The upper reaches of the Borrowdale Valley are preparing to leap into the 21st century with the installation of new fibre broadband infrastructure.
It is the culmination of a community project made possible by the Government’s Rural Broadband Grant scheme.
“While it has been driven by residents and local businesses, the project would not have been viable without enthusiastic support from holiday and second home owners,” said Michael Chapman, one of those behind the project.
“For the 25 properties in the scheme, commissioning and roll-out cannot come fast enough.
“It is hoped the new infrastructure will bring both social and economic benefits to properties in Seatoller, Thorneythwaite, Glaramara and Mountain View.”
Work has been carried out by Openreach and civil engineers Battersby which Mr Chapman says have been efficient, easy to deal with and have shown a determination to make the scheme a success.
Mr Chapman says that for local businesses the new system may prove transformational in an area that does not receive a terrestrial TV signal and has virtually no mobile phone network coverage.
He said the existing copper-based telephone cabling has become less and less reliable in recent years with connectivity speeds glacially slow and often dropping to levels that make many internet-based functions virtually impossible.
“Given the location inside the Lake District National Park and the necessity to lay new cabling across farmland and along road kerbsides, great care was taken to minimise the inevitable disruption,” said Mr Chapman.
“The representatives of the scheme have expressed their gratitude to local farmers and the National Trust for their patience and understanding.
“They were also delighted by the support and encouragement received from the parish council and Trudy Harrison, the local MP,” he said.
“Borrowdale has been inhabited by humans for at least 6,000 years, we can only speculate what previous residents would have made of this leap into the exciting possibilities of fibre broadband.”
