Last weekend we paid an unscheduled visit to Barnard Castle. Our normal pattern when driving over the A66 between Cumbria and County Durham has been to fly past at 60 to 70 miles per hour on the way to or from somewhere or other. This time, however, a glance at the fuel gauge said quite unmistakably that we needed to pay a visit to Barnard Castle, at the very least to fill the diesel tank.

Bridge over the Tees at Barnard Castle

I must confess that before moving back north to live in the Eden Valley my only mental impression of Barnard Castle (the town) was of a pharmaceuticals factory. But there is far more to it than that. The centuries old town centre is well worth exploration and Barnard Castle (the castle) is full of history. It was founded by Bernard de Balliol in the 12th century. This was a time when control of the North of England shifted backwards and forwards between English and Scottish kings. Although descended from the Norman invaders of England, de Balliol appears to have given allegiance to King David of Scotland at least for a time. The castle eventually passed into the ownership of Richard III but after his death it was neglected and fell into ruins. Now the border lands are much more peaceful and the castle is in the care of English Heritage.

The Bowes Museum

The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle

On the outskirts of the town, to the east, is the Bowes Museum. This splendid building, in the style of an elaborate French chateau, looks as though it should have been the residence of an exceptionally wealthy local family. Actually it was built specifically as a museum by John Bowes, a wealthy 19th century aristocratic (albeit illegitimate) art collector and his wife Josephine.

The building was finished only after both their deaths, and now is managed by a charitable trust, housing nationally and internationally important collections of European fine and decorative arts from the Middle Ages onwards as well as hosting many major visiting exhibitions. We ventured only as far as the gates on this visit, but we’ll be back.

Barnard Castle again

Before we left I stopped to take another photograph of the castle. From the western side one gets a better impression of the sheer scale of the ancient fortress.

This is somewhere we simply must revisit and explore more fully, and when I consider that we were little more than half an hour from home (even if over the Pennines) I ask myself why we’ve neglected it until now.

This morning, looking in any direction from my home in the Eden Valley it seemed clear (although actually it’s ‘misty’ and unclear in a literal sense) that whether to the north (The North Pennines), to the west (The Lake District) or to the south-east (The Yorkshire Dales) it was quite probable that people were going to get rained upon today.

The Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes, Wensleydale

Here’s the first, of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s “Dales Countryside Museum” at Hawes – telling “the story of the people and landscape of the Yorkshire Dales past and present … school days, home life, leisure time, religion, transport, communication and tourism, farming, local crafts and industries”. The museum shares the building with the Hawes National Park Centre, and is wheelchair friendly. Now, where next? Yes, there’s still lots more to do in Hawes.

The Wensleydale Creamery, Hawes, The Yorkshire Dales

With your mind thoroughly informed about the Yorkshire Dales from your visit to the Dales Countryside Museum you can now turn to thinking about your body and visit the Wensleydale Creamery. I suggest that, in common with the other 200,000 or so visitors that come here every year, you forget slimming for an hour or so and enjoy the creamery’s visitor centre with its museum and observation area – then, of course, there’s the shop with its Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese and lots of other goodies!

Enjoy your Wensleydale “Day in the Damp” – and don’t forget the Wensleydale heritage railway with its station right next to the Dales Countryside Museum.

Keswick is a marvellous centre for Lake District outdoor pursuits, but also there are things to do and to see under the cover of a roof.

Today, following a morning at the Keswick Convention, I walked past three very interesting places (well, more really, but I’ll mention three) all very close to the centre of town. First is the Motor Museum. To write about it in detail might seem a little fraudulent on my part as I’ve never actually been inside, but especially if you’re accompanied by children (old or young!) can you resist the slogan “Cars of the Stars“?

No more than two or three minutes walk away, at the foot of Otley Road, is the Keswick Mining Museum. I’ve walked past it without visiting for years, and what a mistake! Ian Tyler has assembled an amazing record of mining and quarrying in Cumbria – graphite, copper, lead, coal, slate, and that’s just a sample. The building looks small, but don’t be deceived. There’s a wealth of mind-stretching interest inside those walls. Oh, and the books; what an array of mining publications old and new. I’ve vowed to return and to write more extensively about this staggering collection which so reflects its owner’s passion for his subject.

