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.

Here’s a nice photograph of Coniston Old Man, behind the village of Coniston, that I came across on Wikimedia.

It all looks very pretty in the snow, but it’s worth remembering that not too long ago men would climb up, at all seasons of the year, to work in the Coniston coppermines. These mines were opened in the mid-1500s and continued to produce, with a few breaks as companies came and went, for almost 350 years. Click on the above link for more.

Hoard of Roman coins near Silloth. A man with a metal detector was on his way home after finding nothing that day when he diverted to check on a freshly ploughed field near Silloth.  He’s glad he did, as he found a hoard of Roman coins.  See the story as told by the Whitehaven News.

Beautiful, and potentially dangerous. The annual figures for 2010 from the Lake District Search and Mountain Rescue Association once again emphasise the fact that although incredibly beautiful the Lake District mountains can also be extremely dangerous. Anyone going up these slopes must take care, and go properly equipped. There were 28 fatalities last year, up from 19 in 2009.  BBC report.

Cumbrian Eden? No, I’m not organising another search for the biblical Garden of Eden.  This is about the redevelopment of the old Broughton Moor military arms dump.  One of the proposals is for something with similarities to the Eden Project in Cornwall.  Actually, though, I’m puzzled at the strength of opposition to cleaning up the area by a few years of opencast mining.  But then, it’s not in my backyard.

“The earth moved”. Staying with family in Kendal just before Christmas we decided to have an early night.  Suddenly, about eleven, everything started to shake.  Was the roaring noise caused by the past few days’ weight of snow all slipping off the roof in one fell swoop.  No.  It was an earthquake centred deep below Coniston.  A few days later, having retreated to the safety of the East Midlands, we heard of another, this time centred near Ripon in North Yorkshire.  So Cumbria felt two earthquakes within just over a week.  This is nothing unusual in some parts of the world (I remember Guatemala City shaking every few hours while I was there a few years ago) but it’s not a typical Lake District experience.

The copper mines around Coniston were worked from at least the middle of the 16th century and, with a number of breaks in production in between, up to end of the 19th when competition from high-grade ore imported from overseas killed this local Lake District industry.

Coniston Old Man, the mountain behind Coniston village, was a source of large amounts of copper ore. This ore was initially carried by pack horses to be processed at Keswick but from the 18th century onwards was transported by boat down Coniston Water and then carted by road to the coast.

Today the homes of generations of Coniston copper mine workers are mostly holiday cottages and the old mine workings are a tourist attraction, albeit mostly for those with enough energy to do some walking.

Anyone interested in old industries, or simply in the ways our forefathers earned their livelihood, or in the processes by which today’s Lake District landscape was shaped, will want to explore this aspect of Coniston’s past – either on the ground or in an armchair (see Coniston Copper Mines: A Field Guide by Eric G Holland).

Eric Holland’s much larger book, Coniston Copper: A History, gives a more extensive treatment of the subject. It is out of print but can still be found, albeit often quite expensive, at some book dealers either new or secondhand.

There is also a later blog post on the Coppermines at Coniston, expanding on this fascinating aspect of Lake District history.