Towns

Wordsworth’s Birthplace, Cockermouth

August 9, 2011

This afternoon in the Cockermouth sunshine the confluence of the Cocker and the Derwent looked tranquil. On 19th November 2009 it was a very different picture. Record volumes of rainwater poured down the two rivers from the Lake District mountains and inundated the centre of this historic town. Parts of the town that day were [...]

Read more →

Kirkby Lonsdale and Ruskin’s View

August 1, 2011

It was a sunny Saturday a few weeks ago when we set off to drive from the Eden Valley down to Skipton and beyond. We hadn’t gone more than thirty miles or so when my wife said, “Let’s stop in Kirkby Lonsdale and walk down to Ruskin’s view of the River Lune”. Kirkby Lonsdale is [...]

Read more →

Keswick, Cockermouth and the Northern Lakes

August 4, 2009

My time in the Lake District has been very limited so far this year but I did get three days there last week, the primary reason for the visit being to visit elderly relatives. In addition to an overnight in Workington I managed to spend two nights in one of the sleeping ‘pods’ of a [...]

Read more →

The Past in Old Photos

February 18, 2009

Recently (early 2009) I travelled up to the Lake District in the north of England to visit an elderly maiden aunt.  I say, “elderly,” but that’s not really an adequate expression.  Approaching a hundred and two years old she still has a lively interest in the present-day doings of her large brood of nephews and [...]

Read more →

Four seriously damp but totally delightful days among the English Lakes

August 11, 2008

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 [...]

Read more →

Developments at Waterhead

July 8, 2008

The redevelopment of Waterhead, Ambleside, was bound to be controversial. Reconciliation of the many inevitably conflicting interests are difficult enough in an ordinary town or village but when it’s in a national park, and especially when it’s by Windermere, you can guarantee a good debate. The Westmorland Gazette a few days ago published an article [...]

Read more →

Keswick used to have a railway station

June 19, 2008

What is now the Keswick Country House Hotel was originally built by the company that in 1865 launched the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway. As their new railway line into the northern Lake District replaced the previous three-hour (minimum!) journey from the Penrith mainline station by horse-drawn coach, the tourist trade expanded rapidly. A new [...]

Read more →