Looking back through the archives of The Keswick Reminder from around this week 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago.
20 years ago
Award for Michael Nixon
Mike Nixon, the local man who helped found Keswick Mountain Rescue Team in 1952 and was its Leader until 1994, was awarded the MBE for his services to mountain rescue in 1983. He received the Mountain Rescue Council’s Distinguished Service Award last weekend at Plas y Brenin in Wales in recognition of his half century of service.
Mike is one of the dozens of dedicated climbers who give their time, expertise, stamina and courage to help fellow fell walkers when they have accidents. A quiet but competent man, who is modest about his achievements, he is said to have been on more mountain rescues that any other man in Britain, and he is only the fourth Keswick member of Mountain Rescue to receive the Distinguished Service Award — the others were the Fisher twins, George and Dick, and Colonel Horace “Rusty” Westmorland.
Keswick Mountain Rescue Team was formed after an incident on Great Gable in April 1946 when a well known climber, Wilfrid Noyce, suffered a fractured femur on Tophet Wall. That summer an appeal was placed in this newspaper for volunteers to form a mountain rescue team and 34 people came forward to volunteer for what was originally known as Borrowdale MRT. By 1951 the name had changed to Keswick MRT.
Mike Nixon is still one of the Keswick MRT’s regular attenders at call-outs — and he’s approaching his 75th birthday! He considers he is incredibly lucky to keep fit and avoid serious accidents, although he admits he’s had some ‘near squeaks’! His memories of rescue incidents throughout over fifty years would be a best-seller if they were put into a book.
Mike’s memories include what he describes as “one of the toughest“ rescues when, a few years ago, two youngsters were stuck on Skiddaw in winds so very strong that the rescuers were blown off their feet as they fought their way towards the exposed summit cairn where the two victims were trying to find shelter. Mike says the rescuers had to descend with the two lads like a rugby scrum, a few yards at a time in a huddle!
Mike and his wife, Val, are both keen walkers and climbers. A member of a Keswick family, Val has joined her husband on most of the Wainwright Lakeland fells and all the Scottish Munros. She, too, is a member of the Keswick Mountain Rescue Team and shares Mike’s enjoyment of the hills.
Everyone in Keswick will join The Keswick Reminder in congratulating Mike Nixon on his award, although he insists it is for “a team effort” and not only for him.
30 years ago
Cranston Horsburgh
His many friends and former business colleagues were saddened last week to hear of the death of Cranston Horsburgh at the age of 56. He died at his home Dunelm, Eleventrees, Keswick, after some months of indifferent health. He had been greatly affected by the sudden death of his second son, Grant, a leading local sportsman, in 1988.
Mr. Horsburgh went into the grocery trade on leaving Langholm Academy. He lived as a child in the village of Claygate near Canonbie, just across the Scottish border and his father was a grocer in the village. Cranston joined Pioneer, initially on a month’s trial, as an apprentice.
He did National Service, being discharged after an accident which led to the removal of a kneecap, and returned to work for Pioneer in Carlisle where he was a representative travelling around the area.
After he and his wife, Pat, were married they came to Keswick in 1957 where he managed Pioneer’s shop in Bank Street. Subsequently he bought the shop and started his own business, Four Seasons Foods, in which he worked long hours and was always ready to look at different opportunities and ideas. He was the first person in the North of England to start direct contact with Runges market near Paris and was always ahead of the field in the grocery trade with new products. The business developed, but Cranston remained in character an old fashioned grocer with the personal touch. Many staff have been with the firm for a great many years and Four Seasons has been kept as a family company with Cranston’s eldest son, Andrew, as directors. Grant was also a director before his death.
Four Seasons supply customers throughout Cumbria and North Lancashire and the South of Scotland, dealing through agents with whom they first had contact twenty years ago.
As the need for more space arose, Four Seasons moved to premises on Heads Road although Mr. Horsburgh had been instrumental, together with Mr. Stephen Hogarth of Greta Motor Body Works, in the setting up of the Southey Hill Trading Estate in the 1970s. Only last year Four Seasons again moved to more spacious premises, at Threlkeld.
