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
Football club move
At this week’s meeting of the Charitable Trust which runs Keswick’s parks, Trustees will be asked if they will agree in principle to the relocation of the football ground, if funding is provided to install the pitch and changing facilities and planning permission is given.
Keswick Football Club is prepared to move from its traditional home at Walker Park to a new ground located in the Hospital Field adjacent to the lower Fitz Park and is willing to take on the annual maintenance costs of the pitch and agree a 25 year lease, plus when there are no matches being played car parking at the site could be utilised by the Trust to generate income.
Keswick Town Council is currently trying to agree a financial package with Allerdale to relinquish the Walker Park site and the agreement of the Charitable Trust to the Hospital Field proposal is seen as a step forward.
30 years ago
TV boost for car collector
Keswick dentist Peter Nelson, who owns the ‘Cars of the Stars’ museum in the town, appeared on ITV’s “Schofield’s Quest” programme on Sunday and appealed for information about famous film and TV vehicles which have mysteriously gone missing.
Within minutes, the phone lines to the TV studios were buzzing and the museum’s answerphone also had numerous messages to follow up. Peter describes the response as ‘phenomenal’ and said people have rung in with loads of information and leads which he can pursue.
One viewer rang in claiming to know the whereabouts of one of the minis which featured in a spectacular chase in The Italian Job. Another caller said he might know the whereabouts of the red London bus which took Cliff Richard and his gang on a Summer Holiday to Greece.
Peter has also been given information about several vehicles which did not figure directly in his TV appeal, such as the motor bike from Heartbeat and a car driven by Poirot.
Philip Schofield’s “Quest” is a new series and Peter, who was successful in his request to appear on the programme, said that not only was his appeal for information about vehicles successful, but the programme also provided a tremendous plug for the museum. He said: “Getting on a peak time programme watched by something like 14 million viewers has been a tremendous boost.
“Road train”
A Windermere hotelier, Ian Garside, is hoping to get permission to operate a road train in Keswick from next April. The road train would link the lake car parks and town centre and act as a tourist attraction.
Mr. Garside operates a similar train in Bowness on Windermere and says this has carried over 60,000 passengers. The train he envisages for Keswick would be of the same high specification, encompassing one heated carriage, and facilities for disabled people.
40 years ago
Keswick man in hospital after horse-driving accident
Well known Keswick horse driving enthusiast Mr. Lloyd Ousby was taken to the Cumberland Infirmary at Carlisle on Sunday after an incident in which he and a passenger were thrown from their trap.
Mr. Ousby, a popular figure at the local agricultural shows and carnivals, sustained a dislocated shoulder and crushed knee and is being detained in hospital. He was taking part in one of the West Lakes Driving Club’s regular Sunday meets. They had set off from the White Horse Inn at Scales and were making their way back from Mungrisdale towards the main Keswick-Penrith road when the horse shied at a tractor.
Club president Mr. Clive Richardson, who was Mr. Ousby’s passenger, was also thrown out of the Jack’s trap, but escaped with minor bruising.
The dapple grey Welsh cob which was pulling the cart was later retrieved suffering only minor grazes. Mr. Ousby had only acquired it a few weeks earlier.
Club chairman Mr. John Davison, who was also taking part in the drive, said: “It had been going nicely up to that point, but it shied and Lloyd could not pull it up. One wheel must have gone into a rut and they were thrown out.”
Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor, — May I ask your readers to imagine the discovery of a pair of wolves in Great Wood? Would they be hailed with delight and their lair guarded from attack? No, the reaction would be guns, traps, poison to destroy the dangerous predators.
Peregrines are just as terrifying to the birds that are their prey — and a blackbird or pigeon has only its desperate flight to save it from the talons and cruel beak of the hawk.
I do love to have birds in my garden, to listen to their sweet voices and profit from their appetite for caterpillars, greenfly and slugs which I may have to put to a lingering death with sprays. I rejoice in the trust of chaffinches and robins that build in my garden and must speak up in their defence. Hence my concern for the reported growing number of peregrines and the diminishing number of garden birds.
And after the peregrine the golden eagle? I cannot imagine that farmers would relish this any more than the pigeon fanciers now!
