Industries

To Protect? Or To Preserve? (Opinion Piece)

September 7, 2011

There are wild places, described by poets, painted by artists and loved by country walkers which must be protected for future generations to enjoy. I suspect that most readers of Around-England will have no difficulty in agreeing with that statement. I fear, however, that this post may lose me some friends as I consider the […]

Copper Mines at Coniston

July 20, 2011

For many centuries the presence of copper in the Lake District mountain rocks above Coniston Water provided a livelihood for people in the area. Now Coniston coppermines are mostly visited by walkers and mine explorers (scroll down for video). Looking at the area today it is not easy to imagine a time (much of it […]

What to do in Keswick … Indoors.

July 19, 2011

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 […]

The National Coal Mining Museum

February 22, 2011

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 […]

Coniston Old Man

February 15, 2011

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 […]

UK Forest Sell-Off

January 27, 2011

Today the British government’s Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, unveiled her proposed plans for selling considerable amounts of state-owned forest land or, as it turns out, selling long-term leases. In the run-up to this announcement there has been a considerable volume of speculation as to what would be involved, with wild guesses in all directions often […]

Another News and Views Miscellany

January 25, 2011

Looking at the variety of “Lake District and North” topics about which I’ve “tweeted” on Twitter recently a few have triggered thoughts too long to express in 140 characters. So here’s another opinion piece. Elm Replanting We’ll start in central Lancashire. The avenue of elms at Riverside Walk in Miller Park, Preston had been there […]

Another Lake District & Cumbria news trawl

January 11, 2011

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. […]

The Ruskin Museum, Coniston

December 28, 2009

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 […]

Coniston Coppermines

November 23, 2009

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 […]

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