Norman Nicholson wrote this in his poem Tide Out: Sahara on Sahara, brown ripples of dune Recede in metallic low relief, And glimmering, salty teaspoon oases Simmer and mirage in the frothing dusk.

He was born in Millom and lived in the same house for most of his life. He died in 1987. In the photographs I’ve seen of him he always sported the most luxuriant side whiskers; and deep-set eyes with a steady stare. He bears a resemblance to Hartley Coleridge, the wild son of Sara and Samuel Taylor.

There are several ancient rights of way across Duddon Sands, from Kirkby-in-Furness to The Green and The Hill, villages north of Millom, and also from Askam to Millom itself. People used these tracks across the sands as a matter of course before the advent of fast coaches and motor cars. They were part of the road across the southern peninsulas starting at Hest Bank north of Lancaster and ending, in fact, at Millom. These estuaries can be dangerous; the safe paths can vary with the seasons and the tides are fast-moving.

We walked as far as the second 66 FEBRUARY 2015

channel, a much deeper one, that of the Duddon itself, and were now standing perhaps three or four hundred yards from the rising banks of the far shore, filled with gorse. We could see the dark slates on the roof of the big house and its gleaming windows; impossibly close.

“We could wade across,” one of us said.

“If we really wanted to…”

“Luckily, we don’t.”

And so we turned for the long trudge back over Duddon Sands, the sun now obscured by clouds. The tide was moving from its ebb, the silvery blue sea seemed closer, and the dragon-flier had gone.

We followed the road up the valley towards Ulpha, where crag on crag rises like lunar rocks in the landscape. Herdwicks roam, hefted, half-wild in the wiry grass and along the boulderstrewn glimmering river.

The Duddon is running fast; the pools look deeper, darker without the sun. But this valley has an ancient majesty about it, no matter what the weather. And then, the clouds break and a few minutes of sunlight seems to bleach the rocks to white and the river itself glows like beaten silver.

Near here we fell into talk with a dairy farmer who told us of the pools where the salmon lie, when they have run up from the sea.

“And do you get good runs of fish?” we asked.

“Yes,” he said, “perhaps less in recent years, like everywhere, but it varies. Last year was good.”

Tarn Beck, near Seathwaite.

Photo by David Mart

“And is it a late run, in September, say?”

“Yes, for salmon. Sea trout can be caught earlier, from July. There’s not much in spring – apart from the native brown trout, of course, which are few and smaller than you’d expect because it’s such a fast-running beck.”

“And do you fish yourself?” I said.

“Used to; do you?”

“Aye, up on the Eden.”

“Ah, well,” said he.

“I know of four and five pound trout that are sometimes caught on the upper Eden.”

“Well,” said he, “you’d be lucky with a one or two pound fish here. But I doubt you’d get many salmon up your way though?”

“Very few – and very late: November perhaps – by which time the salmon are uneatable, as well as illicit, anyway.”

“Ah, well,” said he.

Further up the valley, above the hamlet of Seathwaite and its little inn, lie the wild pastures of Turner Hall – home to flocks of hardy and fertile sheep and a little campsite. An ancient and beautiful farmhouse sits firmly on the higher ground; the building seems almost rooted to the earth, or indeed, part of it, so snug it fits. It is rocky here, the same dusky limestone, lustrous in sunlight, that guards and balances the river as it falls fast through its “sinuous bed”; with fields of grass that must have taken

human hand centuries to clear, of crags of rock and twisted roots of hawthorn.

And higher yet, up past a little car park by the beck, just off the road to the left; where there are flat grassy spaces for laying out the picnic on dry days, and wooden tables too. The children run about, exploring the footpaths and hidden trails in the woods; the world is young here.

From a footbridge over the beck we can study the pools below, searching vainly for the swirl of a trout. I don’t know how far up the Duddon salmon would swim to spawn, but it’s easy to imagine the fish finding home at last in this remote spot: from where they came, and where they first had seen the water and the light, perhaps four or five years ago. n FEBRUARY 2015 67

WALKING 1: BLEA TARN AND SIDE PIKE

MARY WELSH

Scramble for Lakeland’s tarn jewel START/PARKING: National Trust car park, Blea Tarn (GR 296044), accessed from Great or Little Langdale. National Trust members enjoy free parking MAPS: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer OL6, English Lakes, South-western area DISTANCE: 3 miles/5km TIME: 2-3 hours

HEIGHT GAIN: 430ft/140m TERRAIN: easy walking by Blea Tarn and up to the pass. Much more challenging when climbing Side Pike; easier descent REFRESHMENTS AND FACILITIES: Elterwater or Skelwith Bridge © Crown copyright 2015 Ordnance Survey Media 003/15

4

5 3

2 1

START/ FINISH Hill walking can be strenuous and it is up to you to approach it with caution and if you are inexperien ced to do so under appropriate supervision. You should also carry appropriate clothing, equipment and maps and wear suitable footwear. The details given here were believed to be correct at the time of going to press but neither the author nor Country Publications Ltd can accept responsibility for inaccuracies. Please stick to rights of way at all times.

68 FEBRUARY 2015

Looking down on Great Langdale

T

o many people, Blea Tarn ranks as the favourite of Lake District’s many tarns. William Heaton Cooper described the tarn and its setting: “to crown it all, the giant family of the Langdale Pikes, magnificent in all moods, looking down on this jewel through the northern dip of the fells.”

Most Lakeland walks begin from the valley but this route lets the car take the sting out of the early climb.

After a glorious walk beside the tarn, the hard work starts up the slopes to the pleasing summit of Side Pike with an easier return after all your

scrambling. Of course you could go up and down the easier way if you don’t relish a long scramble.

1

Start from the parking area opposite Blea Tarn and cross the road linking Great and Little Langdale.

Go through the gate to overlook the lovely pool that lies in a shallow hollow gouged from the bedrock by glacial ice which once spilled from one dale into the other. Pause by the tarn’s shore to enjoy a superb view of the Langdale Pikes. Tall pine and larch lining the western bank reflect in the silvery FEBRUARY 2015 69

water. Cross the footbridge over Bleamoss Beck and turn right along the woodland track. Pause, perhaps, on one of the wooden seats to enjoy this glorious corner.

