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Backbarrow
Backbarrow maps
Historic maps of Backbarrow and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Backbarrow maps
Backbarrow area books
Displaying 1 of 10 books about Backbarrow and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Backbarrow
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Backbarrow.
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The Whitewater Hotel at Backbarrow, Near Newby Bridge
I stayed in Backbarrow for several days at the Whitewater Hotel which has been converted from a former mill building by the river. The lobby of this lovely "spa hotel" has display cabinets of memorabilia from its industrial heyday in the last century which was interesting and I recommend a visit.
My wife Elizabeth and I used this as a base to explore nearby Windermere including a ride on the heritage railway line from Haverthwaite to Lakeside. There are lovely woodland walks signposted in the hills to the north of Backbarrow.
Cumbria memories
Childrens Names.
The children in the boat are Leslie (boy), Harry (his brother), Noel (his sister) Wren. His other sister Millie Wren is sitting on the riverbank. The other child is a neighbour. For many years Millie Wren was a teacher at Lightburn School, Ulverston.
John Wilson
My grandfather worked as wheelwright for Thomas Wren, ajoining the Swan Hotel. Can any relitive of Thomas Wren please give me any more information? His name was John Hartley Wilson of Lakeside.
My E Mail is johnwilson45@tiscali.co.uk THANK YOU
Ken Wilson
Staveley Village
I would like to share with your readers that my father Alban Crossley was born in Staveley and his mother Ethel Crossley (nee Bateman) worked in the bobbin mill in Staveley. Unfortunately my grandfather Michael Crossley died as a result of a motorbike accident. My father died in 1983 age 59years old.
We lived in Staveley in 1976 and I really liked the area and have been to visit it on a few occasions over the years. I wonder does any of your readers have any photos of any of my relatives as I have very little information on them apart from my father photographed in the book on Staveley school winning a race. Looking forward to a reply.
Newby Bridge Police Station
I lived in Newby Bridge during the late 50s and early 60s . My father was the Police Sergeant based at Newby Bridge Police Station which was near the roundabout with the turning to Windermere/Ambleside . I visited Newby Bridge last year and was sad to see that the Police Station had been demolished to make way for the roundabout. I stayed at the Swan but no one seems to recall the Police Station and I wondered whether any of you good people have recollections of it
I look forward to hearing from you
A Steamer Ride on Windermere
In April 2008 I went on holiday to the Lakes with my wife, Elizabeth, and we enjoyed a day's outing here. We first took a steam train from Haverthwaite through Newby Bridge to Lakeside where the steamer quay looks not much different from the view shown in this photo. Then we boarded a steamer which took us up the lake as far as Windermere. We disembarked for a couple of hours looking round the town while the steamer went on to Ambleside. Windermere now seems totally focussed on tourists and there was a wide choice of gifts, postcards and ice creams but rather a poor choice of groceries! However do the local residents survive?
We rejoined our steamer for its afternoon sailing back to Lakeside and thoroughly enjoyed our outing.
Family Connections.
The gentleman with the scythe over his shoulder was my grandfather. His name was Joseph Jackson, born in 1849 at Bootle in Cumberland. He spent most of his life as a tenant farmer, first at Canleton Farm near Egremont also in Cumberland. He then moved to Lane Ends Farm at Haverthwaite in what was then Lancashire owing to subsidence of the land due to iron ore mining from the nearby Florence Mine. He retired from farming in 1919 to Penny Bridge where he spent the rest of his life.
