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
Those yellow lines!
A local businessman has joined the many people who are condemning those double lines!
Michael Standring, who owns Fishers mountaineering shop in Borrowdale Road, says that for years organisations in the town such as the Town Council, National Park, Civic Society and Keswick in Bloom, have worked hard to improve visual standards and remove clutter. “Then they come along with their lorry, on one of the busiest holiday weeks of the year, and lay these fat bright yellow lines. I understood from speaking to a highways official previously that regulations would allow them to put down thinner lines in a paler shade of yellow.”
He adds: “What annoys me is that the Highways Authority appears to have carte blanche to do what it likes and does not have to consult the National Park. It is as if nobody cares. There are fat yellow lines all over the Market Square. Groups in the town work hard to uplift standards and then we get this.”
30 years ago
Local government review
A public meeting in the Moot Hall on Wednesday evening produced a solid vote in favour of a local government realignment with Eden and the South Lakes, and a switch away from its links with the West Coast through Allerdale, on the basis of affinity of interest and economies.
The meeting was against the retention of ties with West Cumbria, one local businessman, Peter Bragg, stating: “What we want to do is get away from the clutches of Allerdale.”
One time mayor, Eric Impey, proposed the link with Eden and the South Lakes. He said Keswick, as a resort town with a pronounced rural character, had more in common with Penrith, Appleby, Kirkby Stephen and Alston than with Workington and Distington, for instance, who had very different problems.
Mr. Impey felt it would be to Keswick’s advantage to be in a local government unit of administration which included the Eden district.
David Davenport agreed that Keswick had more in common with the east than the west. He said Eden was more pro-tourism and may look favourably on an approach by Keswick to be aligned with them.
Some sixty people from Keswick and the surrounding area attended the meeting. They were told that a poll had shown that only one per cent of Keswick residents identified with Allerdale.
Ron Norey, chairman of Borrowdale Parish Council, agreed: “Our feelings run very much as the feelings of this meeting and we would not wish to be associated with Allerdale.”
The Mayor of Keswick, Sean Crawford, said the local government review of administrative structure was the first to take place for twenty years. Cumbria County Council is at present looking at nine different options for the structure of local government within the county.
St. Kentigern’s School official opening
“And slowly, slowly, out of a dream … a school is made …” sang the children of St. Kentigern’s Infant & Nursery School on Wednesday afternoon at the official opening ceremony of Keswick’s newest educational establishment.
This summer Brigham, Crossthwaite and St. John’s First Schools closed, and in September the “splendid dream” became a “splendid reality” and St. Kentigern’s opened its doors – a tribute, said Director of Education Pat Black, to the spirit of co-operation which had produced something new out of something old in the realisation of this dream.
The formal service, in the presence of the Lord Bishop of Carlisle, The Right Reverend Ian Harland, in which the local clergy led by the chairman of the governors, the Revd. R. T. Hughes, and the vice chairman, the Revd. N. P. Holmes, took part. Lessons were read by a governor, Mrs. Ruth Wilson, and a pupil in Year 2, Henrietta Partington.
Before the service guests were entertained by a talented group of young instrumentalists from Trinity School, with their teacher Miss Louise Sinton.
The Bishop, in his short address, drew stands from the poem ‘Our School’ which had been read by Henrietta and mentioned four different kinds of love – of one another, of mankind, of life itself, and of God. He endorsed the view of the teaching staff in his wish that the furtherment of these values would become part of the ethos of St. Kentigern’s and said they were already evident.
40 years ago
Leisure pool
With the project to provide a leisure pool in Keswick reaching a critical stage, the Town Council has embarked on the unusual step of issuing more than 4,000 brochures informing local people of the progress made so far and the financial implications of the scheme. The brochure has been prepared by the special Leisure Pool Sub Committee of the Council which was established about two years ago to investigate the feasibility of the project and look at ways of raising capital.
Plans have been prepared by architects for the scheme, which is to be sited at the old station site, land now in ownership of the Lake District Special Planning Board.
The booklet was presented to the own Council at their meeting on Thursday night and Mr. George Hodgson, chairman of the pool sub committee, said the delivery programme would commence immediately and he hoped that, within the next few days, everyone living in Keswick would have an opportunity of reading the facts about the pool.
He said: “It has been hard work, but we have now reached the stage where we have done all we can, and it is up to Allerdale Council to produce the necessary financial support. We have been given assurances that the capital is available provided we can get the guarantees regarding the loan charges.”
Mr Hodgson said that the Sub Committee’s investigations had shown that the pool would be profit making, unlike many other recreational facilities in the county. However there remains some difference between the Keswick figures and those of Allerdale Council treasurer Tony Perry.
“We base our figures on a tourist town and on projects like Brockhole which already exist within the National Park. Allerdale’s estimates are based on pools at Workington and Cockermouth,” said Mr. Hodgson.
Mr Hodgson stressed that the next few months would be all-important to the survival or otherwise of Keswick’s ambitious project.
As well as detailing the history of the scheme and setting out the financial calculations there is a question and answer section in the booklet dealing with the principal issues which seem to be worrying local people. One major point it makes is that even a small scheme would be expensive to develop so it is better to aim for an amenity that will be a major asset to Keswick and the tourist industry. A tank pool is more expensive to heat and purify and operating losses can be much greater.
Already a lot of money has been raised by local efforts and a lottery and the brochure stresses that once the scheme got the go ahead, local fund-raising will play a key role in cutting the amount which must be borrowed and repaid.
Investiture
Mr. George Hodgson’s service to the R.A.F. Association and his local community was recognised on Tuesday when he went to Buckingham Palace to receive the O.B.E. from the Queen.
A former Mayor of Keswick, Mr. Hodgson received the award in the Birthday Honours List for his services to the Keswick Branch of the R.A.F.A., coupled with his work as North West area treasurer. He was largely instrumental in the revival of the Keswick branch and club some years ago, building up the local Association to its present-day strength and considerable fund-raising capacity. The premises at the Hollies, which have been gradually improved in recent years, are now very much a focal point for local organisations and clubs.
Mr. Hodgson travelled to London together with his wife, Avril, and family Carole (17) and Douglas (11) to attend the investiture by the Queen. Afterwards he was entertained to lunch in London by the chairman of the R.A.F.A Central Council Air Chief Marshal Sir John Aiken, together with the secretary-general Mr. Frank Neal and the president of the North West area Air Chief Marshal Sir Gareth Clayton.
Mr. Hodgson is the second Keswick man within the space of a fortnight to meet the Queen at an honours investiture. Mr. George Fisher, one of the founders of Keswick Mountain Rescue Team, and its leader for a great many years, attended Buckingham Palace to be made a M.B.E.
50 years ago
Could this be an answer?
Manchester Corporation should install a cleansing plant at Thirlmere reservoir in the Lake District so that it could be used for water-skiing. The lake could be the answer to Lakeland’s water-ski problem, says Miss Frances Birkett, writing in the November issue of Lakescene, the monthly Lake District magazine.
Miss Birkett writes: “The water-skiers would oust no-one for no-one uses the lake; they would disturb few because there are few houses and a few picnic areas; and their noise would be blanketed by the trees.”
Miss Birkett thinks Manchester should have a conscience about Thirlmere which she says the city has sterilised for a century by planting dense alien trees and keeping people out. The time has come to open up the lake, she says.
Miss Birkett, a retired librarian, lives in Grange-in-Borrowdale.
In recent years water-skiing has been an increasing problem in the Lake District and moves are being made to ban the sport from most lakes.
