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
Royal visit to Calvert Trust
The Calvert Trust Adventure Centre at Keswick has recently refurbished its facilities at Old Windebrowe on the outskirts of the town and welcomed The Princess Royal to officially open the riding stable and indoor and outdoor schools on Monday.
Princess Anne, who is an accomplished horsewoman, — a former Olympic rider and ex-Badminton Horse Trials winner — saw the full extent of the £400,000 refurbishment and how the Calvert Trust Centre, which opened its doors to visitors in Keswick in 1978, provides riding opportunities for thousands of people with disabilities each year. The majority of the funding for the refurbishment came from the Sport England Lottery Fund although the Trust supporters had to raise about £100,000 themselves.
Centre director John Crosbie said the Princess, who previously visited the Calvert Trust twenty years ago, had expressed her admiration of the work they were doing over a wide spectrum of outdoor activities including riding, sailing, canoeing and climbing.
Mr Crosbie said: “It has been a wonderful day for all the staff, volunteers and riders. Knowing the Princess was due to come and open the facilities provided us with a great motivation to get all the work done in time so that she would see the place looking as we always wanted it to look.”
Pork pies win trophy
Last week the Keswick Reminder reported on an article from The Guardian newspaper in which Mike Clark of Michael’s Home Fare and Butchery had been recognised for his Premier League pork pies.
An update on this story has revealed that Mike has received a cup, presented to him by the Pork Pie Appreciation Society annual awards at the Old Bridge Inn, Ripponden, West Yorkshire, which he attended with his son Stephen who works alongside him in Keswick.
Mike was awarded the trophy when his entry in the annual awards was judged to be worthy of a top four finish – one of the judges was none less than TV chef Brian Turner, a Yorkshireman who knows good northern food when he tastes it! This magnificent trophy now takes pride of place among his selection of local dishes and pies.
He said: “We were thrilled when we received a phone call to say we were one of the winners, particularly in our first year, and that someone was coming to present us with a cup.”
However, Nike, who thought the cup would be the size of an egg cup, got a big shock when it arrived in the shop, as it looked “bigger than the FA Cup”.
Mike’s pork pies are made to a top secret recipe given to him by his friend Peter Myers – who has a shop, the world-famous ‘Myers of Keswick’, in Greenwich Village, New York – which he had handed down to him by his father Tommy Myers.
30 years ago
Bank manager retires
Mike Bulman, who has been the branch manager of Barclays Bank, Keswick, for the past eleven years, is to retire from the Bank early next month after completing almost forty years service.
Mike joined Martins Bank in October 1954 in Carlisle and after serving at various branches in the Carlisle area he moved in 1962 to the Martins head office in Liverpool, where he worked in various head office departments. In 1969, at the time of the merger of Barclays and Martins Banks, he moved to a new area office which was set up in Preston as part of the management team.
In 1971 he became assistant manager at Lancaster and two years later he was appointed branch manager at Great Harwood, near Blackburn, before coming to Keswick in March 1983.
The new manager of the Keswick branch will be Mr. Leslie Lake, who is currently the branch manager of the bank’s Workington Office.
On retirement Mr Bulman hopes to enjoy his leisure time by playing golf, gardening and travelling abroad. He will continue with some of his local interests where he has been Treasurer of Keswick Agricultural Society, Keswick Rotary, and the Herdwick Sheepbreeders Association, and served on other local committees. His wife, Betty, will also continue with her local interests and they will continue to live in Millbeck.
40 years ago
Keswick brothers featured in Brockhole exhibition
A literary and photographic “hat trick” of a unique kind took place at the National Park Centre, Brockhole on Wednesday.
A Leeds doctor and enthusiastic collector has generously loaned Brockhole a collection of postcards from the Abraham brothers of Keswick which are richly evocative of the life and landscape of the Lake District during the 101 years in which the Abraham family photographic business flourished in Keswick.
The unveiling of the exhibition co-incided with a private viewing of “Vintage Impression,” a series of framed Abraham studies produced from original negatives to the highest standards by a new company formed in Ambleside.