Mr. Horsburgh, in his early days in Keswick, played football and badminton for Keswick and he was very well known in the town and the area, this being illustrated by an attendance of some 500 people at the funeral in Crosthwaite Church on Monday.
His son David said of him: “My father was proud of being a Scotsman and even prouder of being a Keswickian. He followed Scotland’s sporting associations, but he always took the opportunity to promote Keswick and the town, and its people were very special to him.”
Mr. Horsburgh is survived by his wife, Pat, sons David and Andrew, daughters-in-law Joanne and Claire, and three little grand-daughters.
Viscount Rochdale
Viscount Rochdale of Lingholm, who had a distinguished and varied career in industry and the army, died at his home on Monday.
Lord Rochdale was created viscount for his work with the cotton board. The title passes on to his son, St. John Kemp, who becomes the second Viscount Rochdale.
Lord Rochdale was awarded the O.B.E. in 1945 for his wartime services and was made Deputy Lieutenant for Cumberland in 1947.
40 years ago
Canon’s farewell meeting
People need to spend many years in the town, and work very hard on its behalf, before they are entitled to call themselves Keswickians. But after more than thirty years as Vicar of St. John’s Church, Canon Michael Spencer Ellis should qualify easily.
If any confirmation was required, it came in the form as the presentation by St. John’s School of a cartoon of the Vicar by local artist Billy Wilkinson, Billy, or “Wilk” as he is better known, has done expert characters of some of Keswick’s leading local characters. The cartoon was on display on Monday evening when Canon and Mrs. Spencer Ellis attended a crowded farewell meeting of parishioners and friends at Trinity School.
After Canon Ellis’s retirement from St. John’s, they are moving to a new home in Leicestershire.
Tributes were paid by churchwardens, Mr. Fred Cox and Mr. Ronnie Green. Mr. Green said St. John’s, built in 1838, had had nine Vicars and Canon and Mrs. Spencer Ellis had spent over thirty-three years in the parish.
Mr. Green felt sure that many people had much to thank them for. “His ministry at St. John’s has been excellent and many people are very grateful for this,” he said. Canon Spencer Ellis had been helpful to four generations of Mr. Green’s own family, and he was sure there must be similar stories in Keswick because he had worked hard and set very high examples for others to follow.
Mr. Green also paid tribute to Mrs. Spencer Ellis’ role in organisations such as the Mothers Union and Young Wives.
Canon Spencer Ellis said they appreciated the great many kindnesses and the fellowship shown since the news of their impending retirement.
Flowers were presented by Christine Newby, Ann Davies and Richard Burton, and two members of the St. John’s choir, Tina Scott and Ben Wilson, also made a presentation.
Canon Spencer Ellis’s successor is to be the present Rural Dean of Carlisle, Canon Richard Watson, who was born in Penrith and is Vicar of St. John the Baptist, Upperby, Carlisle.
Hotelier Mayor of Keswick
For the first time a hotelier has become Mayor of Keswick. Mr. Martin Jordan, of Highfield, The Heads, who is president of the Lake District Hotels and Caters’ Association, took office at the annual meeting of Keswick Town Council on Thursday night.
Mr. Jordan was proposed by his predecessor Mr. Sean Crawford, and seconded by Mr. George Hodgson, who spoke of his qualities of honesty and integrity. Although Mr. Jordan was not born in Keswick, Mr. Hodgson said he had lived in the town for a number of years and could truly call himself a Keswickian.
50 years ago
New Forest Trail
Through the joint endeavours of the Forestry Commission and Major J. H. F. Spedding of Mirehouse, a new public access providing in the region of five miles of forest trail and walks in Dodd Wood was officially opened at Dodd on Monday morning.
The facility is likely to be welcomed by both tourists and local people who will find a convenient car park by the old sawmill at the foot of Dodd, from which clearly marked, but not offendingly artificial, paths can be taken. Varying in one’s inclinations, the walks can be only a few hundred yards or in the region of three miles to the 1,600ft. summit of Dodd from which there are magnificent views out over Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite, as indeed there are from some of the intermediate points. A brochure outlining the history and features of the area is available at the starting point and this also includes a very useful panoramic picture naming all the hills which can be seen.
The previous week: When a prankster ‘with a fetish’ kept stealing garden gates in Keswick
