Google just now served me a link to an LDNPA document, dated today, discussing alternatives for the Park authority’s position on the extension of national park boundaries, and in particular the proposal from Natural England that substantial parts of Westmorland should be incorporated into the Yorkshire Dales National park. I see that the Park authority meeting was to be held today, so maybe I’d be better leaving any comment until I see their decision on how to respond to this issue. On second thoughts I’ll comment briefly before discovering the outcome.

The Flag of Westmorland

Admittedly the more remote areas often feel ignored and neglected by their existing authorites (as well as by the tourist board) but if this is the reality then surely a more sensible response would be for central government to give the district and county councils a kick up the rear rather than imposing another layer of unelected bureaucracy on the local populace.

Protect Westmorland From Further Dismemberment

Having said that, if expansion has to go ahead I find it almost beyond belief that extensive areas of Westmorland should be placed under the control of an authority based on the other side of the Pennine watershed in Yorkshire. Westmorland is an ancient historic entity. It lost much of its identity by its administrative county being merged into Cumbria but its further dismemberment surely must be resisted.

If the Orton Fells, with areas stretching almost to Kirkby Stephen and Appleby-in-Westmorland, are to be in any national park they should be kept with the western parts of the old county in the Lake District. Historic identity matters.

Today’s title reflects just some of the eclectic content below, with ancient axe heads, charcoal burning, water-powered fulling mills, train crashes, a Roman helmet, today’s forests, map reading skills and even an international treaty.

Last week I wrote about books on Lake District history and finished up with some thoughts on its future. Today I start with history but finish in the present.

History of Cumbria

Firstly, the other day I came across a very interesting blog produced by historian, Diane McIlmoyle. What I saw first was an article on an ancient treaty between Scots and English kings, almost a century and a half before the 1066 Norman conquest. The Treaty of Eamont Bridge in 927CE: the first English/Scottish union?. It certainly added to my knowledge of important things that have happened in Cumbria, and as I scanned other articles on the blog I made a note to go back to read more.

I’m personally not overthrilled with the faerie and witchcraft articles but the many more interesting pieces include The Crosby Garret Roman Helmet (Where is it?), Langdale axes: Cumbria’s prehistoric export (European business 6,000 years ago) and Train Disasters at Aisgill (three in less than a century on the Settle-Carlisle line at the top of the Mallerstang valley close to the source of the River Eden).

Great Langdale in October
By SLR Jester, from Flickr.com - Click above for his Photostream

Windermere’s Industrial History

Having mentioned a really ancient Lakeland export industry I must say it was good also to read recently of a project to explore Windermere’s old industries. From charcoal burning to fulling mills the industrial archaeology of the area around England’s longest lake gives much room for further investigation. The Windermere Reflections project is described more fully on Cumbria Crack.

Lake District Forests

Now returning to the present I’m probably going to upset some of my readers yet again. I see that the Westmorland Gazette (which I normally think of as a reliable newspaper) is again publishing campaign news on forestry. I suppose they have to do so. After all it is happening, and as a local newspaper they should not be biased in what they include/exclude. Also, at least they put words in quotations to show that it was someone else who said that “Public forests are ‘under threat again’”

Save Lakeland’s Forests and Friends of the Lake District say swingeing cuts are undermining the Forestry Commission and threatening the future of the woodlands that hundreds of thousands of people fought to preserve.
[Full article at Westmorland Gazette]

When we look further we discover the exaggerated nature of this campaign. It turns out that as part of the struggle to get our national finances back into some semblance of order there is to be a reduction of 3 in the number of the Forestry Commission’s wildlife rangers in the whole of the Northern Region, from 16 at present. “Swingeing cuts”? Hardly!

I was never convinced of the “threat” to the forests last year either. Who owns the forests is not the main point. The key consideration is under what terms they are managed. That campaign of public hysteria was substantially built on selective quotation and exaggeration, and it looks like they’re starting again.

Of course it would be nice to keep levels of Forestry Commission staffing as they are. Maybe they could even usefully do with more. I don’t know. But what I do know is that we have to get our national finances in order if we’re not going to become another Greece. (Oh, am I also exaggerating for effect? Yes, probably, so I’ve crossed out the last bit.)