2

The stony path emerges from trees on to open fell, below Rakerigg’s eastern flank. Immediately ahead is shapely Side Pike, the walk’s goal, and, beyond, more spectacular views of the Pikes. Go through the gate at the end of the long winding track to the side of the pass between the two Langdales.

Views are stunning: Crinkle Crags, Bowfell, Pike of Bliscoe, and the Langdale Pikes – Pike o’ Stickle, Loft Crag, Thorn Crag, Harrison and Pavey Ark. Spend a little time looking down into the lovely valley far below, with its seemingly tiny walled fields.

3

Cross the road to a signed path junction. Ignore the left turn down into Great Langdale and continue ahead up the worn path towards a large cairn, which soon becomes a scramble up a rocky way. Go on clambering as it curves right, continuing up to a narrow grassy area with a small cairn. Note this cairn for your return.

Head on up, scrambling through the outcrops, to walk beside chunks of restored low wall on your left. Eventually you can move left to follow a path on the other side of another short stretch of wall. Alternatively scramble on up to the summit (1,187ft/360m).

This is the place for a break: views from here, including that of Blea Tarn shim-

70 FEBRUARY 2015

mering below, are magnificent in all directions.

4

Ahead the crags are sheer: do not attempt to descend from the summit in any direction other than that taken to get there. When you reach the small cairn, standing on the grassy flat, turn left and continue on the path, following the ledge-like way round below the cliff face on your left. When

your way appears blocked, take off your rucksack and squeeze through the restricted gap, passing behind a huge boulder and under the overhang of the cliff (perhaps regretting that extra bar of chocolate).

to descend a grassy path beside a wall, then a fence, to your right, towards the tarn. The path is good and is paved half-way down. Join the narrow road and turn left to stroll back to the car park. n

5

Continue a short way to a wall that climbs away from the Pike: ignore this (unless you wish to continue to Lingmoor). Our walk turns right here,

Blea Tarn, “magnificent in all moods�

FEBRUARY 2015 71

WALKING 2: LANTHWAITE GREEN

KEITH WOOD

A trail of three Lanthwaites

4

3

5 7 2

6

1

START/ FINISH

START/FINISH: Lanthwaite Green car park, by Crummock Water (GR: NY158208) MAPS: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer OL4, The English Lakes, North-western area; OS 1:50,000 Landranger 89, Cockermouth DISTANCE: 2.5 miles/ 4 km)

TIME: 1-2 hours HEIGHT GAIN: 500ft/ 150m TERRAIN:

Moderate fell walk on clear paths.

REFRESHMENTS AND FACILITIES: various in

Buttermere Š Crown copyright 2015 Ordnance Survey Media 003/15

Hill walking can be strenuous and it is up to you to approach it with caution and if you are inexperien ced to do so under appropriate supervision. You should also carry appropriate clothing, equipment and maps and wear suitable footwear. The details given here were believed to be correct at the time of going to press but neither the author nor Country Publications Ltd can accept responsibility for inaccuracies. Please stick to rights of way at all times.

72 FEBRUARY 2015

T

his short and easy walk is none the worse for taking in a trio of Lanthwaites. Gently rounding the northeastern end of Crummock Water, it is a suitable short outing for all the family and makes an ideal winter stroll. Starting from Lanthwaite Green there is chance to get a closer look at imposing Grasmoor. Further on, a visit to the top of Lanthwaite Hill presents one of the best views along Crummock Water, with Mellbreak in the background.

A walk along Lanthwaite Wood completes the Lanthwaite trio.

1

From the car park by the farm at Lanthwaite Green, cross the road and follow the green track heading for the narrow valley between Grasmoor and Whiteside, which rises gently

across common land. Ignore the Grasmoor path off to the right and continue towards the valley to cross Liza Beck via a footbridge.

2

Turn left on a narrow rising trod along the fell edge beneath Whiteside. Approaching a large drystone enclosure, veer right, around the top corner, then follow the path with the wall on your left. There are good views of Low Fell and Fellbarrow ahead-left, with the hummock of Lanthwaite Hill in the foreground. When the path forks at a rock, bear left, continuing by the wall.

3

As the path aligns with a white valley bottom building, a gate through the wall comes into view,

Grasmoor above Liza Beck

FEBRUARY 2015 73

Across Crummock Water to Red Pike from Lanthwaite Green

through which steps carry you down the field; keep left of the enclosure near the beck. Cross a stream on stepping stones; in fifty yards (45m) pass through a gate and across Liza Beck on another footbridge. Pass through a small stand of trees and, in another 74 FEBRUARY 2015

twenty yards (18m), through another gate on to the road. Through a gate opposite signed “Public Footpath to Scale Hill� head through a field swinging left to pass whitewashed Pickett Howe, and on to the gate in the field bottom corner.

4

In the next enclosure the path continues with the boundary on your

right. Passing an oak copse, the wall swings right and the path continues ahead, gently rising to a drystone wall, enclosing trees, at the far end. It now rises more steeply, past the trees to emerge on to the slopes of Lanthwaite Hill (“Brackenthwaite Hows� on OS maps), with a great view ahead to Mellbreak. For the best view, make a minor detour up left, on to the hilltop, before returning to this path junction.

Turn right and, in another twenty yards, (18m) pass through the wall, via a stile, into the top of the woods.

5

Twenty yards (18m) into the woods a clear path branches off left, initially losing a bit of height. It follows the wall, bearing you along the

woodland edge. There are views through the trees to Kirkstile and the Loweswater Fells, with Crummock Water below.

6

Bear left at a crossroads of paths, through a gate to head back towards Grasmoor; Lanthwaite Green and the car park are in sight. The path swings right through another gate and along an ancient enclosed lane between the fields.

7

It emerges through another gate on to the road. Turn right to walk back along the road to the start, past Lanthwaite Gate. Cross the cattle grid, past the farm buildings of Lanthwaite Green, back to the start. n

Mellbreak from Lanthwaite Hill FEBRUARY 2015 75

ORGANISED WALKS

TO ADD YOUR WALK CALL LINDA ON

JANUARY 28 MELMERBY SCAR CIRCUIT. 12 miles.

