In the past I’ve mentioned here a variety of energetic activities in the Lake District - running, walking and cycling.  On September 13th, however, there’s a new one.  It’s the “Great North Swim” - a mile in Windermere.  (No, I won’t call it “Lake” Windermere as in some of its publicity; there’s only one lake in the Lake District and that’s Bassenthwaite Lake!)

Anyway, whatever the water’s called, it’s going to be a cold wet experience in which around a thousand people are expected to participate - including some of Britain’s finest swimmers.

Several charities will be benefiting, including The British Red Cross and Marie Curie Cancer Care.

For more on this see Swimming in Windermere.

That’s all for now,

- David Murray -
England’s Lakes

My wife and I have just returned from another expedition to the English Lake District, this time to the southern lakes. We camped near the foot of Coniston Water with the intention of building up a better collection of photos of the Crake valley as well of the Coniston and Hawkshead area.

Well, things didn’t turn out quite as planned.  Several days and nights of frequent rain storms hampered the photography.  In spite of the damp, though, we had a great time and the limited number of good photos this time has the advantage of requiring another trip in the not too distant future.

Hill Top and Hawkshead - Beatrix Potter

On Friday we decided to have an indoor day and to visit the Beatrix Potter sites.  Why didn’t we take our National Trust handbook with us?  It would have told us that Hill Top is closed on Fridays.

I really don’t understand this.  Certainly the property has to be protected against too much visitor stress, and limitations on the number of visitors per day are fully justifiable, but closing the region’s leading attraction on a weekday during the height of the visitor season is beyond my comprehension.

Initially my frustration was personal, but of course as a member I ought to have checked my handbook.  However, a large proportion of visitors are not members and would never imagine that such an important site would be closed.  Sitting in the car eating an egg sandwich before driving back to Hawkshead I watched car after car arriving, unloading children.  They would walk cheerfully as far as the “Closed today” notice board only to return dejected, almost tearful, anticipation squashed.

“Never mind,” parents were probably saying, “there’s the Beatrix Potter gallery in Hawkshead.  We’ll go and see Peter Rabbit there.”  Hmm!  If I don’t fully understand the closure of the house, I certainly don’t understand at all the mentality of closing both of the Beatrix Potter locations on the same day of the week.  This is just incomprehensible.

We did eventually get to Hill Top the following day, and enjoyed it.  I am an admirer of the National Trust and its work, but do believe that it needs to give much more serious thought to its closure policy. at least during July and August, when so many children are being sent away disappointed from both places - not to mention the thousands of gallons of petrol being burned up each year on these fruitless trips along the country lanes; should this be added to the Trust’s carbon footprint?

The above photograph, taken last Saturday, shows the house as it is today, dressed in its summer greenery. This, however, is not as Beatrix Potter bought it. She added extensions to the original property. She was not a preservationist of the type that insists on keeping everything unchanged. She knew that one has to move with the needs of the times.

In this case, she wanted to install a farm manager so built the extension wing visible on the left of the photo to house him and his family (this part is not open to visitors). Internally, as well, she made changes. The sophisticated fire surround in the parlour was the first that I noticed; not at all typical of a small Lakeland farmhouse and apparently installed by Beatrix Potter after buying it at a local sale. She also added a room in which to hang some of her brother’s paintings. Preservation and progress were equal constituents of this phase of Hill Top’s development.

- David Murray -
England’s Lakes

Earlier today I was checking on the web for the date of this year’s Westmorland County Show when it came back to me that it was a silver cup won by my great-great-grandfather in September 1871 that first got me interested in the history of my family.

Actually, at the time I didn’t know that Richard Taylor, whose name is inscribed on the cup, was my direct ancestor. Neither was my mother, who had inherited it from an elderly relative, certain who he was. She asked me if I could find out. A bit of detective work including visits to the Kendal Library and the County Record Office (this was back in the 1970s) quickly solved the case. The “Rd. Taylor of New House” who was considered by the Westmorland and Kendal District Agricultural Society that year to have “the best general stock of store cattle” was my grandmother’s grandfather.

I can’t claim great knowledge of the show in more recent years. In fact, living at quite a distance from Westmorland, my visits to it have been few and far between. I am, however, reliably informed that Thursday, 11th September 2008 promises to be a great day out. It has been running since 1799, is one of England’s oldest agricultural shows, and now attracts up to 25,000 people. I’m going to try to make it this year.

In 1999 Roger Bingham wrote a fascinating 192-page history of the show under the title, From Fell and Field. A History of the Westmorland County Show 1799-1999 (Published by Cicerone, Milnthorpe; ISBN 1-85284-290-3). I bought mine when it first came out, but copies now seem to be getting to be few and far between (and often quite pricey). I checked today on Amazon and found a few available, so thought it worth putting up the link here. Click on the book picture for more details.

As for the show itself, don’t forget - 11th September 2008, at Lane Farm, Crooklands, Kendal; 8:00am until 5:30pm.

- David Murray -
England’s Lakes

This coming Sunday drivers had better be on the lookout for hundreds of cyclists if they’re planning to be on the Lakeland roads. The Fred Whitton Challenge involves 112 miles of hard riding over Lake District passes including Kirkstone, Honister, Newlands, Whinlatter, Hardknott and Wrynose. It’s organised for charity (The Dave Rayner Fund and MacMillan Cancer Relief) by the Lakes Road Club in memory of their former secretary Fred Whitton who died of cancer in 1999. From small beginnings that year with just sixty riders, in 2008 it is expected that a thousand cyclists will start from Coniston … and hopefully most will arrive back at Coniston later in the day. The fastest time, set last year, is just under 5 hours 46 minutes and no-one with even the slightest knowledge of the terrain could say that this is anything less than astonishing.

- David Murray -
England’s Lakes