Allithwaite, the Village 1953

THE GRANGE HOTEL

I worked at the Grange Hotel from 1983 until 1986. I lived in Grange for another six years at The Cottage, Graythwaite Manor. I left Grange in 1992 with my family when we moved to Australia. Enjoyed seeing the old photos of Grange, especially the one of the Grange Hotel.

Feathers in our hair

My aunt and uncle went to live in Flookburgh in the early 1950s.  My mum, brother and myself went to stay with them on holiday.  I can't remember where we got the coach to but my uncle laughed when we got off the coach with paper carrier bags with our clothes in (no suitcases for us in those days). The road was a country lane (going down the road at the side of the cross) towards the sea.  I remember there was a farm on the right hand side where we used to buy milk and further along on the left was their little house (it could have been a bungalow).  We went to Humphrey Head where we collected sea gull feathers and put them in our hair pretending to be Indians hiding in the dunes. I still have a photograph of us with the feathers.  My husband and I drove there about 22 years ago and the house was still there although derelict and a caravan site was up the road.  In May 2007 we again visited but obviously the house had gone and an even bigger caravan site now stands there. We also visited Humphrey Head and Cark and Cartmel.  Such lovely places bringing back some happy memories of my childhood.

home

I have lived in the pretty village of Cartmel all my life and I love the quiet, calming atmosphere we have here. Once a friend and myself used to walk through the village with a nanny goat called Nancy and her 2 kids, we'd arrive in the square and rest at the market cross with the goats playing on the "fish slabs" which caused a lot of amusement to the visitors, who in turn must have thought we were slightly mad! Near by is the stately home of the Cavendish family, Holker Hall, once upon a time the Duke of Edinburgh used to compete in the carriage driving trials here and on the sunday himself and The Queen went to church at Cartmel. The Priory church is the main feature of the village(f1188). I once sang in the choir, we were on Songs of Praise and also on Look North, with Stuart Hall. The latter was in a Christmas tree competition and the BBC thought it would be nice for the choir to sing in the market square, let me tell you, with the wind blowing through the arch of the Priory Gatehouse, it was bitterly cold. The village has featured in 2 films, Confessional starring Robert Lindsay (I think), about a priest in a small Northern Irish town! The other was about one of the biggest horse racing stings ever attempted. It was soon noted that Cartmel had no on course telephones so the Irish brought in a "ringer" and cleaned out ALL the bookies, not just the ones on the racecourse! This was rectified the following year! The film was called Murphys Stroke and this happened in the 1970's. There haven't been many changes to Cartmel apart from the "trimming down" of the ale houses, there were once 14 in the village now there are only 4!! I suppose the one glaring change is the fact that there are very few children/young people left. Coming upto date even Cartmel celebrated the Millenium by placing on the village green, which happens NOT to be in the village, a huge lump of granite and a circular bench. This is an exceptional village, it's my home and always shall be, I wouldn't change it for all the money in the world.