Meet 9am, grid reference NY615373.

Details 01768 862970 www.penrithramblers.org.uk 29 ARNSIDE CIRCULAR. 6 miles. Meet 9.30am B&Q car park, Burton Road, Kendal. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 015395 60249.

31 BROWN HILLS, GREENSIDE, AND SELDOM SEEN. 7 miles. Meet 9am Penrith Rugby Club car park. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01768 862330.

01756 701381

Rugby Club car park. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area). 01768 881082.

5 BRUNT KNOTT. 5 miles. Meet 9.30am B&Q car park, Burton Road, Kendal. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area).

01539 724454.

7 SMARDALE AND CROSBY GARRETT FELLS. 10 miles. Meet 9am Penrith Rugby Club car park. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01768 840406.

FEBRUARY

8 HIGH HARTSOP DODD, RED SCREES, MIDDLE DODD. 7 miles. Meet 10am Cow Bridge. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 07856 702338.

1 WANSFELL FROM AMBLESIDE. 8 miles.

Meet 10am Ambleside Medical Centre (GR NY374048). Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 07787 517123.

10 LOUGHRIGG FELL, LOUGHRIGG TARN. 7 miles. Meet 9.20am Sands Centre car park, Carlisle. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 017687 74427.

3 WETHERAL CIRCULAR. 8 miles. Meet 9.20am Sands Centre car park, Carlisle.

Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01539 597255.

11 SEDGWICK, CROSSCRAKE AND SUMMERLANDS. Meet 10.30am Sedgwick, near Carex Farm (grid reference SD576871). Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 015395 33358.

3 LOUGHRIGG AND TERRACE. 7 miles.

Meet 9am B&Q car park, Burton Road, Kendal. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 015394 47357.

4 DALE HEAD TO ROBINSON. 12 miles.

Meet 8.30am Penrith Rugby Club car park.

Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 016974 73674.

4 WHINLATTER. 10 miles. Meet 9am Penrith Rugby Club car park. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01768 892806.

4 PENDRAGON CASTLE. 10 miles. Meet 9.30am. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area). 01768 898880.

4 MELMERBY. 5 miles. Meet 9am Penrith 76 FEBRUARY 2015

11 CAUSEY PIKE, SCAR CRAGS AND OUTERSIDE. Meet 8.30am B&Q, Burton Road, Kendal. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01539 733887.

11 MAULDS MEABURN AND RIVER LYVENNET. 6 miles. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01768 890194.

11 BORROWDALE. 9 miles. Meet 9.30am Penrith Rugby Club car park. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area).

01768 840788.

11 DODDERING ON THE DODDS. 12 miles.

Meet 9am Penrith Rugby Club car park.

Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area). 01768 894107.

11 PLACE FELL. 12 miles. Meet 8.30am, Penrith Rugby Club car park. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01931 713325.

18 CROSBY GARRETT FELL AND SMARDALE. 9 miles. Meet 9.30am Penrith Rugby Club. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01768 863155.

11 GREYSTOKE, GILLCAMBON TARN, AND CALFHOW HEAD. 9 miles. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area). 01768 606074.

18 POOLEY BRIDGE AND WINDER HALL. 5 miles. Meet 9.30 am Penrith Rugby Club car park. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01768 863828.

12 WINSTER AND UPPER GILPIN VALLEYS. 8 miles. Meet 9.30am B&Q car park, Burton Road, Kendal. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01539 731338.

19 SILVER HOW AND LOUGHRIGG. Meet 8.30am B&Q car park, Burton Road, Kendal. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01539 723662.

14 ARMATHWAITE CIRCULAR VIA AINSTABLE. 6 miles. Meet 9.15 am Carlisle station. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 017687 74427.

20 GREAT AND LITTLE BURNEY, AND ASH LOCK HALL. 8 miles. Meet 10.30am Grey Hound Pub, Grizeback, grid reference SD239850. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 015395 35766.

14 NEWLANDS VALLEY CIRCULAR. 10 miles. Meet 9am Penrith Rugby Club car park. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area). 01768 892806.

15 BLENCATHRA. 9 miles. Starts 10am Mungrisdale Village, grid reference NY363302. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area). 07895 003372.

17 WILLIAMSGATE, GILCRAY, AND TALLENTIRE. 8 miles. Meet 9.20am Sands Centre car park, Carlisle. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01228 527378.

21 A BORROWDALE RAMBLE. 8 miles.

Meet 9am Penrith Rugby Club car park.

Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01768 863538.

22 CROOK TO STARNTHWAITE. 7 miles.

Meet 10am Crook village, grid reference SD462951. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01229 830155.

24 GRISEDALE. 8 miles. Meet 9.20am Sands Centre car park, Carlisle.Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area).

016973 44700.

17 MILNTHORPE, SANDSIDE AND WRAY COTTAGE. 5 miles. Meet 9.15am B&Q car park, Burton Road, Kendal. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01539 732995.

25 WARTON CRAG. 6 miles. Meet 10.30am Warton small quarry on Crag Road, grid reference SD497724. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 015395 58495.

18 BEETHAM WOODS. 5 miles. Meet 9.30am (telephone meeting point).

Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01524 382980.

26 EASTERN KENDAL AND THE HUTTONS. 10 miles. Meet 9.30am B&Q, Burton Road, Kendal. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 015395 60942.

18 BORROWDALE VIA WHINASH AND JEFFREY’S MOUNT. 13 miles. Meet 8.30am Penrith Rugby Club car park. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01539 722001.

28 CATBELLS, GRANGE, AND DERWENTWATER. 10 miles. Meet 9am Penrith Rugby Club car park. Details Ramblers Association (Lake District Area), 01768 865240.

FEBRUARY 2015 77

CUMBRIA YESTERDAY

Weeks of perma-frost Lakeland Notebook, Cumbria December 1963

L

ast winter we had one of the fiercest spells of weather within living memory. Our fells were snow-covered and each lake had a thick crust of ice. The quantity of snow was not exceptional, but it was hardbound by intense cold for many weeks. Farmers and those whose work took them regularly on to the roads had a grim time until the thaw came. It was not the type of winter that most Cumbrians enjoy.

