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
Retirement of Mrs Carole Rael
Some thirty-six years ago Carole Thompson of Workington was appointed to the teaching staff of Lairthwaite School in Keswick to teach music. She married a few years later, becoming Carole Rael.
Now a member of the staff of Keswick School, Carole has decided to retire and she will be greatly missed, not only in her role as a member of the Music Department, but also as Head of Year 7, in which she has guided pupils entering from the feeder Junior schools in the area into their first year as members of a very large comprehensive secondary school.
In acknowledgement of Carole’s special contribution to Keswick School it is expected that a great many of her former pupils and their parents will wish to say “goodbye” and to wish Carole and her husband well in the future, and in response to many requests the Head Master, Mike Chapman, has arranged a “chance to catch up on old times” take tea and cakes with Carole in the Queen’s Hall at the School on Wednesday 15th December between 2-00 p.m. and 6-00 p.m.
30 years ago
Opposition to carving
The controversial proposal by the National Trust to erect a carved stone at Crow Park, overlooking Derwentwater, to mark the centenary of the Trust next year, has come up against a major obstacle.
A site visit by members of the Lake District Planning Board to discuss the proposal has resulted in a decision that it would intrude too much into the sensitive lakeshore area.
The National Trust say the carving will reflect the landscape in which it is to be sited. It is intended that the carved stone should be a tribute to the many thousands of people who have supported the National Trust during the past 100 years.
The centenary celebrations will include several special events staged in this area, including a regatta on the lake, and a visit by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. George Carey, with a service at Crow Park.
Both Allerdale Borough Council and Keswick Town Council have objected to the carving and next week’s meeting of the Planning Board’s Development Control committee will be recommended to refuse the plan.
Shop closure proposal
Residents of Portinscale are facing the loss of their village shop. An application has gone before the Lake District Planning Board to change the use of the shop and former village post office into a house.
Some years ago permission was given for a proprietor’s flat above the shop and it is now intended to close the shop down and incorporate it into the dwelling above. The shop would become a lounge and the store a utility room.
A report to the planners says the closure of village facilities is always a loss to the community and the shop is the only one in Portinscale.
The Planning board is asking why the application has been submitted and whether attempts to sell the shop as a going concern have been made.
“Heartbeat” bike comes to Keswick
The latest tourist attraction in the Cars of the Stars Museum in Keswick is the motorbike ridden by actor Nick Berry in the Heartbeat television series,
Peter Nelson, owner of the Cars of the Stars Museum, had the chance of buying the bike when he went on Paul Schofield’s ‘Quest’ programme a few weeks ago, appealing for information from viewers about various vehicles which once belonged to famous TV and film personalities which he would like to trace for the museum.
Afterwards, a viewer from Keighley in Yorkshire telephoned to say P.C. Nick’s bike was available for sale. Peter went to Keighley to complete the purchase, together with the policeman’s helmet and goggles worn in the series. They are now on display in Keswick.
Peter is still following up leads which came after his appearance on ‘Quest’, and these include the whereabouts of Steed’s Bentley from the Avengers series and an Aston Martin from the Persuaders.
40 years ago
Fred bows out of gift business after thirty-eight years
One of Keswick’s best-known personalities, Mr. Fred Aston, retires tomorrow after thirty-eight years in charge of the china and gift business in the Arcade, Station Street.
Fred has always believed that being in business means more than just putting goods on the shelves and standing behind a checkout point taking the customers’ cash. His family have been associated with the business premises for a great many years and the motto of The Arcade has always been “your gift problem is our business.”
In the early days the business belonged to his uncle Mr. James Telford and the Arcade was managed by Mr. Aston’s father. It was a stone jewellers with an exclusive gift side supervised by Mrs. James Telford.
The original title of the property was Fitz Arcade, no doubt because of its nearness to Fitz Park. It was the first jewellers and gift shop people came to in Keswick after travelling in by train.
In 1932, while still at Keswick School, Mr. Aston learnt that his father had bought the business suggesting it would be a good career for Fred. He left school and duly started with his father, concentrating on the non-jewellery side.
In 1939, while he was at a territorial army camp, war broke out and it was not until 1945 that Fred returned. He had been kept in touch in the latter months with what was happening as he had spent eleven months in various hospitals with a war wound. He recalls: “Things in business had been anything but easy during those six years. The potteries had produced little or no decorated ware and it must have been very difficult to keep a shop like ours going.”
Fred took over in 1946 when his father’s health deteriorated. In 1952, the same year he married his wife Margaret and was having a house built in Springs Road, he also bought the property in Station Street.
Mr. Aston said that although it was hard at times he had derived great pleasure from meeting people from all over the country and far off places too during the course of his business. “A few years back our post book read like a world atlas at the end of a year.”
And he still found time to join Rotary, to become a member of Crosthwaite Parochial Church Council and a churchwarden, and to take part in many amateur theatrical productions as well as singing in the Male Voice Choir.
Keswick won’t seem quite the same without Fred Aston’s morning window cleaning ritual and his cheery greeting to passers by.
“Of course we will miss the busy life. It will be a big adjustment for me, but we both have various interests and, whilst the Arcade has been a ‘staging post’ for a number of organisations, we hope that we can still serve in some way the community in which we will still be living,” he said.
Chess club revival
Keswick Chess Club is officially back in action following a revival meeting last Friday at the Keswick Hotel.
The first move to revive the club came a few weeks ago from local enthusiast Dr. Bob Greenhalgh when he inserted an advertisement in the “Reminder.” A meeting was duly called last Friday and twelve people turned up, while apologies for absence were received from a further two would-be members.
The club’s publicity officer Mr. Lawrence Appleby said: “We decided unanimously to go ahead and start the club. We will be meeting weekly in the Keswick Hotel on Friday evenings starting on November 30th at 7-30 p.m.”
Keswick coal merchant on the move
Keswick coal merchant Mr. Mick Taylor has given up his battle with the planners to remain at the local station site. Instead he plans to take over land at the old Threlkeld blockworks as a new site for his coal business and also as headquarters for a new venture as a potato merchant.
Mr. Taylor said yesterday: “I could see that I stood to lose out in Keswick and could not afford to hang on for any longer. The blockworks site is an ideal one for my business and when I got the chance of moving up there I jumped in with both feet.”
50 years ago
Keswick Theatre Club Christmas Production
Rehearsals have reached the final stages for the Theatre Club’s play “And This Was Odd,” a comedy by Kenneth Horne. The plot of this delightful and unusual comedy for Christmas centres around a mother’s remarkable discovery that the effect of a prescribed sleeping draught is to make her mind and spirit wander away from her body. The way she uses this to cure many of her family worries, and at the same time to enjoy a little harmless fun on her own, makes grand entertainment.
The Club has gained several new members this year. Some of these have joined the ranks working hard back-stage whilst two are “ treading the boards” for the first time, Pat and Martin Bott. Other parts are being taken by William Shaw, Joan Grisdale, Doreen Gray, Richard Dewhurst, Doreen Lee, Josephine Wharton and Joan Johnson. The play is produced by Joyce Ridley.
On Wednesday, 11th December, the Club is entertaining the Old Folks’ Circle when the guests will be able to enjoy a sing-song then they will watch the final dress rehearsal of the play.
