Looking back through the archives of The Keswick Reminder from around this week 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago.
20 years ago
Keswickian appointed to Berghaus design team
Sunderland based Berghaus, the UK’s leading outdoor clothing, footwear and rucksack brand, has expanded its product design team with two new appointments.
One of these new appointees is 23 year old James Hodgson, of Keswick, who joins Berghaus as junior equipment designer after graduating from Teesside University with a Masters degree in product design strategies and digital prototyping. Prior to his Masters James obtained a first class honours degree in industrial design and throughout this time he has also managed to gain a large amount of experience in the outdoor retail industry. In his spare time James enjoys mountain biking, skiing and snowboarding.
Senior equipment product manager Peter Harrison comments: “James has a strong passion for the outdoors, his academic achievements more than prove his motivation and commitment to the design industry and the experience he has gained working in the outdoor retail trade will prove extremely valuable in his development here at Berghaus. I have little doubt that he will go from strength to strength with us and I am looking forward to seeing his input into the rucksack development process at Berghaus.”
James is the son of Mark Hodgson, Leader of Keswick Mountain Rescue Team, and his wife Fiona. He was educated at Keswick School.
30 years ago
Mr. Fred Mills
A former local sportsman, Mr. Fred Mills, has died at the age of 86. He was a member of a well known local family and in his youth was a keen sportsman, captaining both Keswick and Cockermouth amateur football teams.
In 1942 Mr. Mills was selected as centre half for the Royal Marines in a special match against the Royal Navy played at Dens Park, Dundee.
A retired decorator, he lived in London for a number of years and his great hobby was attending the top sporting events in the capital at grounds like Wembley and Twickenham. He once appeared with his namesake, boxer Freddie Mills, on a radio show about people sharing the same name, and he saw the boxer beat Gus Lesnevitch to win his world title at the White City. He was a regular visitor to Solomons’ Gym where he met many old-time fighters.
Mr. Mills returned to Keswick in 1961 and was a member of the Keswick Mountain Rescue Team for 26 years. He travelled in Europe and often made cine films of his trips, as well as local events, and gave shows to local organisations.
When he was in his early 70s he almost died from a brain haemorrhage which occurred while he was walking alone on Carl Side. Only his training as a member of the Rescue Team enabled him to crawl back to his car and lean on the horn to attract help. After a spell in hospital he returned to his walking, but for shorter distances than before.
40 years ago
Appeal for protection of garden
If a change of use of a cottage at The Plosh in Borrowdale Road is approved by planners, the future of a communal garden could be at risk, says a resident.
Mrs. G. Grange has written to the Lake District Planning Board saying that change of use to a hotel would mean no future safeguard that the garden would not be used to store dustbins, refuse, or for servicing the hotel and drying laundry.
Owners and tenants of cottages at The Plosh, which are listed as being of architectural or historic interest, enjoy the right to use the garden to the rear of the three of the houses. The three include number 10, which it is proposed to incorporate into Priorholme Hotel.
“As this neat well kept communal garden is the only open area available to me and the other residents of these cottages, I feel strongly that it must be protected and preserved,” writes Mrs. Grange in her letter to the Board, adding that if some means of protecting the garden from commercial use can be devised and agreed on, she is willing to withdraw her objection.
One-Way System
The Town Council are to press for a one-way system round the Market Square on Saturdays. But at last week’s General Purposes Committee meeting, an attempt to revive pressure for pedestrianisation of the area on market day was defeated.
Committee chairman George Hodgson said he was appalled by the state of the road on each side of the market on Saturdays. He felt the Council should ask for pedestrianisation on Saturdays along the same lines as for the evening Convention meetings. If the owners of hotels wanted guests to come and unload baggage they could have access only.
Mr. Sean Crawford said he was sure there would be a “howl of outrage” from various interests within the Market Place area, and the Mayor, Martin Jordan, said the purpose was to make the Market Place safer and not so that the market could be increased in size to the inconvenience of shopkeepers around the perimeter. Mr. Herbert Craghill agreed with the one-way scheme, but said he strongly opposed having the square closed.
A proposal to ask the County Council to pedestrianise the Market Place from the upper market down to Hogarth’s shop during the period of the Saturday market, but allowing access to premises inside the area, received only three votes in favour and the amendment concerning the one-way scheme was carried.
50 years ago
New Methodist Minister
Members of the Keswick and Cockermouth Methodist Circuit officially welcomed the new Minister in Keswick, the Rev. John Dale, and Mrs. Dale at a gathering in the Church Hall following an induction service conducted by the new Superintendent Minister, the Rev. Brian White, Cockermouth.
Mr. Dale, who comes from South Cheshire, succeeds the Rev. Charles M. Steel at Keswick, and has been at Newquay, Cornwall, for the past five years.
Mr. Dale and his wife, who is a qualified physical education teacher, have an eight-year-old son Adrian and a seven-year-old daughter Vivienne.
Letters to the Editor
Dear Sir,—Your leader in the “Reminder” of August 31st about the Friends of the Lake District prompts me to point out that a far more negative attitude is shown by as you put it “The younger people who work and live in the Lake District,” Do they really believe that only in Cumbria is it difficult for young people to obtain their own homes? Do they really believe that industry in Cumberland can compete with that situated in the Midlands or South-East? If they have to move to these areas, they will not be treated as “foreigners” or told they have no right to compete with the “locals” for housing.
Tourism is the only stable industry in the Lake District as history has proved, but tourists will not come to look at by-pass interchanges, factories, suburban-type bungalows, and concrete and asbestos cattle feeding units; they have all these in or near their own home towns.
Speaking as one whose ancestry is Cumbrian for many generations back, when will we realise that the Lake District National Park is a national heritage and not just the back-yard of a few thousand Cumbrians?
Yours sincerely,
Marcus Moore.
Birk Moss Farm,
Ennerdale,
Cleator, 31st Aug., 1973.
Lake District Folk
Our correspondent from Ennerdale (see “Letters to the Editor ”) accuses our younger people of being negative — unfair, perhaps, to single out the younger people, when one realises that not one person in Keswick was willing to stand for the vacant seat on the Council. One reason for this supposed lack of interest may have been that many were not aware that the existing Council automatically become Keswick’s Parish Council until 1976.
However, a word must be said in defence of the Lake District folk — they have not asked for factories — or industries similar to those found in the Midlands and South-East, nor do they particularly wish their housing to be the suburban bungalow type. And, most important, they do not consider their beautiful Lake District to be anyone’s “backyard”. Indeed, they are very proud of their heritage, and ask only that, in acting as custodians of this lovely corner of England, they could be granted what every other Englishman considers to be his by right — adequate housing (of a kind which blends into the surroundings); an opportunity to earn a good living in congenial employment for twelve months of the year; and a few extra leisure pursuits to the walking, fishing, lake-swimming and rowing considered by many to be the only permissible pastimes because they are quiet.
But, most of all, they are sick of being treated by planning boards, “friends” and others as if they are quite incapable of deciding for themselves the best ways of preserving the Lake District.
