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
Local businessmen retire
Two well-known Keswick businessmen, Jim Armstrong and Donald Holme, directors of Keswick Motor Company in Lake Road, are officially retiring this weekend after giving more than 90 years’ service between them to their motor company.
Both Jim, who has filled virtually every role within the company during his 40 years service, and Donald, who has worked there for over 50 years since leaving school at the age of 15, will hang up their overalls and tools for the final time.
They have sold their shares to another long-serving member of staff, Sales Manager Philip Vickers, who has 34 years’ service and will run the garage along with Roy Wilson, who owns the property and whose late father Joe used to be one of the principals.
Keswick Motor Company has customers who travel from far and wide and Jim said: “Everyone knows me by my first name and the contact with them is something I will miss. But it’s been a great team effort – a successful business is not about one man.”
In retirement Jim plans to devote more time to his bowls, gardening, walking and learning to cook. However, Donald intends to lend a helping hand to Philip in the early stages when he takes over the reins.
Donald says he has “done a bit of everything” ever since he started as a trainee mechanic in 1954 at the Penrith Road garage, just short of the age of sixteen. He has many stories to tell and recalled an incident, some years ago, when a family from Derby had to be taken home after one of their children had lost their car keys in Derwentwater. After dropping the family off at their home Donald set off back for Keswick, only to be pulled in by their car a few miles later.
Donald said: “It turned out one of the children was fast asleep in the wagon. He was still there and if they hadn’t stopped me I would have brought him all the way back to Keswick again. He was called Ben and was about eight years old. I’ll never forget the name as long as I live as it was Ben who had dropped the key in the lake in the first place.”
30 years ago
Keswick Mountain Rescue Team
The application submitted on behalf of Keswick Mountain Rescue Team for a new headquarters building near the entrance of the Lakeside car park in Keswick was recommended by Allerdale Borough Council’s Development Control committee at its meeting on Tuesday for approval by the full council.
The application is before the Planning Board for approval and the team sincerely trust that this, following a long list of refusals, may be the successful application.
Keswick Show
Prospects for Keswick Show were not good when viewed by the helpers struggling to assemble the tents in the high winds and heavy rain on Sunday. The show field was more like a battlefield and the organisers were anxious for the success of this year’s show.
However, their worries were abated when some 8,500 people turned up on Monday; not perhaps as many as in recent years when figures of 10,000 plus have been recorded, but still a very good turnout.
The Keswick Agricultural Society treasurer, Mike Bulman, said his committee were grateful for the support of the public, and he described the turnout, under the circumstances, as “reasonable”.
The society chairman, Ernest Clark, admitted that fate had been kind to the show and that things had looked “pretty rough” on Sunday.
The show secretary is Judith Hildreth, who took over three years ago on the sudden death of her father Wilfrid Relph, the mainstay of the show for very many years. Mrs. Hildreth explained that they had to wait until the weather settled in the late afternoon on Sunday before they could get all the tents up. “However, it has all turned out well,” she said. “Entries have been up in several sections and, because of limitations of space, we have even had to turn away some trade stands.”
40 years ago
Minnie takes to the air
An eighty-three year old Keswick woman fulfilled a dream on Monday when she took to the air in a helicopter.
Miss Minnie Gash, who has lost both her legs, is a resident of the Ravensfield Old People’s Home. It was when she told staff it was her ambition to go up in a helicopter that they set about fixing it for Minnie.
And on Monday she was taken up in an Air Cumbria helicopter from Keswick Showfield along with Mrs. Agnes Stephenson, who works at Ravensfield, and Mrs. Stephenson’s husband Tony.
She confided that she had formed the wish to fly in a helicopter while lying in hospital and seeing the rescue ’copters landing in the hospital field to re-fuel.
Before her last operation a year ago Minnie had her own flat in Greta Court. A former dressmaker and native of Keswick, she is now one of the popular residents at Ravensfield.