And so back to the car. I’d parked by the Pencil Museum. I’ve been in there before and didn’t take time to look again today, but this museum has a great reputation and should be on anyone’s itinerary when visiting the area.

So there we are. Just three of the interesting places in Keswick for those days when outside activity might be less than appealing to many of us.

Driving down the M1 south of Leeds I’ve often noticed the signs for the National Coal Mining Museum but until today had never taken the time to investigate. My wife and I were driving home from North Yorkshire and had nothing else planned so thought we’d take a look.  We were not disappointed.

The main museum, by the A642 midway between Wakefield and Huddersfield, is on the site of Caphouse Colliery and also includes neighbouring Hope Pit. The first surprise on entering the modern entrance hall was that when we asked for a ticket there was no request for payment.  Museum entrance is free. This, however, in no sense should be taken to imply a cheap and amateurish presentation. The Gallery areas include modern multimedia displays and provide a comprehensive picture of English coal mining and of the mining communities and their lifestyles.

Especially emphasised in one area is the awful cost in human life that from time to time was involved. Listening to the recorded news reports of the 1951 Easington Colliery disaster in County Durham I could not help recalling a dark day in March 1962 when the whole town of Burnley was shocked as Hapton Valley Pit exploded.  I was studying in the local college that day and knew that a friend of mine was a miner there; he is alive today only because he’d exchanged shifts with a colleague.

Not only are there the indoor displays at ground level but we were told that we could also have an underground tour. The next one was not for a couple of hours so we decided to leave it for another visit, and certainly a second visit is called for.  We sampled the services of the excellent café, and as usual spent money in the gift shop, then continued on our way home highly satisfied with our detour.

If you’re anywhere in the area of Wakefield, Huddersfield or Barnsley don’t miss a visit to the National Coal Mining Museum.

The Ruskin Museum has developed considerably over the years that I have known it. Nowadays it covers a wide range of local themes and deals extensively with the lives of two great men, from very different spheres of activity, associated with Coniston in the English Lake District.

John Ruskin, the eminent nineteenth century literary and artistic figure, lived for many years at Brantwood across Coniston Water from the village. Ruskin was extremely influential in his support of traditional craft industries. He is strongly associated with the small lace industry of the area, which is one of the museum’s themes. John Ruskin died in 1900 and is buried in the village churchyard (I put photographs of the Ruskin monument in an earlier post).

Donald Campbell was very different. He was a mid-twentieth century speed enthusiast, breaking world records many times both on land and water. Coniston was host to many of his water-speed record attempts, and it was here that he died when his boat Bluebird II somersalted at high speed. He is buried in the new area of the village graveyard.

The achievements of both men are extensively portrayed in the Ruskin Museum, tucked in behind the buildings of Yewdale Road. Other major themes are the ancient local industries of copper mining and slate quarrying, as well as the distinctive stone walls of the Lake District field and fells.

During summer months the Ruskin Museum is open from 10:00am to 5:30pm, but in the winter may have shorter hours so do check before travelling far.

I hesitated before starting to write this. After all, why should anyone else be interested in a record of how my wife and I spent a few days in the Lake District. We’d driven north to look after grandchildren for a few days, then there was a gap before I had to be north again for two preaching engagements, so rather than return home between the two we took our tent to the Crake Valley, close to where the River Crake flows out from the foot of Coniston Water (picture below, taken in the rain).

Why should this interest anyone else? Well, it strikes me that an important point about these days is that they were wet. Yes, more than damp … wet!

This  is not intended to put off those considering a visit to the Lakes, but rather to demonstrate that rainy weather does not have to destroy an holiday in the English Lake District. It can, in fact, add interest as one searches for alternatives to the obvious; and in the Lake District one doesn’t have to search far.