For many, however, the snowy heights, icy lakes, the brilliant visibility, and dry if keen air, provided uncommon opportunities for winter sports. Hundreds of people, from all parts of the North, came regularly to the Lakes, and our hoteliers and caterers found themselves with the briskest winter trade for years.

Skiers were on the upper slopes week after week, many making for the well-tried run on Raise. Our lakes were vast skating rinks, with little Rydal Water among the first to freeze. Before the winter was over cars had been driven on to Windermere, Derwentwater and other lakes. The curlers of Keswick enjoyed some of the best sport they. had known.

Skating on Windermere, in front of the Old England Hotel in Bowness, on 2 March 1929, from a series of postcards issued by Kendal firm, Atkinson and Pollitt. Hotels and boarding houses took full advantage of this late winter windfall 78 FEBRUARY 2015

The cost of the winter in time, money and effort was immense. Road authorities spent far more than usual keeping highways in good shape. Boatmen found that landing stages were crushed, or lifted out of position. Many sheep were lost at the fell farms, where fodder supplies ran dangerously low.

Although the number of people benefitting from the keen weather was comparatively few, is there any reason why Lakeland should not seek to project itself better as a centre for winter holidays? If such a winter, as 1962-3 comes again we should make the fullest use of it by attracting tourists. Even in mild winters, there is surely more that can be done in the Lake District to attract and hold the attention of visitors.

AT ONE time during the big freeze of February 1895, below left, there was said to be 100,000 people on Windermere, where the ice was nine inches thick; the lake froze over from end to end for six weeks. Showing great enterprise the railway companies ran special trains to Lakeside, and it soon became impossible to get rooms locally, even as far away as Kendal. A elderly relative of T Furnwall (writing in Cumbria December 1972) said: “I cannot recall any freeze-up as remarkable as that of nearly eighty years ago.

Top, a similar scene at Lakeside in February 1902 FEBRUARY 2015 79

NATURE NOTES

JOHN SEARS

Winter wonderland

ll this happened some three or four years ago, with one of those white weeks of winter – no deep or treacherous drifts – merely a dusting of the finest snow, cleansing and which focuses the mind down to the minutest detail, enhancing our experience of the natural world. I recall this almost as though it were happening today…

All the hills and fields of the Melbreak Vale are a winter wonderland crisp with snow, as I travel out passing Loweswater to just before Scalehill. I climb through Lanthwaite Wood to my seat on the springy mat of bilberry, southward facing the wood with its gnarled oaks below and a warm rock, with its shiny crystals of mica, to my back. Such is my outdoor study here: a place indeed to ponder. It is so warm here too, though the temperature last night was down to minus five degrees.

Crummock with its vast heat store is not frozen but smaller Loweswater has slate grey ice and the river Cocker winks in the winter sunlight below.

A

Ennerdale dusted with snow. Photo by David Shaw 80 FEBRUARY 2015

There is a rustle amid the bilberry and a tiny wren, tail all cocked, is ferreting between the foliage scarcely an arm’s length away. An intensely cold winter, such as the one we are experiencing, can decimate our wren populations. Woodlands give them some protection and even evergreens like laurel and rhododendron – non-natives near the bottom of my list of ecologically

desirable plants – provide excellent shelter for our smaller birds in prolonged cold spells. Soon, between the oaks, a flock of at least a dozen longtailed tits comes foraging around the twigs of the high oak branches, making little squeaks perhaps of ecstasy, at finding grubs amid the crevices on such a cold and wintry day. Soon they are joined by blue tits, squeaking and ferreting through the twiggy canopy. How good it is to see them! As I walk on, the lake below takes on the still slate blue of the sky. The great amphitheatre of hills beyond now seems as if honed by ages of ice, and the sky towards dusk glows with a faint golden fire, a fire of winter stillness.

Another day, a Sunday, I take the

Cockermouth road out from Egremont to Wath Brow. A little further on, the line of the old railway from Cleator Moor would have crossed above the road at Parkside, forming the old Marron Line, named from a local river easily picked out further northeast on the Ordnance Survey map near Ullock. It started as an iron ore line, opening to passengers in 1857. From Cleator Moor it had stations at Frizington, Parkside and Yeathouse, Winder, Rowrah, Lamplugh, Ullock, Branthwaite and Bridgefoot, where it linked with the Penrith to Workington line. The last passenger train ran as long ago as 1931.

All is sun and snow today and climbing up to the old trackway, I see the gorse is flowering despite the icy cold.

Above, a long-tailed tit. Photo by Paul Miguel. Below, winters can be hard for our wrens. Photo by David Cox

Ahead I can see the hills of Herdus, then Crag Fell. Near the track is lots of willow, its fronds a ruddy hue. The trackway bears left, a steep cutting in the rock, walls heather-clothed. The walls of the old station platform sprout limeloving mural ferns, gaining sustenance from the mortar – ferns like maidenhair spleenwort, hart’s tongue and wallrue.

Beyond, I climb down the snow-covered embankment to where the walls of an old siding are warmed by the westering sun. Here the spleenworts grow in 82 FEBRUARY 2015

luxuriance, as thick green spiders sprouting from the mortared crevices.

There is black spleenwort here too – a delightful treasury of mural ferns.

Indeed, the brickwork of old and even some working railway habitats, not infrequently, has a rich fern flora. It’s an intriguing legacy from the age of steam, when condensing water vapour would provide a template for the germination of a fern spore, formation of the tiny prothallus with its sexual organs and so the formation of the mature fern plant.

Now I take another lower trackway in the crisp snow, rejoining the Parkside railway further on, with the view to the Ennerdale Valley like a fairytale Christmas scene, away down to the left. The sun lights the snow under the old bridges and a little tomtit makes a trill of song from a thorn, where a blackbird plucks a few berries before eventide.

Another week and the snow has gone, warmer air has come. In the hedges not far from Egremont, I gain a good sighting of a goldfinch, not so common in our area and very partial to thistle seeds. Then come the starlings, those birds which feed on the harmful leather-jacket grubs in our fields. They cluster like thick black fruits on the bare boughs, their chorus a busy chattering as the sky flames a dull rose in the west.

