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
Alan Hully
His many friends and business associates in Keswick and Penrith heard with sadness on Wednesday of the death of Alan Hully, manager of the North Lakes Property office of Penrith Farmers & Kidd’s. Mr Hully had suffered from cancer for the past fifteen months but continued to run the estate agency in St John’s Street, and even organised and introduced a large and enjoyable concert at the Rheged Centre in Penrith only a few weeks ago to raise funds for the work of the Oncology Unit at the Cumberland Infirmary.
Alan joined Penrith Farmers’ & Kidd’s in 1950 straight from school, starting as a junior in the livestock department at the Mart, then situated in Penrith itself long before the firm moved to the present site in Skirsgill.
He was always an enthusiastic supporter of every enterprise with which he was associated, bringing with him an aura of warmth and good fellowship. He was a very loyal supporter of Rotary, being a member of the Keswick Rotary Club and progressing to the important role of District Governor. A few years ago he led a group of young business people on a Rotary visit to India, with great success.
In Keswick he will probably be best remembered for the successful and entertaining furniture sales he conducted at Braithwaite Institute in which he often saw a familiar face in the audience and called upon them to enter a bid! He spent two periods with PF&K, latterly returning to the Keswick office where his cheerful and extraordinarily knowledgeable charm meant a great deal to all his colleagues and to dozens of grateful clients.
Alan was brought up at Greystoke where he sang in the choir and was altar boy in the church. In Keswick he was a loyal member of St John’s Church and gave his support to the services as a reader and intercessor, and to the fundraising events.
George Wilson, the Chairman of PF&K and two other directors, Richard Morris and Kyle Blue, issued the following statement on Thursday: “We shall miss Alan’s warmth, his loyal friendship and his wise counsel for a very long time to come. He will be missed especially in the Keswick office where his unrivalled knowledge of people and property in the entire area from Cockermouth through to Penrith and beyond, were unstintingly at the service of the company, his colleagues and his clients.
“We shall not see his like again and a very wide network of local and national societies and all his friends in the business of professional estate agency management in Cumberland and Westmorland will be equally sad at his passing.”
30 years ago
Christmas window competition
Keswick’s show windows were judged last week in the annual Christmas Window competition arranged by the Chamber of Trade to coincide with the Victorian Fayre.
Mr. Mike Phillips, an officer of Allerdale Borough Council, and Mrs. Phillips spent an afternoon in the town centre studying the various windows, all of which reflected the thought and effort which had gone into their dressing. Mr. Phillips considered all aspects of the competition including how well space was used to the greatest effort.
First place in the Retail section was awarded to Heart of the Country in St. John’s Street, with Ye Olde Friars, Market Place, second. The Primrose Patch was highly commended.
In the Business Section the first place went to the Moot Hall Information Centre, with NatWest Bank second.
40 years ago
Resident protest at Crosthwaite plans
Residents of the Crosthwaite Road area of Keswick plan to bombard the Lake District Planning Board with protests about a proposed refuse disposal site.
Following a meeting last night, attended by some thirty people, Mr. Phil Kemp said: “We will be writing to the Board making a collective objection and people will also be sending individual letters.”
Residents oppose both the plan for a rubbish compactor and skip behind houses at Parkholme and an alternative plan for a water board depot, and Mr. Kemp who acted as chairman of the meeting said: “We feel this sort of development would be completely wrong at one of the main approaches to a tourist town. We are deeply concerned about the generation of extra traffic problems of access and, in the case of the refuse disposal, the possible health hazard to nearby homes and hospital.”
The imminent closure of the Town Cass refuse tip near Derwentwater has prompted moves to find a new site for a rubbish compactor, which would be the first of its kind in Cumbria. Mr Kemp said it was the general feeling that the National Trust should be encouraged to provide a small area on the reclaimed tip near the lake for the compactor.
The locals feel that something should be done with the Planning Board-owned land at Crosthwaite to turn it into a nature conservation area.
Keswick shop to close
One of Keswick’s oldest-established family shops will be closing in the New Year.
The forthcoming closure of J. and J. Graham’s grocery shop near the Market Square co-incides with the retirement of the long serving manager Mr. Wilf Pridmore.
The closure will not affect the company’s main shop in Penrith, where they have been in business since 1793.
The company chairman, Mr. J. N. Savage, told the “Reminder”: “The retirement of Mr. Pridmore has brought the matter to a head and the decision on closure of grocery business has been consequent on several factors including the unusual position of the premises, the very difficult trading conditions in the grocery business today and the difficulty of finding alternative premises.”
The company has been looking around for alternative premises for some years because they feel the site of their town centre shop, virtually on an island between the road leading into Market Square and Lake Road, poses access problems for delivery.
Mr. Savage said: “There is no real scope for change with these premises.”
50 years ago
J. M. Branthwaite, K.P.M.
The first policeman of constable’s rank to be awarded the King’s Police Medal, Mr. John Muse (“Jack”) Branthwaite, died at his home, “Pendower,” Portinscale, on Sunday morning.
The eldest of nine children, he was born on 25th March, 1892, at Dearham, and left school at the age of thirteen to become a farm labourer, having been “hired” at Cockermouth Fair.
A year later he left farm work to go on to work at Brayton Demain No.4 Pit where his father was deputy manager, and he worked in the mines until 1914 when he joined the Metropolitan Police.
His police service was broken at the latter part of the 1914-18 war by two years in the Grenadier Guards, when he returned to the Metropolitan Police in 1919 he was instrumental in the formation of the Police Federation. As founder secretary and later as chairman of the Federation he worked tirelessly during the next ten years to improve the pay and conditions of members of the police force in England and Wales.
Refusing promotion, he felt he could best serve the members of the Federation as constable, and when, in 1929, his efforts were recognised by the award of the Police Medal, he was the first serving constable ever to have received this honour.
He was married in 1924 to Miss Elizabeth Hutchineson of Arkleby, near Aspatria.
Ill-health forced his premature retirement in 1929, when he and his family moved back to Cumberland, to Plumbland House near Aspatria, where he ran a poultry farm and market garden.
In 1946 Mr. and Mrs. Branthwaite came to live at Portinscale, where, in addition to his many interests (including the Portinscale Residents’ Association), he was a lay reader in the Crosthwaite parish for some years.
Since his retirement from the police, Mr. Branthwaite has been invited to speak at many of the annual conferences of the Police Federation, and he was a guest of honour at the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation on October 30th 1969 at the Guildhall, at a reception given by the Lord Mayor of London.
Mr. Branthwaite is survived by his wife, son John, who lives in Keswick, his daughter Mrs. Margaret Walters of Thurston, Bury St. Edmunds, five grandchildren, and by three sisters.