1. Go prepared. Check out in advance what indoor places of interest are to be found in the area. Research historical events and famous people connected with the area, and see whether there are museums or historic houses associated with them. Ask which writers and artists have worked around here, are they commemorated in some way, and are their works on display? Why not use our “English Lakes” site to help with your planning?
2. However well you think you know the area, take every opportunity to scavenge the racks of brochures that are in just about every hotel foyer, restaurant, coffee shop, trinkets store, petrol filling station, etc, etc, etc.. You’ll almost certainly be surprised to find something that you didn’t imagine would be around here, or which you vaguely knew about but had forgotten.
3. Don’t let a bit of rain turn you totally away from the idea of an outdoor holiday. Use the gaps in the heavy rain to take short walks. If you’re visiting the Lakes I assume you’ll have waterproofs with you.  Put them on and go out.

Day One:  Coniston Water, Millom and Haverigg

Wednesday: We were camping (the tent attaches to the back of our estate car – more on that in a later post) at a small secluded site at Blawith, between Torver and Greenodd.  We’d chosen this because, although as a child in the 1950s I’d often visited my uncle’s farm just up the road between Lowick and Gawthwaite, we’d never before explored the area in any detail.

The morning was damp but not actually raining, so skirting the private land over which there appears to be a right of way only to use the Coniston passenger launch jetty, we found our way down to a point at the water’s edge where there is a canoe launching point.  Even in the damp air with the mist over the hills it was a  beautiful, peaceful spot and until we reached the road on our return walk by a different path we never saw a single soul.

For the afternoon we chose to visit a town and headed west to Millom, home of the late Norman Nicholson, possibly the most outstanding of 20th-century “Lakes Poets”.  It would have been nice to spend some time in the local museum, which I’m told is very informative on the history of the area – this grey town between the heights of Black Combe and the Duddon Estuary which for generations was home to a major steel-producing plant based on the local availability of haematite ore, all now gone. This, however, will have to wait for another trip as we decided to head further west to Haverigg, a small coastal village.

If you’re lover of windswept views of sand and sea then this outer point of the Duddon estuary, looking south across to Askam and Barrow with Walney Island wrapped around the tip of the Furness Peninsula, must be for you.  As we reached the coast the rain had stopped.  We strolled onto the first few sand dunes (an area of dune said to be the largest in England, and recognised now as a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its extensive natural habitats).  I’d like to spend more time exploring this area.  For today, though, we sat for a while on a seat overlooking the estuary, enjoying the view, then drank an excellent cup of tea at the beach cafe. Across from the cafe is an information board about the Duddon Estuary – one of the best, in the sense of being genuinely informative and interestingly put together, that I’ve seen anywhere. (I don’t expect you to be able to read the text on the photo!)

Day Two:  Barrow-in-Furness

Thursday: Still raining.  And disaster struck.  It’s not easy to lock the keys inside our car; it’s designed to make it difficult, but I succeeded.  “Don’t worry,” said my wife.  “I’ve got my keys in my bag.”  “Where’s your bag?”  “Oh! … It’s in the car!”  That occupied the morning, but the Green Flag emergency call-out man did a splendid job, and by lunch-time we were mobile.  We decided to go west again, this time on the south side of the Duddon, so headed out past Greenodd. Ulverston and Dalton to Barrow.

Now what can I say of my birthplace?  My parents left just after World War II, and took me with them. I was only three years old so I never knew Barrow well, but over the years came to think of it as a rather dull, dusty, declining and dispirited town with little going for it apart from the fluctuating fortunes of the shipbuilding industry.  Today, however, I saw a brighter Barrow.  The town is picking itself up.  As we walked through the streets, even on a dull day, there seemed to be more energy about the place.

I’m cheered at that.  But actually, our focus now was not to be on the present but on Barrow’s past.  There is a excellent museum in one of the old docks; three floors of exhibits on the history of this remarkable town and its growth from almost nothing to a major industrial centre based on iron, ships and railways within little more than thirty years in the nineteenth century.  It was indeed a miracle town of the industrial revolution.  For me it has a special interest as one of my four sets of great-grandparents arrived in the area from Liverpool during the 1870s, but even without a personal connection The Dock Museum can provide a fascinating afternoon out, not least for its scale models of ships launched from the shipyards here – and there’s a nice coffee shop. The Barrow Dock Museum is something of which the town can rightfully be proud.  (I wonder whether it is fully appreciated locally).