They skirmish and swirl like black leaves about the high trees. There must be nigh on a thousand of them. They suddenly rise, swirling and whirling like a coiled black smoke plume in the darkening sky and – almost in an instant – are gone. n

High spirits!

Next month in

As the Lakes Distillery opens its doors, Cumbria takes a tour and raises a glass to the future of its artisan whiskies

Plus…

Classic Cumbrian Inn: after 200 years, Mary the lily-cheeked barmaid is still drawing admirers to Buttermere’s Fish Inn Cumbrian Kitchen: a delicious hot Cumberland sausage casserole ALSO: Tramping the Old Man of Coniston… a Wasdale circuit… the vet who goes through the pain barrier… rearing Lakeland fell ponies… and much more!

March issue on sale February 25 FEBRUARY 2015 83

POSTBOX

Please write to: Cumbria Postbox, Country Publications Ltd, The Water Mill, Broughton Hall, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 3AG. Or email: johnm@dalesman.co.uk

Defending Seascale Author “brainwashed” I took offence at the picture painted by Tony Francis (Cumbria, January) of the Sellafield site. He says he is pro-nuclear then goes on the rubbish the whole industry in an uninformed hypocritical way, calling Sellafield a “most feared, loathed and condemned industrial site”!

He talks about it spoiling the landscape and jumping out on the rail traveller rounding the corner like some phantom of a ghost train. Had he focused as much scathing attention on the miles and miles of ugly, useless wind turbines which are really destroying the landscape for absolutely no benefit I could have agreed with it. I worked at Sellafield for a few years and from his comments he seems to have been brainwashed by the CORE [Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment] group.

What made him think the freight train was carrying nuclear waste?

There are many freight trains using that line and the nuclear material trains are 84 FEBRUARY 2015

obvious to any casual observer. Where is the ugly control tower he refers to?

There isn’t one. The accompanying photo was taken with a long lens to make Sellafield look like it is within Seascale itself. He seemed to knock the whole industry with almost every sentence and is therefore not a creditable observer as he obviously knows nothing about the industry. Sellafield is a safety-conscious and friendly place to work.

I hope they go from strength to strength and provide reliable power twenty-four hours a day from the proposed moorside site, unlike the unreliable expensive wind turbines that do not save any CO2 (which was the whole reason for them in the first place). I could write for hours on this subject, being qualified in Earth Science and Technology.

Richard Quirk, Ulverston

Excellent village As a Seascale resident for nearly twenty years, raising my three very happy and

contented children in the village, I was so shocked and disgusted at the horrid article Seascale’s nuclear families” in Cumbria’s January issue that I was shaking with anger.

The abhorrent manner in which it was written depicts the residents of Seascale as cowering, simple and terrified people, not to mention mocked as potentially two-headed, living in a terrifying ghost town. The use of words such as “not pretty”, “deserted” and “threat of extermination” are insults of the highest order and are most definitely untrue. It is an extremely picturesque village with beautiful views of the fells and sea, as Mr Francis was informed by a local but attempted to paste over with his insults.

I did wonder whether Mr Francis had actually visited, as he failed to mention any of Seascale’s many excellent features and points, such as free car parking for visitors, a children’s play area, free spotless toilets, butcher, baker, shop, ice cream parlour, to mention a very few. I ask have you ever visited? Argh, no you haven’t or you wouldn’t have published it.

I have no knowledge of who exactly Tony Francis is and his right to impose his twisted and bias view of Seascale and its residents on your reading public. How dare he depict us as scared, nervous and “shuffling”? This is an

insult in every shape and form. I feel the woman he describes in the first paragraph, “Julia”, was a figment of his imagination, as her information is unfactual and, again, total and utter rubbish.

His knowledge of Sellafield is blatantly nil as none of the information is correct and I wonder why he feels the need to attempt to destroy all that our parish council and the management at Sellafield Ltd has worked so hard to achieve.

Our village is beautiful in many ways and its residents very happy and content with our lovely homes, surroundings and relatively crime-free area.

Mr Francis is either living in a bubble or stupid if he doesn’t realise that the entire world lives with the threat of terrorism. Therefore the reason Sellafield is suspicious of random folk taking

FEBRUARY 2015 85

photos is for reasons of safety and security not, as he so naively puts it, because “You can’t get irradiated taking a photograph”. I will be ensuring Seascale Parish Council and Sellafield’s PR department have seen the article.

A very, very disappointed and angry Seascale resident, Mrs D. Strong, Seascale

Quality of life I write regarding the article in the January 2015 edition as I have grave concerns over content and accuracy.

The list of contents refers to an article about “Sellafield nuclear power station”: there isn’t one and hasn’t been for many years, the power station having ceased operating quite some time ago, culminating with the cooling towers being demolished with much press coverage.

The article refers to “Pudding Lane, a beauty salon and a Mace general store.

That’s about it…” and has obviously been written by someone who didn’t explore the village. What about cricket, BMX track, tennis courts, bowls, golf, hairdressers’, hardware store, bank, post office, pharmacy, butchers, two take-away restaurants, hotels and beautiful walks and history?

I run the local knitting group (you may snigger but the Woolclip co-operative in Caldbeck was instrumental in reintroducing yarn craft to the UK after the foot and mouth epidemic). We not only yarn bombed the seafront in the summer, bringing visitors from far and wide, but have also held the somewhat 86 FEBRUARY 2015

silly knitting in the window Christmas quiz – twenty-three local businesses were able to host our knitted treats.

The others had difficult or shared access to their premises which might have put participating children at risk of traffic. So much for “that’s about it”.

How much longer does our village have to have its point of reference as Sellafield? We all live here through choice and have access to excellent primary and secondary education and many young people return to the area for work and a high quality of life.

Mr Francis is blatantly anti-nuclear, and that is fine, but he needs to get his facts right: he has got the employment and local demographic figures wrong (the population of West Cumbria is 496,000, the Sellafield site as a whole only employs 11,000 in total).