Don’t Replace Your Lake District Map with a SatNav

Finally for today, map reading! I’ve written about this before on this blog (At the sign of the “Map and Compass”), and also on The Lake District in Books. It was good to see the importance of map reading skills emphasised in a Daily Telegraph article recently.

Experts have warned that traditional map-reading skills are now on the decline, with sales of paper charts slumping. Mountain rescuers and national park wardens say that hikers are increasingly relying instead on electronic navigation devices. This means many are unable to find their way out of difficulty if their equipment fails or is not used correctly.
Full article at The Telegraph

As has been pointed out many times in many places, including repeatedly on this and associated blogs, digital aids are no replacement for a printed map and the knowledge of how to use it. Satellite navigation devices can be very useful a lot of the time, but they can often lose their signal in remote and mountainous areas. Walkers, please note!

I was writing a piece on my “Lake District in Books” site when it occurred to me how much material I’d written there over recent months referring to the history of the region. This post is substantially a survey of things I’ve written there in the past, brought together for readers of the Around-England blog. It also gives me an opening at the end of the piece to be opinionated once again on the subject of development and over-conservation.

I recently posted an item on the other site about a great book on the landscape history of Northwest England: England’s Landscape: The North West by Angus Winchester. This one covers a wide area, taking in Cumbria, Lancashire and further afield. Other books mentioned in the past have been more focused on Cumbria, and especially the Lake District.

The English Lakes – A History by Ian Thompson is an excellent survey, in just short of 350 pages, of the background to the Lake District as we have it today. In my opinion this title should be on the bookshelf of everyone who loves Lakeland.

The next title is much narrower in scope. A Lakeland Valley Through Time, produced by The Staveley and District History Society, concentrates on the history of Staveley, Kentmere and Ings. It is a good example of how a local group can produce interesting and well-presented history that is sharply focused on a small group of villages.

Historic Farmhouses in and around Westmorland narrowed the view down in a different way to individual farmhouses. This is not easy to find now in good condition but R. W. Brunskill’s Traditional Buildings of Cumbria contains much of similar interest, if not the detail on individual Westmorland properties. The National Trust has played a major role in the conservation of the Lake District landscape, both natural and built, and continues to do so. Last year I wrote a brief item on two histories of the National Trust in the Lake District.

Turning to industry and economics the Lake District, along with surrounding areas of Cumbria, has an extensive railway history – even if most of it has now gone. The history of rail in the lake counties by David Joy is a must for anyone looking for a comprehensive overview. Individual lines also have their own histories. A more academic work, The Lake Counties from 1830 to the Mid-twentieth Century: A Study in Regional Change, by Marshall and Walton, reviews a century of economic and social change in the region, which is of course the context in which its transportation history developed. The last two chapters are especially valuable on the growth of the tourist trade and of environmental conservation.

All these histories are stories of change over many centuries, leading to what we see today – both above and below ground. Think for a moment of the generations of men working in the Coniston coppermines, deep underground in what are now cavers’ tunnels (but only for those competent to handle the hazards!). Those miners left what at the time were “scars” on the landscape but now they are part of the precious historic character of the region.

Uploaded to YouTube by EdvinDeadman in February 2009

That is a modern film but here below is a 1926 film of slate quarrying, from the Honister Slate Mine which today is once again producing slate products to go around the world in addition to being one of the region’s important tourist attractions – in spite of its opponents! (honisterslatemine YouTube.com)

Well so far we’ve had copper and slate. What about other industrial products of this region? There was the “lead” in pencils – which, of course, is not lead at all but graphite. This was mined in one of the most beautiful valley of Lakeland, Borrowdale down which runs the young river Derwent on its way to Derwentwater. Maybe another day I’ll put up a video of pencil manufacturing in Keswick but for now we’ll move slightly outside the boundaries of the Lake District National Park to Nenthead, near Alston, on the western edge of the North Pennine moors where there was extensive lead mining and today there is a visitor centre. (Uploaded to YouTube, December 2010, by North Pennines Archaeology Limited northpennarch).

That’s Lake District History, But What Of Its Future?”