There’s much more to Barrow for the visitor. The lover of history can investigate the magnificent ruins of Furness Abbey, the ancient Cistercian monastery from which the powerful abbots of long ago strongly influenced both the religious and economic life of this region, and beyond.   The nature lover can spend fascinating hours at the reserves on Walney Island, and a drive back to Ulverston along the “coast road” on the south of the peninsula is beautiful, but for now we had to return to base camp and chose to go through Askam (briefly to revive childhood memories of walks along the sand to Dunnerholme with the dogs) and Broughton.

Day Three:  Hawkshead and Coniston

Friday. I wish we’d known the significance of the day as we chose to visit the Beatrix Potter properties of the National Trust at Hawkshead and Near Sawrey … but as described in an earlier post on this blog we found them both closed.  (Warning!  Don’t try to visit Beatrix Potter on a Friday.  She’s “not at home” to visitors on that day).  However, after eating our sandwiches in the Hill Top car park, we drove back and wandered around Hawkshead under umbrellas, found a good bookshop and visited the old Grammar School (pictured above), founded in 1585 and attended by William Wordsworth from 1779-1787.

Next stop was Coniston village.  I wanted some photographs of the Ruskin monument in the churchyard, and obligingly the rain stopped for a while.  On previous visits I’d not noticed that W. G. Collingwood (at different stages of his life Ruskin’s student, assistant, secretary, travelling companion, colleague and biographer – as well as artist, archeologist, antiquarian and author in his own right) is buried in the adjacent plot.  Then to complete a trio of gravestone photos I walked to the modern burial ground a few hundred yards away to see the grave of Donald Campbell who was killed in 1967 when his Bluebird speedboat crashed on Coniston Water during an attempt on the world water speed record.

I’ve visited the Ruskin Museum in Coniston several times in the past, and decided this time to give it a miss.  If you’ve never been then you should include this on your itinerary, but I satisfied myself with a photograph of the temporary entrance as in the very near future a new extension is to be opened housing the restored Bluebird, remains of which were recovered a few years ago along with Donald Cambell’s body (at last laid to rest in 2001) after eventually being found in the depths of the lake.  I hope to return when the new exhibits are open.

The weather by now was blustery but dry, so after a cup of tea in a very nice cafe a walk to the lake was just what was needed.  More photographs, then on the way back we stopped off to look at an exhibition of two Lakeland photographers.  Rather unusually they were housed in an upstairs gallery over  the Fudge Shop on a small retail development, strategically positioned so that the footpath is routed through it, between the village and the lake.  I was very impressed with the work of both Trevor Brown and David Briggs.

Day Four:  Windermere and Near Sawrey

Saturday: Overnight it had poured down, but our trusty tent kept us snug and dry. We took it down between showers, and drove to Lakeside, at the foot of Windermere.

The plan had been to visit the freshwater aquarium there but we changed out minds and left it for another visit. It look as though this could provide a very interesting hour or two on a rainy day, or even to retreat from the sun when it’s too hot, but I simply cannot understand how the National Park planning authorities allowed it to be built in a style more suited to a small town supermarket. Why on earth isn’t it at least faced in local slate to make it fit in with the general environment?

The weather now improved and we had a very good, intermittently sunny day mostly around Windermere. Firstly Fell Foot Park, owned by the National Trust and providing access to a beautiful stretch of the lake shore. Given my interest in the local rivers it allowed me photograph the point at which the River Leven flows out from the lake to commence its short coastward journey.

We then moved on toward the northern end of the lake, to Brockhole. headquarters of the Lake District National Park Authority. The house, gardens and a stretch of lake shoreline are open to the public free of charge (apart from a modest car park fee). The house includes an information centre, Lake District exhibitions, a very nice restaurant, a bookshop and a film theatre. This is a “must-see” for any visitor to this part of the Lake District. Many special events are held at Brockhole on a wide variety of Lakeland themes. Views from the garden are little short of spectacular.

We also fitted in a visit to Hill Top, the Beatrix Potter farmhouse, compensating from our failed attempt the previous day, and then it was time to hit the motorway. We’d had an excellent few days. The weather didn’t allow the intended photographic exploration of the Crake Valley; that will have to wait for another time; but we demonstrated clearly that damp days don’t have to be a spoiled holiday.