Looking back through the archives of The Keswick Reminder from around this week 20, 30 and 40 years ago.
20 years ago
Skateboard proposals
At the Town Assembly last Thursday evening the chairman of the Charitable Trust, Councillor Sean Crawford, defended proposals for the installation of a new skateboard area in Fitz Park after a member of the public who attended the meeting complained that the siting of the skateboard facility, between the children’s play area and the cricket pavilion was not appropriate.
Mr Crawford said the young people in Keswick often complain they have nothing to do and a 180 name petition had been drawn up by youngsters from Keswick School to request a skateboard park. Through the Keswick Area Partnership a grant of £15,000 had been received from Cumbria County Council for the skateboard area and Mr Crawford said: “This is a park for everyone and it was felt the area near the children’s playground would be an appropriate place for a skateboard area. We agreed to install the skateboard park on the proviso a group of young people took responsibility for it. If it becomes a menace, it can be removed.
Watendlath record
Stan Edmondson, who runs the Watendlath Fishery reports that last Friday, 25 April, Egremont angler Steven Lobb, fishing from a boat, caught a rainbow trout weighing 20 lbs 6 ozs which beats the previous record 0f 19 lbs achieved by Workington angler Tony Harrop on 10 April.
Mr Lobb returned the fish to the water.
30 years ago
Keswick Mountain Rescue Team – need for new headquarters
The urgent need for new headquarters for Keswick Mountain Rescue Team to meet the expected improvements in standards of training, provision of equipment and leadership which will be required by the EC and national government has been highlighted this week by the Chairman, Mick Guy.
The Keswick Team last year was as busy as the Langdale/Ambleside MRT, although Mr. Guy says this may come as a surprise as “it has not been our style to carry a high profile in the press, and consequently many of our rescues go unreported.”
He points out that, today, the expectations of both the public and the government are that emergency services operating in the voluntary sector are expected to be every bit as professional and up to date as their paid counterparts in the Ambulance or Fire Services.
At present the Keswick Mountain Rescue Team is running a highly professional operation from what effectively is a set of four near derelict domestic garages. Mr Guy says: “Our lease on the premises is on a year by year basis. Space for indoor training for example in First Aid — is limited to a 12 x 12 foot space. We have no separate control room, which would be of great benefit when organising teams on large incidents, such as the search for the missing light aircraft on Skiddaw last year. There is no storage for spare equipment, and nowhere to dry wet gear. Keswick may be jointly the busiest team, but it operates out of the smallest, and the least viable, base in the whole of the Lake District.”
Marshalling blunder cost Keswick runner the race
A marshalling blunder cost Keswick athlete Duncan Frampton victory in the Penrith Carnival Beacon race last weekend.
Duncan expected to take the plaudits of the crowd as he sprinted home a clear winner — until he spotted two runners emerging ahead of him, from a different direction. It turned out that Duncan had run three-quarters of a mile further than anyone else because officials had changed the route.
Organiser Ron Kenyon admitted that a marshal who should have been in position to guide the runners was not in place when Frampton went past in the lead.
Duncan was defending the trophy he won in 1992 and he said: “I ran like a man possessed to win again. I just couldn’t believe it when they said three runners had already finished. I followed last year’s course exactly — but they said they had altered it.”
He added: “I could not believe it. I led all the way and never saw another person until I finished. I was the moral winner, whichever way it was run. When the results come out they will show that I ran an extra five minutes because a marshal who was supposed to be there was not there.”
Duncan pointed out that he could have run somewhere else that day, but decided to defend his trophy at Penrith. “It was just badly organised and nobody had the decency to apologise for the blunder which cost me victory. It’s a big let down, but there is nothing I can do about it now.”
40 years ago
A standard for Cumberland Sausage
Following a meeting of food producers and processors Mr. George Hill, Chairman of the Cumbria NFU Publicity Committee, invites all sausage producers to discuss their opinions on the proposed introduction of a co-operative quality standard scheme principally aimed at the promotion and marketing of a quality “Cumberland Sausage” product.
“The theory behind the scheme,” said Mr. Hill, “is that by promoting Cumbrian food as a quality product, through an effective marketing programme, it should be possible to increase sales of Cumbrian produce, not only by increasing sales at existing outlets, but also by breaking through into new markets such as the supermarket chains. This could be possible if producers come to some kind of co-operative arrangement.
“As Cumberland Sausage is an established quality product in the minds of many housewives, this product was thought to be ideal for the launching of such a scheme. Once this scheme gets underway then further products, which must be of necessary predetermined standard, could also be introduced to the scheme.”
Amenities
At their meeting last Thursday, the Town Council decided to request the Department of the Environment to include Keswick in the West Cumbria Enterprise Zone in order to qualify for the sort of finance which will get major local projects off the ground.
“In no way can we rely in the future on our mountains and trees,” said Mr. George Hodgson. “We have to give people who come here something to do and we have to have ready access to large volumes of finance.”
There was, he said, a feeling in West Cumbria that the town could look after itself, but the future of tourism in Keswick, and the proposed leisure pool and theatre, made it essential that they should have this sort of finance.
There was criticism of remarks made at the recent Town Assembly that Keswick people did not want a major pool complex.
Mr. Eric Impey said: “It was a thoughtless remark and I hope it is not indicative of what might be happening in this Council Chamber next year.”
He did not think Keswick wanted a paddling pool. “The town wants a proper star attraction and we should explore all possible ways of financing it,” he said.
50 years ago
“Top Town” Television Quiz
Where were the Greek gods believed to live?
In soccer who won last season’s first division title?
Which composer wrote more than a hundred symphonies?
Which pop group had the recent chart success “Blockbuster”?
Who was Poet Laureate in 1843?*
These are the kind of questions which the Keswick team will be trying to solve next Monday evening when they meet Jedburgh and Newton Stewart for a place in the semi-final of Border Television’s quiz “Top Town” (May 7th at 6-10p.m.). This quiz is divided into sections, and representing Keswick in the schools’ section (under 14 years) are Bridget Chaterley and Matthew Curtis; in the sports section, Ross Brewster and Terence Green; in the music section, Dr. Gerald Phillips and Peter Salmon; and on general knowledge, Leslie Manning. The quiz is being run on similar lines to the inter-town television quiz programme “Cock o’ the Border” produced in 1966. This time twenty-seven Border towns have been invited to take place.
*Answers: – (1) Mount Olympus; (2) Derby County; (3) Haydn; (4) The “Sweet”; (5) William Wordsworth.
Letters to the Editor
Dear Sir, — I note from the Press that at the last Keswick Urban Council meeting a question was asked as to why the “Welcome to Keswick” sign has not yet been erected. I would suggest that the erection of such a sign is not only a useless and unnecessary exercise but a waste of public funds.
Many of the visitors who would read the sign are not only undesirable but most unwelcome in the town.
Yours faithfully,
An Easter Sufferer.