A subject dear to my heart is Lake District industrial archaeology. Too often the region is treated as though its landscape is totally “natural” and that it must therefore be preserved absolutely unaltered for future generations to enjoy. Forgotten are the generations of Cumbrian men and women who laboured on these mountains and fellsides to carve out livelihoods, to support their families as miners, quarrymen and farmers. In so doing they changed it for ever, and left us the beautiful and interesting place we have today. (See the book on the left).

The legacy of these workers of the past is admired, their derelict buildings are restored and promoted as visitor attractions, but in the twenty-first century (and here comes my provocative thought for the day) Cumbrians are now expected to have only minimal impact, and preferably none, on their surroundings apart from helping to restore it to an imagined romantic vision of past environmental glory. There are even calls to take sheep off the fells!

A study of our history should teach us that change is part of living. Seeking to put an idealised past into deep freeze risks bringing about the slow death of our local communities, then what will future historians have to write about apart from a large tourism facility expensively preserved in aspic for the admiration of visitors?

The Lake District and its surrounding areas are beautiful, but to remain so they must also continue as a genuinely lived-in, and therefore changing, landscape or in the long-term run a severe risk of decline, an unintended consequence of well-meaning preservation.

Related Posts:

To Protect? Or to Preserve?

Toward Environmental, Social and Economic Balance

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.

The Cockermouth Woolfest has been held annually since 2005. It takes place on a Friday and Saturday in June, and includes a great range of displays and activities relating to natural fibres, and especially wool. Spinning, dyeing, weaving, knitting and felting are just some of the craft themes covered by well over 100 stallholders.

Woolfest is organised by “The Wool Clip” which is a Cumbrian co-operative formed by a group of designers and woollen product crafts people in 2001. It’s members are joined by upwards of a hundred volunteers in organising and running the Woolfest event which has grown to attract more than 5000 visitors from many parts of the UK and also from overseas.

Cockermouth Woolfest highlights the importance of hill farming and the crafts associated with use of the fleece. Many of the old crafts are being sustained, revived and publicised by this means. There are also fleece sales, to which individual farmers can bring up to five fleeces each.

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust is actively involved in Woolfest. More than a dozen different breeds were present in 2011, including Wensleydales, Teeswaters, and of course that Cumbrian stalwart of the fells, the Herdwick.

This is an event at which experts come together, but it is also an excellent day out for anyone interested to learn about sheep, wool and associated crafts.

Put the 2012 Woolfest in your diary or on your kitchen calendar.

Cockermouth Woolfest 2012

Date and times: Friday 22 June 10am-6pm and Saturday 23 June 10am-5pm

Venue: Mitchell’s Lakeland Livestock Centre, Cockermouth, Cumbria CA13 0QQ.

Entrance: £6 per day. No concessions. Accompanied children free. Tickets at the door.

Loweswater – One of the less-visited lakes

Many people today choose to look after themselves on holiday rather than stay in an hotel. There is an extensive supply of self-catering accommodation in Cumbria. Lake District cottages for rent are to be found throughout the region and provide excellent bases from which to go out and explore this beautiful part of the country which consists of far more than the traditional tourist “honeypot” towns and major lakes. The West Cumbria coastal region and the Eden Valley are just two examples of areas of both interest and beauty to which the majority of Lake District visitors never travel.

A Self-Catering Lake District Holiday? – Why?

Why rent a cottage rather than pay for a hotel? For some it might be cost. Even if the accommodation is not much different in price, you can control eating costs more closely – far fewer expensive meals out – and that can make a big difference to the total outlay for a week away. Yes, there is the downside of having to do the cooking and the washing up, and some would prefer to stretch the wallet to have that done for them, but there are other points to consider. With a holiday cottage there is much greater flexibility, especially if you want to bring along your children or your dog. Click here for details of the example above, Coachman’s Cottage, Witherslack.

