December 1982

MATTERDALE - Torrential rain, melting snow and 60mph gusts brought chaos to homes and roads in Cumbria. Roads in Keswick, Ambleside and Windermere were all badly affected by flood water, which was a combination of torrential rain and melting snow. Some houses were also affected. Mr. and Mrs. Eric Morgan, The Hollows [Hollas], Matterdale, woke up to find a landslide outside their back door. Snow had blocked a stream at the back of the house and heavy rain brought down rocks, soil and earth.

May 2001

COCKFIGHTING CANDIDATE

This is not local [although BROWNRIGG is a Matterdale name!] but I thought it might show how things have changed in these days of Political correctness etc........

It is just 50 years since one of the quaintest policies at general election time hit the headlines in this and other newspapers. Farmer William Brownrigg's offbeat manifesto, back in 1951, included the legalisation of cockfighting, the continuation of foxhunting, a lower rate of tax for admission to horse racing and what he described as "Monte Carlo to be allowed in Cumberland". Although he polled only 158 votes, William, of Kirkbampton, Carlisle, stood again for Penrith and the Border at the next election, but failed once more, this time behind the emergent William Whitelaw, a man destined for high office. However, on the second occasion the veteran farmer more than doubled his vote after advocating better pay for mole catchers and home rule for Cumberland, with the county minting its own money! Years later, William - who was born in Castletown, Penrith - claimed that his election defeats did not cost him a penny because of the money he won from friends who "dared" him to stand as a candidate.

August 2001

"ICE" AUTHOR DIES - THE man who once forecast that the Lake District could disappear under half-a-mile of ice, Professor Sir Fred Hoyle, has died. One of the greatest popularisers of science in the 20th Century, Sir Fred made the prediction in his book Ice, written in 1981 at his retirement home at Cockley Moor, Dockray, near Ullswater.

January 2002

DEATH OF FORMER BBC ENGINEER - FORMER BBC engineer Eric Simpson, of Fell Lane, Penrith, has died at the age of 74. Mr. Simpson, who was born at Troutbeck, son of a stationmaster there, was with the corporation for 40 years, working in this country and abroad.

April 2002

RAN MARATHON WITH CANOE ON HIS BACK! - LONDON Marathon runner Martin Barratt, from Matterdale, a member of the staff of Ullswater Outward Bound School, amazed race spectators by making way round the course with a three-and-a-half metre canoe on his back. For safety reasons he had to start the race last of the 32,000 participants, but overtook 6,000 on the way round to finish in 4 hours and 57 minutes.

May 2002

DOCKRAY - HERDWICK FARMERS DECIDE TO QUIT - A couple who over a quarter of a century built up a noted flock of Herdwick sheep have decided to retire from farming because of losses suffered during the foot and mouth disease outbreak. Derick and Jean Wilson, Penfold Farm, Dockray, saw 500 of their animals slaughtered. Mrs. Wilson was president of the Herdwick sheep breeders' society in 2000.

July 2002

DEATH OF FORMER RAILWAY WORKER - FORMER long-service railwayman Gordon Carter, of Troutbeck, has died at the age of 81. Mr. Carter began his career as a porter at Bassenthwaite station on the former Penrith, Keswick and Cockermouth line, was later a signalman at Keswick and up to his retirement a ticket clerk at Penrith. During the war he was in the Royal Navy and survived the mining of the destroyer HMS Kandahar in the Mediterranean

January 2003

RAIDERS STRIKE AT INN - BURGLARS broke into an inn in the remote village of Dockray, near Ullswater, in the early hours of the morning. The occupant of the Royal Hotel heard noises about 5am and the raiders fled when he went to investigate. Police later found a crashed car which had been stolen in West Cumbria.

March 2003

WOMAN DIES IN HOUSE FIRE - An elderly woman died in a fire at her remote home near Matterdale. Veronica Watkins, aged 85, had lived in a converted barn, Beck Close [High Row], for 35 years, breeding Fell ponies and growing orchids and primulas. Her home has no electricity and fire officers believe the cause of blaze was either candles she used for light or a coal fire. The property had no smoke alarms.

May 2003

AUCTION RETURNS TO TROUTBECK - THE sound of an auctioneer in full cry was heard at Troutbeck, between Penrith and Keswick, for the first time in 13 years when six lots of agricultural land owned by the Digedan family, of Blencowe, were sold. The sale was conducted at the Troutbeck Inn - beside the site of the former livestock mart - by Adam Day on behalf of Cockermouth-based Mitchell Auction Company and Penrith and District Farmers' Mart. The lots included 21.9 acres of accommodation land at Greystoke which made £62,000.

Letter to the editor (November 2003)   Muddled priorities?
      Sir, Last Sunday I walked through Matterdale Old Churchyard. I did not realise at the time that I was endangering life and limb because it was only when I got back home that I opened the 'Public Notices' page of your newspaper and learned that the annual inspection of memorials under the Occupiers Liability Act 1857 had not yet been carried out by Eden District Council's department of technical services client services.

Eden Council is famous for watching the pennies. Public lavatories are to close, back door refuse collection is being withdrawn, grants to all kinds of organisations are under stern review.

So I suppose I should be grateful that the staff of the technical services department (no doubt highly qualified and trained) are out scouring the district's churchyards to ensure that I am not prematurely buried under someone else's insecure tombstone.

The fact is, however, I would much prefer them to be directing their energies to solving the parking problems in Penrith so that people who come in to the town for work each day can buy a season ticket for a convenient car park.

There is a saying in politics about priorities. Where do Eden's priorities lie?

Yours etc,
GEYVE WALKER
The Old Vicarage,
Barton, Tirril.

May 2004

PRESERVATIONISTS FEAR FOR LAKES CHURCH - The final go ahead for an extension to the grade II* listed Matterdale Church has been given despite a last minute plea by a group protecting ancient buildings. The Lake District National Park Authority recommended approval of the extension to Matterdale Church, near Ullswater, to form a parish room and now the Secretary of State for the Environment has said he won't be intervening in the case. English Heritage did not object to the principle of extending the church, although three objectors wrote to the planning authority raising concerns about the need for the extension given the nearby meeting room. However, a meeting of the authority's development control committee was told that the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings had written objecting to the plan, which, it said, would adversely affect the character of the ancient church.

July 2004

NEW HOME FOR EVEREST ICE AXE - The ice axe which saved the life of George Mallory and three of his fellow climbers during the first attempt to conquer Everest in 1922 has been put on display at the Rheged Discovery Centre, Penrith. The axe, which had disappeared into the realms of history until recently, was donated by Stan and Dot Threlkeld, of Matterdale End, near Penrith, to an Everest display which forms part of the national mountaineering exhibition. The couple had kept the axe since the death of their son, William, in a motorcycle crash almost 20 years ago when he was just 17. He had been given the axe by Nancy Carpenter, a female climbing pioneer, who lived at Matterdale End during her later years.

350 YEARS OF VILLAGE CHURCH - [OK so Penruddock is slightly to the north of Matterdale but I thought it might be of interest 'Jake'] A special service was held to mark the 350th anniversary of Penruddock Presbyterian Church, which is the oldest such chapel in the country. The preacher was the Rev. David Cornick, sometime principal of Westminster College, Cambridge, and now general secretary of the United Reformed Church, and the service was conducted by the Penrith and Penruddock minister, the Rev. Geoffrey Haigh. The Penruddock church was founded in 1654 by Richard Gilpin, a medical doctor and spiritual leader from Greystoke.