Ailsa Callaghan
Brandlehow Crescent
Keswick
Keswick man wins top U.S. medical post
A Keswick man’s appointment to a top medical job in America completes a unique family double for a Cumbrian family with three generations of medical links.
Dr. Andrew J. F. Fletcher has been appointed as Medical Director, Marketing Planning, with the firm of Merck, Sharp and Dohme of Rahway, New Jersey. His responsibilities will be in the antirheumatic and cardiovascular product areas and the firm say Andrew’s contribution to marketing planning will be extensive as they intend to take full advantage of both his medical knowledge and his marketing abilities. His initial task will be to take over responsibility for the Renitec Clinical Development Study Programme from Dr. Michael von Poelnitz who will be leaving shortly to begin an assignment in Europe.
Andrew’s brother Malcolm is currently Medical Director for Burroughs Wellcome, Canada, living in Montreal.
The boy’s parents, Drs. Albert and Muriel Fletcher, of Random Stones, Bassenthwaite, had the dental practice at Fitz Park House in Keswick, for many years prior to their retirement.
Craft workshops scheme
Keswick businessman Mr. Hughie Thwaites has quit the grocery trade and is now planning a craft workshops development scheme.
Mr. Thwaites and his wife Mary had been in the grocery business for thirty years prior to closing the Emperor Food Store in Main Street at the week-end following an extremely popular half price sale of stock.
Mr. Thwaites is in the process of completing the final sale details for both the Emperor shop and also the former Newby’s shop next door. However he has retained ownership of the yard and buildings at the rear and he said this week that he was planning to develop a workshop project.
Mr. Thwaites will retain the larger unit for his own use, but about three workshops will be available for letting and he said: “It will be a sort of craft precinct which should help to tidy up the whole of the area.”
Mr. and Mrs. Thwaites first opened a grocery business in Station Street in premises previously occupied by greengrocer Mr. Walter Martin. They were there for 14 years before they took over the Emperor Store when the previous occupant Mr. Arthur Long decided to emigrate to Australia some 16 years ago.
Mr. Long’s father bought the premises in the early 1920s and before it became a grocery shop it had been a shoe shop.
Mr. Thwaites explained his decision to close. He said: “We thought that 30 years was quite a long stint. It’s an exacting sort of life, especially in the summer when sometimes you are starting at 6-00 a.m. and finishing at 10-00 p.m. and working seven days a week.
“There were quite a lot of things I wanted to do in life and this seemed the ideal time.”
50 years ago
Keswick Flower Club
Tuesday’s meeting was unusually informative. Mrs. W. Seal of Lancaster demonstrated “’Themes from Famous Operas,” dealing quietly and efficiently with her arrangements whilst giving a brief history of each work and unravelling the plot. Some of the drama and mayhem involved made contemporary English life seem like a Sunday School picnic.
Fantastic pieces of driftwood assumed distinct personalities. The hunchback profile of Rigoletto bent over the body of his daughter, represented by white flowers, and a swaggering matador was flanked by flamboyant flowers for Carmen, and foliage for the Sergeant — green with envy! Another chunk of wood took on the sombre shape of the tomb where Aida and her lover were buried alive — for them material in clashing gold and red.
Accessories were well chosen. The silver and pink arrangement for “Rosenkavalier” was complemented by a silver filigree rose. Playing cards and an ivory fan were poignant reminders of the ‘doomed romance of “La Traviata.” Camelias, the obvious choice for the heroine, being beyond price — purple autumn flowers echoed Violetta’s name. The figurine of poor Madame Butterfly kept vigil in a miniature Japanese garden, and a model seal basked in a charming seascape capturing the fey Scottish magic of ‘‘The Seal Woman”
After an appreciative vote of thanks by Mrs. Sandham, Mrs. Seal judged the competition, which proved very popular. A Gilbert and Sullivan song had to be interpreted, and no doubt each entry had entailed some busy research. Mrs. Sandham was placed first with “Three little maids are we” from “The Mikado”, Mrs. Fletcher was second with “The Autumn of our life” from “The Yeomen of the Guard”, and Mrs. Lancaster third with “In a contemplative fashion” from “The Gondoliers”.