Family Friendly Cottages

If you have children with you on holiday a cottage gives the benefits of more space, greater flexibility of timings (no need to worry about restaurant opening/closing times), choice and style of food, and no worries about noise or dress code. Most cottages come with a washing machine, so laundry is not a big issue if it’s needed. There’s no trailing a gaggle of muddy youngsters through a spotless hotel foyer to reach your room. Yes, provided you leave the accommodation as you found it on arrival you’re under your own control and don’t have to worry. So click here to see details of family friendly lake district cottages

Dog-Friendly Lake District Cottages

Another notable feature of Cumbria is the number of pet-friendly cottages. Lake District walks along the rivers and over the fells give wonderful opportunities to enjoy the company of your dog. Certainly there are many dog friendly hotels, and for some people these will be the preference, but self-catering accommodation gives much greater flexibility with no need to worry about the impact of your dog on other guests. The following link will take you to information on pet-friendly accommodation (because pet-friendliness is not limited to dogs).

Luxury Lake District Cottages

If you’re looking for luxury cottages Lake District villages have them. Cumbrian cottages are available in many different types, including for people who want that extra degree of luxury. Whether you’re spending your days looking at museums and historic houses or energetically clambering up the hills and over the fells, to return to a soak in a hot tub or to lounge in a comfortable armchair can put a nice finishing touch to a glorious day … or a wet one!

As elsewhere, Lake District cottage rentals vary widely. In addition to quality which is often indicated by a star rating (from one to five) location is a significant factor. The time of year also makes a big difference. An August holiday in a well-appointed property convenient for major places of interest is going to cost more than basic accommodation intended primarily for walkers at a remote location away from the main Cumbrian holiday centres out of season. Click here or on the picture for details of Bay View, Ulverston, or at this link you can browse through more luxury cottages in the Lake District.

Cheap Cottages in Lake District and Nearby Locations

In these days of financial constraints you might be asking, “Are there any cheap cottages?”. Lake District towns and villages do, yes, have accommodation lower down the price range. “Cheap cottages“, though, should not in any sense be taken to imply “substandard”. It is simply that the properties may not have all the facilities and decor that you could expect from a higher priced cottage. In some cases they may also be a little further away from the major tourist centres.

More Examples of Lake District Holiday Cottages

The photograph here shows a cottage (Water’s Edge – single bedroom first-floor apartment) in the small hamlet of Garnett Bridge at the foot of the Longsleddale valley. Although only a few miles from Kendal you might as well be on a different planet. This is wonderful secluded countryside with splendid walking opportunities away from the busy streets of the tourist towns.

In marked contrast is this Keswick “cottage” (Ptarmigan House) with six bedrooms on three floors and close to the popular centre of one of the busiest Lake District towns by the shore of Derwentwater. This kind of self-catering accommodation is ideal for a large or extended family holiday. Keswick is very convenient for the Western areas of the Lake District (including Buttermere, Crummock Water and Loweswater), for the West Cumbria coast and for Ullswater and the Eden Valley to the east.

There is tremedous variety in Lake District self-catering cottages. Short breaks can be booked at many of them as well as full weeks, although these will often be easier to find outside the peak season.

Renting a self-catering cottage implies the wish for a kitchen, and today’s holiday cottages are usually well-provided for in this respect. Most advertised cottage details include a photo of the kitchen. This example is at one known as “Milkmaid’s Parlour” at Cartmel near Grange-over-Sands, just outside the boundary of the National Park.

An Oft-Forgotten Aspect of Responsible Visiting

In closing we must mention a practical point about self-catering supplies, such as food and household incidentals. In some areas of Cumbria there is now a problem with the high proportion of holiday cottages. Lake District visitors tend to be concentrated into the middle of the year and local families who would be there all year round often cannot afford the inflated property prices. As a consequence local businesses close. On this site we frequently appeal to visitors renting Lake District cottages to please patronise the village shops and other local businesses rather than driving miles to a supermarket, or they may no longer be there on a later visit.

More Lake District Accommodation

For pages on other types of accommodation in the Lake District. Hotels, B&B, camping, already are or will shortly be covered in our Lake District Directory. Click here for Lake District Accommodation.

Our associated web site “The Lake District in Old Photos” is back live again on-line.

I’ll not bore you with the pains of these past few weeks except to say that if you own a web site and ever want to tranfer the domain registration from one registrar to another, be very careful.

