Tributes from far and wide have been paid to a north Lakes village “legend” whose funeral takes place next Wednesday.
Marjorie Thoburn was born on July 24 1929 in Seldom Seen, Thornthwaite, in the house that she lived in all her life. She attended Braithwaite School until the age of 14 and then went to work in Friars Cafe which is now Friars Chocolate shop and then the Royal Oak which was the premier hotel in those days.
Marjorie was a source of information on anything relating to Thornthwaite. She loved telling people about life in the village from a bygone era. Some of the things she would often recall were what it was like before Whinlatter Forest was planted with trees.
Cattle would graze in the fields above Seldom Seen, bleaberry picking on Whinlatter for the people from Thornthwaite and the Braithwaite residents going over to Darling Howe to pick theirs, then selling the fruit in Keswick on market day.
Other memories were about taking the lead acid battery down to the generator at Thornthwaite mine to be re-charged so they could listen to the radio in the evenings. Singing with the Band of Hope in the little village hall. Collecting the sphagnum moss with the girl guides during the Second World War which was used to treat the wounds of the injured, gathering foxgloves which would be used for the treatment of digitalis.
She also remembered the Italian prisoners of war digging trenches in the fields above Seldom Seen to drain the land for the Forestry Commission. The little School at Braithwaite was completely over-run with children, locals went to school in the morning and the evacuees in the afternoon. There were so many desks that they had to climb over them to get to their seats.
Last year when one of the evacuees visited Marjorie and they enjoyed a long chat reliving war time memories.
Her family, like many others during the war, kept pigs,goats and hens and when it was time to take the nanny goat to see the billy goat who lived in Penrith she would take her to Braithwaite station, put her on the train and collect her a few days later. Eggs from the hens would be kept in a solution of Isinglass to help preserve them.
Marjorie died suddenly on April 22. Her funeral will take place at Saint Mary’s Parish Church, Thornthwaite, on Wednesday (May 8) at 11am.