The author made no reference to the community spirit that keeps us all together. Next time you publish an article about Seascale I suggest you use a balanced reporter (hopefully you didn’t pay this person!).

Penelope Cater, by email Author Tony Francis replies: Sellafield has always provoked strong responses so I’m not surprised some readers went off the deep end. The majority didn’t.

What does surprise me is the ragged nature of the remarks – someone even suggesting that I hadn’t even visited Seascale and had invented Julia Lawrence, the former Sellafield employee I met on the train.

If the complainants read the chapter more carefully, they’ll see that I have several good things to say about Seascale, including the fact that the beach is regularly tested, that it’s “a beautiful, safe place to be” and that Sellafield employees are generally happy with their lot. I pointed out that “Most of the suspicion and superstition which surrounded Windscale… has been replaced by a resigned affection. It comes from local trust in a more transparent management – and the comfort of stable employment.”

There’s no denying the cock-ups and cover-ups of the past. There’s no denying that Windscale was a dangerous place. There’s no denying that the workforce was kept in the dark.

Neither is there any denying that trains carrying radioactive waste from different parts of the world regularly travel along the passenger line. It’s a fact.

Where are the inaccuracies?

I entirely agree with one letter-writer that wind turbines are an abomination.

It concerned me how many of Cumbria’s hillside are littered with them. Landowners grow rich but the landscape is ruined. And for what?

How much do wind farms actually

contribute to the national grid?

To finish, I’d like to emphasise that I do support nuclear energy. It works brilliantly in France. Why not here?

I confess I don’t understand why the Japanese were allowed to build Fukushima in such a volatile part of the world and I’d prefer mankind to know more about the end game. Disposing of nuclear waste is an inexact science.

Ed: Sellafield was inadvertently referred to on the January issue’s contents page as a “nuclear power station” when in fact it is a nuclear waste reprocessing facility. I apologise for any confusion.

Tony Francis’ article was, as stated, an extract from his book Extraordinary Villages, published by Merlin Unwin Books at £14.99 in hardback (www.merlinunwin.co.uk).

Cumbria magazine readers can, until January 31, purchase copies at the special price of £13.50, free UK p&p. Telephone 01584 877456 and quote “Cumbria Magazine”.

Tony, author of ten books, was presenter of TV countryside programmes Heart of the Country and Tales from the Country, and covered sporting fixtures on TV for many years.

FEBRUARY 2015 87

CUMBRIA CROSSWORD

MICHAEL CURL

We award £15 for the first correct entry opened after the closing date. £10 and £5 will be given for second and third respectively. Send your entry to: Cumbria Crossword (February), Country Publications Ltd, The Water Mill, Broughton Hall, Skipton BD23 3AG. Entries must reach us by 24 February.

Across 9 10 11 12 13 14

16 19 20 21 24

Common weed (9) Render void (5) Mistake (5) Village near Penrith (9) Fell near the head of Wastwater (9) The Tale of Benjamin — (Beatrix Potter story) (5) County formed in 1974 (7) Valley north of Coniston (7) Flavoursome (5) Exhibited (9) House near Bowness, designed by architect

Baillie Scott (9) 26 Precise (5) 28 Sloping mass of rock debris on the side of a mountain (5) 29 Hidden (9)

Down 1 Tool for cutting and shaping wood (4) 2 Saint associated with an X-shaped cross (6) 3 Beatrix Potter had a house here (4,6) 4 Tarry (6) 5 In motion (5,3) 6 Styhead or Honister,

SUDOKU

NEIL SOMERVILLE

FILL IN all the

squares so that each row, column and each of the 3x3 squares contains all the digits from one to nine.

Each month we include last month’s solution, right 88 FEBRUARY 2015

for example (4) 7 Prolonged inability to sleep (8) 8 Blackthorn fruit (4) 13 Sailing-boat (5) 14 Perplexed (10) 15 Give way (5) 17 Slaughter (8) 18 Formal or ceremonial interview (8) 22 Soundless (6) 23 Annually (6) 24 Deep-voiced male singer (4) 25 Main tower of a castle (4) 27 Neat (4)

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Return this page, a photocopy or a list of answers with the above details.

QUESTION OF CUMBRIA 1 Where would you find the Girt Clog made in the early

Please do not include any other correspondence with your entry.

nineteenth century for mole catcher John Waterson whose left foot was considerably enlarged due to elephantiasis?

December solution

c Queen’s Head, Askham c Queen’s Head, Hawkshead c Queen’s Head, Troutbeck 2 What year was the Lake District National Park designated? c 1941 c 1951 c 1961 3 What did the Red Men mine at the Florence Mine in Egremont until its closure in 2008? c Copper c Iron ore c Plumbago 4 What was the name of the notorious transport cafe, now closed, on the A6 near Shap? c Jungle c Wildlife c Zebra 5 Which bird in Cumbria dialect is a jammy crane? c Heron c Osprey c Oystercatcher ANSWERS PAGE 91

Winners: 1, Mr J Hindle, Great Eccleston, Preston; 2, Jean Brocklebank, Runcorn; 3,Ernest Smart, Barnsley.

Thanks to all who entered.

FEBRUARY 2015 89

CUMBRIA CALENDAR

LINDA MCFADZEAN

A selection of current events in Cumbria for the month ahead. To publicise your event please write – giving at least six weeks’ advance notice – to: Cumbria Calendar, Country Publications Ltd, The Water Mill, Broughton Hall, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 3AG. Or email: editorial@cumbriamagazine.co.uk JANUARY To 31 CARNFORTH. RSPB Leighton Moss.

Big Garden Birdwatch Family Trails. In preparation for the world’s biggest bird count taking place over the weekend of 24–25 January. Drop-in in between 9.30am–4pm. Details 01524 701601 www.rspb.org.uk 27 BARNARD CASTLE. Bowes Museum.

Birds of Paradise. Join the Museum’s Keeper of textiles for a talk about the art of the plumier and feathers in fashion and haute couture. Details 01833 690606. www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk 30–31 BARROW IN FURNESS. The Forum.

The Tiger who came to Tea. Musical play based on the book by Judith Kerr. Details 01229820000. www.theforumbarrow.co.uk 30 to 1st February. BROUGHTON IN FURNESS. Victory Hall. Hansel & Gretel.