I was transferring five domains from an American to a European registrar and they disappeared into space for a couple of weeks, or maybe they went for a swim in the Atlantic en route.

Anyway all is now back in order at “The Lake District in Old Photos”

Three more shots of the beautiful Eden Valley. Before reaching the centre of the town the River Eden passes Bongate (the place where in ancient times the ‘bondsmen’ used to live), down below the cliff where Appleby Castle stands proud. Here is a cold January midday shot of the river, reduced in level from what it was a few days earlier, flowing over the weir, frost still lying on the grass from the night before.

River Eden Reflections. That one was taken a few days ago. This next one just a few hours ago this afternoon, a little further upstream toward Ormside. I like the contrast between the flow and the stillness.

And finally, just to show that all was not dark and gloomy but actually bright under an almost cloudless sky, here is the parkland by the Eden banks close to where the second shot was taken. This shot was taken just slightly away from directly into the sun, hence the whiting out of the sky, but I think it does capture the sense of cold January mistiness.

For earlier Eden Valley shots see:

• The Eden in Autumn
• Horse Washing in the Eden at Appleby Gypsy Horse Fair

I hope these help to demonstrate further that the beauties of Cumbria are not limited to the Lake District National Park. Don’t miss the Eden Valley from your Cumbrian itinerary.

Pub signs have provided a way of navigating through the streets for many a century. Instructions such as “Turn left at the Eagle and Child” or “Bear right at the Dog and Duck” have been commonplace.

Yesterday I wrote on our Lake District in Books site a short piece about Ordnance Survey maps. The response has been encouraging with several people stressing the importance of map, compass and the skill to use them. These responses via Twitter and email have led me to write again today, this time on the Around-England blog.

So what has this to do with pub signs? Well it just occurred to me that maybe there should be a warning on footpath signs pointing to the hills with wording such as “Map and Compass – Got them?” Someone could maybe design this incorporating a skull. Far too many people venture onto the hills ill-equipped, risking not only their own lives but also the lives of of the brave volunteers in the mountain rescue teams who would come out if called to rescue them. (See “Another Mountain Rescue Statistic – You? Me?“).

Yes, I know, if it were done there’d be cries of “nanny state” treating us like children. But then, maybe more of us should stop behaving like children and adopt a grown-up attitude of respect toward the mountains and the fells. But no, it’s not a serious suggestion. It is, though, a serious call to whoever reads this.

The map is the first thing, but without a compass it can be difficult to use especially in poor visibility, and once the light starts to go a good handheld or head torch becomes essential too. These should be part of the kit for every walker, but so often are missed. Further up this page I included a graphic of Peter Hawkins’ guidebook, Navigation: Techniques and Skills for Walkers (Cicerone Mini-guide): Using Your Map and Compass. If you’re uncertain as to your navigation skill level please get this book and digest it before your next expedition.

As a little extra help I’m putting here two videos from the Ordnance Survey featuring Simon King, the first on “Know Your Compass”, and the second, “How to Use a Compass”.

OSMapping have an extended series of videos on YouTube to help further.

Today’s expedition south from our northern base is to Lincolnshire in the East Midlands. To be technically precise Burghley House is in Cambridgeshire, but it is so close to the ancient town of Stamford just across the county boundary that it is usually considered to be in Lincolnshire, and that is its postal address.

Burghley House is an outstanding legacy of William Cecil from the sixteenth century, standing in splendid parkland laid out by Capability Brown which provides the setting for the annual Burghley Horse Trials, a major event in the British Eventing calendar which had its 50th anniversary in 2011.

The house and parkland open to visitors, and even when the house itself is closed the park, and also the tea rooms, are often open. Lunch in the Orangery is to be highly recommended, or even a snack on the terrace. Check the Burghley House web site for details of opening times and for historical information going back to the first Elizabethan times. Owned and managed now by the Burghley House Preservation Trust it is still home to descendants of the 6th Marquess of Exeter.

Accommodation convenient for Burghley House

Hotels near Burghley and Stamford

More Guest House and Bed & Breakfast accommodation options (coming shortly)

Or possibly you would prefer an holiday cottage in the south Lincolnshire or north Cambridgeshire area.