A Quick Reminder: Looking back through the archives of The Keswick Reminder from around this week 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago.
20 years ago
Peter says ‘farewell’ to the Skiddaw
Local regulars and thousands of visitors to Keswick’s Skiddaw Hotel will have to get used to the absence of a familiar face from this weekend. Peter Ivison, the hotel’s daytime bar supervisor and self confessed “jack of all trades” is retiring after 16 years spent working for three different owners.
Peter has been a well known personality at the Skiddaw, a favourite watering hole for many local people who pop in for coffee and the “crack” after a morning’s shopping in the town. And thousands of visitors, some from the other side of the world, come back each year and expect to be served by Peter in his own particular style.
Hotel manager John Miller admitted: “We will miss him and so will the customers. Peter has his own unique character. A lot of people return year after year to see him.”
Workington born and bred, Peter’s first job was with Goss’s old fashioned grocery shop at Hagg Hill.
Later he went to work for J. and J. Graham at their shops in Penrith and Keswick and remembers going round the farms in the district collecting grocery orders. “We were always fed and watered on our travels,” he said. “You didn’t want anything to eat by the time you got home at night – you had been eating all day. You had to have a good long crack with them first and then get the order.”
He worked for Grahams for 15 years before he came to the Skiddaw Hotel, first working for the late Geoff Kitchen and later for Doug Atkinson before Kit and Charles Graves took over the hotel.
“I fancied a change and I have been here ever since,” said Peter. “I could write a book about my experiences, but people would immediately know who I was talking about from the descriptions. Visitors have been coming here for years and always come to the Skiddaw for a coffee and a crack. Some locals are in here every morning for their coffee. Others come regularly on the same day once a week. I can tell what people are going to order when they come through the door – they haven’t got to ask.”
Among his customers have been a number of local celebrities like Oscar winning writer and actor Colin Welland who used to live at Threlkeld and was a regular at that time.
30 years ago
Parish clerk retires
It was the end of an era for Borrowdale Parish Council at its last meeting with the retirement of the clerk, Bill Hind, after 40 years’ service.
Bill is a member of an old Borrowdale family and a spokesman for the Parish Council says he was, in many ways, the perfect Parish Council Clerk, although probably many residents of the valley were unaware of his value. Bill has a deep love of Borrowdale and a great knowledge of its history and geography. He would read through countless lengthy official documents, pick out the few relevant sentences, and explain them in clear English to his fellow councillors. Undeterred by the power of the Planning Board and similar bodies, he would put the Council’s views bluntly and clearly.
Keeping it in the family!
Although Bill Hind has retired after forty years as Clerk of Borrowdale Parish Council, the post of Clerk remains in the family.
Bill’s great-niece, Vanessa Metcalf, has been appointed to succeed him. Vanessa, who was born and brought up in Grange in Borrowdale, was educated at Keswick School.
Vanessa won’t have to look far to find someone to give help and advice whenever she needs it!
Artist battles back
Only four months after having an operation for cancer, Keswick artist Kenneth Smith has been helped by his friends to put on an exhibition of his work.
Kenneth Smith is a retired arts and crafts teacher and he was unable to exhibit in the Keswick Society of Arts’ exhibition at the Congregational Hall last month. His solo exhibition was also held at the Congregational Hall last week and he was able to make use of some of the screens the Society had already put up.
His exhibition was attended by visitors from many parts of the world who were staying in the area, including some from New Zealand and America. He said: “A number of friends have rallied round since my operation and they have helped me to put on the exhibition. To hear visitors expressing appreciation of my work was a big psychological uplift.”
40 years ago
Hurry up, or station site may go, say planning board
“Contingency possibilities” are to be looked at by the Planning Board in case the necessary finance is not forthcoming for schemes already being considered for redevelopment of Keswick Station.
This was agreed at the quarterly Board meeting on Tuesday on the recommendation of the Planning and Policy Committee, who were concerned at the slow progress of the three current schemes – for a new theatre, a leisure pool and housing.
To speed things up and cover themselves for the future, the Board decided that a planning application for the housing proposals be submitted as soon as practicable, either by the Planning Board, or jointly by the two housing associations involved; that authority be given to commence the preparation of a development brief for submission to the next meeting of the Planning and Policy Committee; that a select list of developers with experience in the leisure field be drawn up in consultation with the Cumbria Tourist Board; and that Keswick Town Council and the Friends of the Century Theatre be informed the other proposals might be investigated after the end of December 1983.
Presentation to Bassenthwaite vicar
Some three hundred parishioners of the combined benefice of Bassenthwaite, Isel and Setmurthy gathered in the ballroom of the Castle Inn last Wednesday evening to express their gratitude to the Revd. William George who is retiring as vicar of Bassenthwaite after twenty-seven years, and as vicar of Isel and Setmurthy after eleven years of the combining of the parishes.