20th Anniversary pantomime. Bar, interval refreshments, raffle. 7.30pm and 5.30pm. www.broughtondramagroup.co.uk 31 KENDAL. Leisure Centre. North Sinfonia Concert. 7.30pm, talk beforehand 6.30pm. Details 01539 722533. www.lakelandsinfonia.org.uk 31 COCKERMOUTH. Christ Church.

Harmonic Society Concert: Praise and Glory. 7.30pm. Details 01768 778041. www.cockermouthharmonic.org.uk

Discover what life was like in the trenches and in Grasmere before, during and after the war through personal accounts, newspaper articles, pictures and military items.

1 PENRITH. Rheged. Antiques Fair.

10am–4pm. An emporium of stands bursting with home furnishings, collectors’ items, vintage jewellery, clothes, antique tools, watches and more. Details 01768 868000. www.rheged.com 4 BEETHAM. Nurseries. Let’s Grow Vegetables – talk with slides and samples.

7pm. Details 015395 63630. www.beethamnurseries.co.uk 4 & 16 CARLISLE. Racecourse. Jump Racing. www.carlisle.thejockeyclub.co.uk 6 CARLISLE. Bowjangles – On the Box! Taking string quartet performance to a whole new dimension, comedic musicians, Bowjangles perform a night of superb, multidimensional entertainment with their TV parody On the Box! 7.30pm, Warwick on Eden Memorial Hall Carlisle, Cumbria CA4 8PA, £10/£5 child. Details: 01228 562 771. www.highlightsnorth.co.uk

FEBRUARY

6 WORKINGTON. Workington Transport Heritage Trust. Members Film and Slide evening. Bring your CDs, memory sticks and let everyone experience your photographic genius. www.wtht.co.uk

To March 1. GRASMERE. The Wordsworth Trust. Grasmere and the Great War.

7 ALSTON. Chanje Kunda – Amsterdam: part autobiography, part travelogue and

90 FEBRUARY 2015

part lyrical drama, Amsterdam fuses theatre, movement and the beauty of an epic poem into a funny and exciting, super-modern twenty-first century play about one woman’s search for love.

7.30pm, Alston Town Hal, Front Street, Alston, Cumbria CA9 3RF; £9/£5 child/£22 family. Details 01434 382 244.

7 HAWKSHEAD. The Petzl 10km Night Runner – Grizedale Forest. It’s both a romance and a horror. The 10km route winds through the forest and includes a few lumps and bumps to test your lungs.

When the sun goes down, the head torches come out. www.visitcumbria.com 7–8 WINDERMERE. Low Wood Bay Hotel.

The Big Sleep. Join Cumbria Community foundation for a night of entertainment and fundraising to support vulnerable older people in Cumbria. Spend one night camping out under the stars. Bring your own tent, sleeping bag and winter woollies to keep you warm. Details 01900 825760. www.cumbriafoundation.org/bigsleep 8 ARMATHWAITE. Bowjangles – On the Box! 7.30pm, Armathwaite Old School Hall, near Church CA4 9PB. £10/£5 child/£25 family. Details 016974 72318. www.highlightsnorth.co.uk 8 HAWKSHEAD. Montane Trail 13 and Trail 26 Grizedale. Popular location for trail runners and mountain bikers. Route will largely take place on forest trails with stunning views of Coniston Water and Lake Windermere. 9.30am–8pm.

8 PATTERDALE. St Patrick’s Church.

Evensong with Keswick Choral Society.

4pm. www.keswickchoral.org.uk

QUESTION OF CUMBRIA ANSWERS:

Answers: 1 Queen’s Head, Hawkshead 2 1951 3 Iron ore 4 Jungle 5 Heron

Gentlemen. Internationally acclaimed British Piano sensation. 8pm. Details 01539 725133. www.breweryarts.co.uk 12–14 CARLISLE. Stanwix Theatre, University of Cumbria. Henry V. Shakespeare’s powerful history play takes centre stage as it sheds new light on the Bard’s legendary coming-of-age story.

Tickets £8/£6. Details 01228 400356. www.golakes.co.uk 13 SKIRWITH. Chanje Kunda – Amsterdam: 8pm, Skirwith Village Hall Church St, Skirwith, Penrith CA10 1RL. £7.50/ £5 child/£20 family. Details 01768 88234. www.highlightsnorth.co.uk 14 CARLISLE. The Sands Centre. St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. Famous throughout the world ever since they gave the historic performance of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony during the siege of Leningrad in 1942. The orchestra will be performing Beethoven’s Symphony No.1.

Details 01228 633766. www.thesandscentre.co.uk 14 ORTON. Farmer’s Market.

9.30am–2.30pm. www.ortonfarmers.co.uk 14 CONISTON. Brantwood. Fewkes Horn Quartet. Programme includes Mozart, Rossini, Bizet, Rimsky Korsakov and more.

Details 015394 41396. www.brantwood.org.uk

9 GRASMERE. Jerwood Centre. Shelley and Mary Shelley: Poetry and Frankenstein. Literature classes.

2.15pm–4pm, followed by refreshments. £10. www.visitcumbria.com

14–15 SILVERDALE Nr CARNFORTH. RSPB Leighton Moss. Binoculars and Telescopes Demonstrations.. Opportunity to try out binoculars, telescopes and digiscoping and receive impartial advice. 10am–4pm.

Details 01524 701601. www.rspb.org.uk

12 KENDAL. Brewery Arts. The Impossible

17 BARNARD CASTLE. Bowes Museum.

FEBRUARY 2015 91

Birds Galore. Family Fun Day. Learn about different types of birds, explore the museum with a themed trail and create wonderful bird inspired crafts to take home! Children must be accompanied by an adult, for whom normal admission applies. 11–4pm. Details 01833 690606. www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk 19–22 CARLISLE. The Sands Centre. Snow White on Ice. Featuring Russian ice stars.

A breathtaking and mesmerizing experience with ballet, gymnastics and aerial acrobatics. 2.30pm & 7.30pm.

Details 01228 633766. www.snowwiteonice.com 20 BARROW IN FURNESS. The Forum.

