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
MBE for Borrowdale hotelier
Miles Jessop, the owner of the Scafell Hotel at Rosthwaite in Borrowdale, was awarded an MBE for services to the community in the New Year’s Honours List.
During the past 35 years Mr Jessop has built up the popular Scafell Hotel, and has played a major role in the valley community. He was president of Borrowdale Shepherds’ Meet and Show in 1999 and was one of those responsible for the inauguration of the Borrowdale Fell Race in the 1970s together with the late Chris Bland, a member of the famous fell-running Borrowdale family. Chris and Mr Jessop came up with the idea of the race over the highest fells in the central Lake District, including Scafell Pike and Great Gable.
At that time the chairman of Keswick Athletic Club was Keswickian Ross Brewster, who says it was largely thanks to the enthusiasm of Mr Bland and Mr Jessop that the Borrowdale Fell Race came into being.
Mr Jessop was the founder secretary of the Borrowdale Show when it was revived in 1988 and this was a post he held until 1994, when he handed over to Geoff Truckle. Mr Jessop is a long-serving member of the Rotary Club of Keswick.
Poultry could affect railway
Cedric Martindale, a director of the company aiming to reinstate the Keswick to Penrith railway line has condemned the recent decision by Lake District planners to allow a poultry plant to be built close to the track bed of the old line as “short sighted”.
Mr Martindale says the decision goes against planning policy at all levels and could push up the cost of re-opening the line, which shut down over thirty years ago. However, planners say that there is doubt over whether the poultry plant scheme will ever go ahead.
He said: “The way the site is developing, not confined to just this application, means that there will be buildings on both sides of the track bed, and an access road needed from the A66 across the line to reach part of the site. The latest plans also show drainage being routed under the track bed.”
Mr Martindale said crossing a railway with a road was a very expensive business with level crossings costing up to £500,000 and any realignment of the railway would affect hundreds of yards of route, probably requiring new construction rather than using the track bed which is already there, tripling or quadrupling the cost of the stretch affected.
Free taxi ride for dog
A Golden Labrador which jumped into a taxi in Keswick and enjoyed a free ride has finally been reunited with its owner. The dog hitched a lift in a taxi at 1-20 am on Sunday and joined the fare paying passenger for a free ride home to their house.
The person who the Labrador had joined on the taxi ride was prepared to take care of it and police said that even though the dog did not have a collar, it did appear to be well looked after and eventually the owner was located and the dog was returned safely.
30 years ago
Village gas supply update
At a public meeting in St. Herbert’s Church Hall, Braithwaite, on Monday, British Gas officials reported that 61 people had already signed up to be connected to the proposed gas supply, but for the project to go ahead 91 people (representing 30 per cent of the homes in the village) are needed before the end of January. An appeal has gone out to people who know holiday home owners to get them to contact British Gas as soon as possible.
British Gas’s general manager for Cumbria Ian Castle said that the work on extending the supply could begin by late spring and be completed by the end of this summer.
40 years ago
Editorial
Members of the Lake District Special Planning Board discussed a brief prepared by their officers on the Keswick Station development at their meeting on Wednesday. The brief recognises the importance to Keswick of the former station site of approximately 11.4 acres and states that “it is understood” that all mains services are available on the site. The Planning Board wish to see the area developed in the best interests of the town, if possible including the proposed leisure pool, a theatre/conference hall (and car parks for both), and local housing schemes. Considerable research and design on these projects have already been undertaken by the organisations sponsoring them, and the housing associations have prepared schemes to provide nineteen units for “starter” homes and twenty-four units for sheltered housing for senior citizens. The Board will also consider other proposals which a developer may wish to put forward and Wednesday’s meeting was to obtain the views of members of the Development Control committee on other forms of development.
Perhaps many will feel that the Planning Officers have stated nothing new in their paper, but it would seem that, at last, plans for the station are now moving forward so that the day when the site is no longer derelict and an eyesore is a little neared.
Town centre
Keswick Councillors have decided to accept a County Council traffic ban experiment in the town centre on Market Days.
But after another lengthy debate at Thursday’s General Purposes Committee they came out in favour of a 12 month experiment rather than the 18 month scheme originally submitted by the Highways Authority.
The Council are also to receive a detailed paper from Councillor Sean Crawford on what pedestrianisation of the Market Square might involve, with diagrams and illustrations.
However there were moments when Thursday’s meeting threatened to slide into a similar voting disarray which afflicted the Council when they last considered the County Council experiment before Christmas.
A renewed bid for a request for a one-way system round the square, which was rejected by the County Council some weeks ago, resulted in a 4-4 vote tie and Mr. Hodgson gave his casting vote against it.
Instead, a proposition that the Council accept a scheme if it is for twelve months went through on a 6-4 voting majority.
But members were told by the clerk Mr. Gerry Dennis that the Lake District Planning Board, when they met earlier this week to discuss the scheme, expressed a preference for a seven days a week scheme running just three months.
Tithebarn Street bottleneck
Councillor Sean Crawford has floated an idea which could help solve one of the town’s biggest traffic bottlenecks at Tithebarn Street.
He told the Planning Committee that the Crown Inn near the junction was currently boarded up and its future was under review. If the County Highways department or planners could see if part of that territory were available it would be possible to create a little roundabout system.
“There is a possibility for an engineer to work out a scheme to ease congestion at the corner,” he said, and councillors agreed to raise the suggestion with the County Council.
A plea from Councillor Crawford for the installation of a mirror at the entrance to Southey Lane was also passed on to the County Council. He said drivers had to edge out to see traffic coming from the Main Street to their left.
50 years ago
Cumbria Restaurant
New plans for the Cumbria Club which involve the closing of the club as such, were announced this week by Mr. Mike Noonan, formerly chef at the Scafell Hotel, who has joined Mr. Albert Cole and Mr. Neil Hunter as a partner in the venture.
Mr. Noonan said the premises were to be re-named the Cumbria Restaurant and would be run by him, with his fiancee, Miss Linda Hatton, as manageress. It was intended, he said, to concentrate entirely on the serving of good food and the opening hours of the restaurant would be extended into the daytime.
Mr. Noonan, who would be chef at the restaurant, said it was also planned to introduce a typical local meal at lunch-time with local produce and Cumberland recipes, and the company was also considering the introduction of a sophisticated slide show featuring the Lake District as an additional amenity for visitors in the mornings.
The club has been open for two years and has been run in conjunction with the Cumbrian Steakhouse.