Mr. and Mrs. George were escorted to the dais by a churchwarden from each parish and the churchwarden of Isel, Mr. Donald Killingworth, welcomed them and gave the apologies of Mrs. Austin-Leigh of Isel Hall, the Patron of the living of the United Benefice, who was unable to attend. Mr. Killingworth, and the churchwarden of Setmurthy, Mr. George Wise, thanked Mr. George for his service to the parishes, and Mr. Wise introduced the “elder statesman” of the parishes, octogenarian Mr. Harry Holme, churchwarden of Bassenthwaite, to make the presentation to Mr. George.
In his speech Mr. Holm remembered that during the ceremony of Induction of the Revd. George in Bassenthwaite Church the church clock suddenly refused to stop chiming. “It kept going on and on, and I had to climb up the clock chamber and keep it quiet for the remainder of the service,” he recollected. At that time, Mr. Holme was the village policeman and as they both went about their respective duties in the village he and the vicar became firm friends.
“I found him to be a very kind-hearted, friendly man, ready to go to the assistance of anyone in trouble, especially if he thought they were the under-dog,” said Mr Holme. But, he said, the vicar’s volatile Welsh temperament sometimes boiled over and even friends could be at the receiving end, and he recalled: “I remember one Sunday morning, during the sermon, I was not listening as I should and pulled out my old Ingersoll pocket watch and began to wind it up. The sound could be heard at the far end of the church, and this was just too much. The vicar stopped, looked across at his church clerk, and in a very admonishing voice said: ‘Mr. Holme, I am going to finish this sermon whether you like it or not’.”
50 years ago
Golden Weddings
Two veteran Keswick couples, Mr. and Mrs. “Syd” Richardson, Bell Close, and Mr. and Mrs.
Victor Bantock, Southey Street, recently celebrated their golden wedding anniversaries,
Mr. and Mrs. Bantock were married in London on September 27th, 1923, and Mr. and Mrs. Richardson in Haverigg on October 1st. Both couples celebrated their anniversaries with parties for families and friends in local hotels, and Mr. and Mrs. Bantock also gave a tea for members of the Keswick Handicapped Persons Club, of which they are both members, on Thursday afternoon.
Mr. Richardson, who is a Keswickian by birth and was a joiner in the town, was in business on his own account and later worked for the Keswick Division of Cumberland County Council for thirty-one years until he retired ten years ago. His wife is a native of Haverigg and they met when she came to Keswick to work.
Mr. Bantock is a native of Walthamstowe and his wife of Workington, but they met in Burnley while Mr, Bantock was working as a commercial traveller and his wife was employed at a military hospital. After living at a number of different places in the country, they moved to Keswick in 1954 for reasons of Mr. Bantock’s health and for nearly twenty-five years Mrs. Bantock ran a guest house, Mr. Bantock, until he retired, worked at the pencil mill.
Wedding: Lightowler – Ewart
Mr. Stephen John Lightowler, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Lightowler of Tower Cottages, Portinscale, and Miss Barbara Irene Ewart, daughter of Mrs. I. Ewart of 26, Wordsworth Street, Keswick, were married at St. John’s Church on September 22nd. The vicar, the Rev, V. M. Spencer Ellis officiated, and the organist was Mr. Galer.
Given in marriage by her brother-in-law, Mr. K. G. Newton, the bride wore an Empire style dress in white crepe with bodice and sleeves trimmed with lace. Her long veil was held in place with a Tudor headdress, and she carried a bouquet of red roses and white carnations.
She was attended by her sisters, Mrs. Hazel P. Newton and Mrs. Jill C. Charlton, her cousin, Miss Valerie A. Tyson, and the bridegroom’s cousin, Miss Ann Thompson. They wore full-length dresses in pink and white broderie anglaise, with pink flowers in their hair.
Mr. David Sharp was the best man, and Messrs. M. Charlton and P. Woodend were the groomsmen.
On leaving the church the bride was presented with a lucky horseshoe by Miss Ann Thompson, and with a silver boot by her nephew, Master Jonathan Newton.
The bride’s mother wore a navy and white suit with matching accessories, and the groom’s mother chose a dress in orchid pink with beige accessories.
The reception was held at the Skiddaw Hotel, and the honeymoon was spent touring Scotland.
Mr. Lightowler is employed by Mr. Edwin Stanly, Joiner, and his wife is on the staff of the Keswick branch of Lloyds Bank. Among the many presents they received was one from Keswick Cub Pack “B.” Both the bride and groom have taken a keen and active interest in the scout movement for several years and Mrs. Lightowler is the leader of the Cub Pack “B.”
Mr. Lightowler and his brother-in-law, Mr. K. G. Newton, both former Keswick Scout leaders, have come to the rescue of the Keswick Troop and offered their services again as leaders to save the Troop from being disbanded owing to the lack of leaders.