Frozen movie sing-a-long must-see. All the usual suspects of lyrics on screen to sing along with together with a live host and a magic moments fun pack. 3.30pm. Details 01229 820000. www.theforumbarrow.co.uk

92 FEBRUARY 2015

20 ORTON. Ian Sherwood, award-winning Canadian musician and songwriter mixes catchy melodies and heart-breaking stories with intricate guitar loops, saxophones and pop, rock and jazz grooves to create an energetic stage show. 7.30pm, Orton Market Hall Market Street, Orton, Penrith CA10 3RL. £9/£5 child/£20 family. Details 01539 624732. www.highlightsnorth.co.uk 22 KENDAL. Castle Green Hotel. Wedding Open Day. 1pm–3pm. Details 01539 797004. www.castlegreen.co.uk 22 ARNSIDE. Compagnie T-d’U – All the Things You Said You Never Said… One couple, four actors and a performance exploring two versions of reality. All the Things… is a thoughtful and beautiful piece of physical theatre that brings together an international cast. 7.30pm, Arnside Educational Institution, Church Hill, Arnside, Carnforth LA5 0DF. £8/£5

child/£21 family. Details 01524 762 254. www.highlightsnorth.co.uk 24 WINDERMERE. Jetty at Brockhole, the Lake District Visitor Centre. Conservation Conversation. Meet one of Windermere Jetty’s Conservation team who will tell you about the processes behind the delicate conservation of the international boat collection. www.lakelandarts.org.uk 26 to March 1. KESWICK Film Festival. 30 of the best of UK and International films.

Workshops, guests and a possible appearance by patron of the Festival John Hurt. Films are at three venues, the beautiful Theatre by the Lake, the 100 year old Alhambra Cinema and the great IMAX screen at Rheged. www.keswickfilmfestival.org 26 BARDSEA. Malt Kiln Hall. Ulverston Jazz Appreciation Society will play a fascinating diversity of styles. 7pm. £2, refreshments included. Details 01524 8533335. www.ulverstonjazz.co.uk 27 KENDAL. Farmer’s Market.

9.30am–3.30pm. Details 01539 735891. www.madeincumbria.co.uk 27 MELMERBY Heritage Survival Band – eight-piece music powerhouse Heritage Survival Band play joyful, compelling, upbeat music inspired by their Zimbabwean roots. 7.30pm, Melmerby Village Hall, Church Rd, Melmerby, Penrith CA10 1HE. £10/£5 child. Details 017688 81 291.

27 ULVERSTON. The New Budapest Café Orchestra – powerful and driving folkbased music from the Balkans and Eastern Europe, inspired by the music of European gypsies and evoking vivid images of Budapest café life and gypsy camp fires.

8pm, Water Yeat Village Hall, Ulverston, Cumbria LA12 8DJ. £10/£5 child. Details 07776 300700. www.highlightsnorth.co.uk 28 BRAMPTON. The New Budapest Café Orchestra. 7.30pm, Heads Nook Village

Hall Brampton, Cumbria CA8 9AE. £8/£4 child. Details 01228 561147. www.highlightsnorth.co.uk 28 to 1 March. PENRITH. Dalemain. The World’s Original Marmalade Awards. Over 200 competition marmalades to taste plus food fair, cookery demonstrations, marmalade making, Paddington Bear book readings, Llama treks, juggling jester, face painting. www.dalemainmarmaladeawards.co.uk LOOKING AHEAD MARCH 7–8 KENDAL. Festival of Food & Drink. www.kendalfestivaloffood.co.uk APRIL 4 LOWTHER CASTLE. Born Survivor.The Ultimate Military Obstacle Course. www.born-survivor.com MAY 14–17 KESWICK. Mountain Festival. A must-do event of the year, with a huge programme of activities, world-class speakers, sporting events, camping and live music in the evening, there is something for every adventurer. www.keswickmountainfestival.co.uk 29–31. CARK IN CARTMEL. Holker Hall & Gardens. Garden Festival. www.holkerfestival.co.uk JUNE 14 KENDAL. Westmorland County Showground. Elton John and his band will visit as part of his European tour. Show will feature iconic hits and classic album tracks. www.westmorlandshow.co.uk All dates, details, times, contacts etc. are given in good faith and believed to be correct at the time of going to press, but it is always advisable to check beforehand in case circumstances have changed.

FEBRUARY 2015 93

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IN MY VIEW

TERRY FLETCHER

Close to my charts

A

bsence, according to the old saying, makes the heart grow fonder. Having spent large chunks of the last two winters absent researching a walking guide to Spain I can only agree with that sentiment. And the thing of which I have grown almost immeasurably fonder over those sometimes frustrating weeks and months is the Ordnance Survey and in particular its wonderful Outdoor Leisure maps.

When I started walking and climbing many years ago we were still content to plot our way using the old one-inchto-a-mile set though, granted, my eyes were considerably better in those days.

Today I’m much happier with what my pre-metric brain still chooses to call the two-and-a-half-inch maps. But what they both have in common is that they are models of consistency and accuracy.

Though I still always carry a map when I go out on the Lakeland fells I have to confess that I rarely look at it because the paths and tops are such familiar old friends – and if the clag is down and I won’t be able to see where I am going, then I find something more agreeable to do. But at home I can sit

98 FEBRUARY 2015

and look at them for hours, plotting routes and reliving days thanks to their perfect representation and artistry.

However, when I venture further afield I rely on the diligence of the OS to keep me on track and it never lets me down. That’s not to say I never manage to get myself lost but, when I do, it is always through my own inattention or carelessness, not theirs.

The simple fact is that, like most other British walkers, I suspect, I have hitherto taken the comforting certainties of the OS completely for granted. I know I can trust the map in my hand to be right and that things will be where the OS says they will be. By contrast, on my travels I have found places changing names from one map to another, sometimes popping up in completely different spots or even disappearing altogether.

I suppose my complacent confidence in the OS is a compliment of sorts but it has taken the infuriating ambiguities of another country’s more whimsical cartography to make me really appreciate it. Our OS maps are a wonderful and often underappreciated National Treasure. n