Since the Abraham shop in Lake Road, Keswick, closed in 1967, prints had not been available to the general public. Many of the negatives were snapped up at an auction sale about seven years ago and the company are guaranteeing the authenticity of the prints and making them available to a wider public.
To complete the hat trick of events, the day marked the republication of Keswick author Alan Hankinson’s “The First Tigers,” an illustrated story of the early days of climbing. The book was first published in 1972 by Dents, but it has been out of print for nearly seven years. It has been re-issued by Melbecks Books of Bassenthwaite with the author’s later thoughts and reflections.
Mr. Hankinson said: “It was a happy co-incidence that the launching of the book came on the same day as the two events commemorating the Abrahams brothers.”
He said it was particularly pleasant to have three direct descendents of the brothers present at Brockhole – Mrs. Enid Wilson of Keswick, daughter of George Abraham; Miss Mary Abraham, Keswick, and Dr. Ashley Abraham, Cockermouth, daughter and son of Ashley Abraham.
Mr. Hankinson has earlier links with the Abraham story for in 1975 he wrote the book “Camera on the Crags” which gave a detailed account of their lives and a portfolio of their spectacular photography on the crags.
George and Ashley Abraham started climbing about 1890 and teamed up with a leading “tiger” of the day, Owen Glynne Jones, and rarely ventured out on the mountains without their camera and plate glass negatives.
“Best in the world” award for former Keswickian
Last month Robin Burgess, eldest son of a Keswick lady who now lives in Australia, won an international advertising award.
Robin works for the McCann-Erickson Advertising company in Sydney, and he and fellow member of the company, David Mead, designed the Coca-Cola advertisement with the huge rolling can of coke – an advertisement which beat a field of some five thousand entries to win the best English language sixty-second television commercial in the annual International Broadcasting Awards in Hollywood.
The award was presented by Cathy Lee Crosby, and the winning advertisement, which cost well over a hundred thousand dollars, was written, designed, filmed, directed and produced by Australians.
Robin’s mother, formerly Betha Sewell of Manor Park, Keswick, and her husband, George Burgess, lived for some years in the Keswick area before emigrating to Australia. Their home is in Adelaide, but Robin lives and works in Sydney. Robin went to school in Keswick before taken a course at Carlisle Art College, and he worked in Lagos and in South Africa before going to Australia.
New Bassenthwaite vicar takes over
The Revd. Rex Whitta has been inducted as Vicar of Bassenthwaite, Isel and Setmurthy by the Bishop of Penrith and has already made a popular impression on his new parishioners.
Mr. Whitta comes to Bassenthwaite from Redcar on the North East coast and a number of representatives from his former church were present at the service of induction, which was attended by a total of nearly 200 people.
Mr. Whitta takes over at Bassenthwaite from the Revd. Bill George who was Vicar for 27 years before his retirement in 1983.
50 years ago
Youth Club
Recently completed alterations to bring the upper floor of the Youth Club at the Old Mill into use were shown to a large gathering of parents and invited representatives of a number of organisations in the town when the Club was officially re-opened by Carlisle United captain Bill Green.
He was introduced to the audience by the chairman of the Management Committee, Mr. W. M. Walker, and after a dedication by Canon F. H. Marshall, the history of the youth club was outlined by a member of the committee, Mr. N. H. Wake, starting from the original gatherings of young people in the Albion Assembly Rooms, inspired fourteen years ago by Mr. Walker.
Mr. Wake described how the old pencil mill was bought in 1966 and how with help from the Urban District Council, local organisations and tradesmen and the enthusiasm of the youngsters in raising £1,500 in sponsored walks, the ground floor was opened at a cost of £6,400.
“Miss Blencathra” Final
At the well attended final of the “Miss Blencathra” series of beauty competitions run by the Blencathra Hunt, Miss Alison Ratcliffe (19), Millfield Gardens, won this year’s title on Friday night at Braithwaite Institute. Miss Ratcliffe, a hairdresser, was awarded a sash, a rose bowl and a cash prize.
Mr. W. N. Airey was M.C., and the judges were Mr. and Mrs. A. Curry, Braithwaite, and Mrs. Pamela Howie who was staying in the village.
The Blencathra Band provided music for dancing.