Monday’s flight above the showfield and down the Borrowdale valley wasn’t Minnie’s first experience of taking to the air. She had flown once previously, a cross channel trip.
After the ten minute flight Miss Gash said: “It was really wonderful. My only regret is that it didn’t last a bit longer.” And she added: “I can now claim to have walked, sailed and flown around Derwentwater.”
Colin’s a real spiderman!
Many people get the shivers when they see creepy crawlies. But seven year old Colin Gilbert, of Leonard Street, loves them. So much so that his parents rewarded his interest in insects by buying him a tarantula spider for Christmas.
Colin and the Mexican red kneed tarantula get on like a house on fire. The spiders do have a bite, something like a bee sting in severity, but his pet Arnold has never bitten him. Colin regularly handles his pet spider and it is never happier than when it’s taking a stroll up his arms.
Colin’s parents are local vets Ronnie and Jean Gilbert and fortunately they aren’t squeamish about arachnids either. Mrs. Gilbert said: “I wasn’t bothered about getting the tarantula and now I have got quite used to it.”
The tarantula, which measures about three inches across its body and is still growing, won its young owner a first prize in the pet section at Keswick Show on Monday.
Mrs. Gilbert said: “Colin is very fond of his pet. He has always been keen on insects so we decided to order him a tarantula last Christmas. If they are handled carefully they don’t seem to bite.”
It seems that tarantulas, which are always portrayed as objects of fear and repulsion in films, are badly misjudged characters, Arnold is a big softy at heart, although he’s a terror where insects are concerned. He lives on a diet of live insects and is in his element at present with so many daddy longlegs out and about due to the hot weather.
Keswick Show
Keswick Agricultural Show attracted a bumper 10,500 attendance on Monday with its blend of traditional agricultural events and large scale attractions to pull in the visitors.
Of course the weather played its part. After an unpromising mid-morning, the sun came out to make it a scorcher right at the time when most people were making up their minds whether to attend or not. Gate receipts totalled a healthy £5,300 and show secretary Mr. Wilfrid Relph, in his 21st year in the job, said: “Comments have been very complimentary. A good day weather-wise makes all the difference. If the weather’s right there is no better place for anyone to come to enjoy a show.”
Highlight of the afternoon was a thrilling aerobatic display by Philip Meeson in his Marlborough Pitts Special plane, but that was by no means the sole attraction. The Derby Rangers marching band, who paraded through the town centre, brought a large following with them on to the showfield.
There was a big round of applause for the display of vintage motorcycles and cars by local enthusiasts. They were led round by Major Phil Davidson, a former Show president, driving the yellow and blue bullnose Morris Cowley on which he learnt to drive sixty years ago, and now owned, by Mr. Emerson Jackson of Unthank.
50 years ago
Keswick Show
Attendance at the Show on Bank Holiday Monday was affected by the heavy rain, and the gate money was down by approximately £170. However, as the Agricultural Society began the year with a healthy balance of £1,500, the chances of breaking even, or indeed of making a small profit, are very good.
The worst weather for many years did not, however, spoil the enjoyment of those who braved the elements to attend the Show. The organisation was excellent, in spite of the weather, and the Industrial Section had a record entry of 1,100, housed in the largest marquee ever used at a local show, of possibly the highest standard of workmanship to be seen in the north.
The sun did eventually shine, but the ground was by then a quagmire and tractors had to be used to free some of the cars on the field.
TV reception
At the request of some residents of Threlkeld, Mr. Fred Peart, M.P. for the Workington constituency, has made representation to the Home Secretary regarding poor television reception in the area.
The reply received from the Home Secretary states that, in selecting sites for relay stations the broadcasting authorities plan carefully to provide a better service for the largest number of people in an area, but inevitably there will be small pockets where reception is still poor because of local conditions. Unfortunately Threlkeld is one of these “pockets,” reception being badly affected by the surrounding hills which screen the village from the transmitter.
The only advice offered by the Home Secretary is that residents should consider the suggestion of the B.B.C. on the possibilities afforded by a communal aerial system.
