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Ennerdale
Ennerdale maps
Historic maps of Ennerdale and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Ennerdale maps
Ennerdale area books
Displaying 1 of 10 books about Ennerdale and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Ennerdale
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Ennerdale.
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Happy & Horsey Holidays
I have the fondest memories of childhood holidays spent in Ennerdale and a deep and lasting love of the valley, brought about not only by the remote beauty but also the many, very happy times that I have spent there with those closest to me.
Residents of Blackburn, Lancashire (Wainwrights home town!), my parents and two brothers spent most of the school holidays and many weekends in the valley. We stayed in the old forester's cottages at High Gillerthwaite.
The cottages are adjacent to the current YHA, several several miles up the forestry road, which is closed to vehicles and in those days, was extremely rough and pot holed. The cottage nestles among some of the signature peaks of the Lakes - Pillar, Steeple and Red Pike. Great Gable heads the valley. When we first holidayed there in the early 1970s, the remoteness meant that it was unusual to see another living soul during our 2 week summer holiday.
There was no electricity in the cottages, and... Read more
Cumbria memories
Childhood
As a boy I thought my hometown of Frizington to be a wonderful place. We played football for hours on the Ball Alley or on the square. (Trafalgar Square)
Also hours of fun "up the backs" The houses behind Nook St playing marbles. Sublime days which never seemed to end. I often wonder if today's children are as carefree as we were. I certainly hope so. Summer days at school when on hot days our teachers would occasionally take us "down the beck" with our cossies and a towel on the pretext of a nature walk. I am not particularly one for "the good old days" but I do have some lovely memories.
The Metal Bank
Lovely to read your memories, I used to play as a child on the metal bank near Stewarts farm, we would walk up the Lonning to Yeathouse then have a picnic at the boilers, we would visit the baby houses before making our way home. Happy Days
1950's Frizington
I grew up in Parkgate when there were three pubs and three shops, I schooled at St Pauls Junior School, Headmaster was a very strict Mr Moore with Mr Teare, Ms Bowness I think, Miss Martin and Mrs Crossthwaite. Those were the days when we could run for miles unsupervised all the way down to Hen Beck and beyond, playing outside on dark nights for hours until called in. The rivalry up and down the village no better revealled as bonfire night approached and each bonbfire was raided or prematurely set alight. And yes the many metal banks surrounding the village, I remember one being used to fill in a big hole that appeared overnight up by the Frizington gasworks. One night the gasholder itself tipped sideways like a cocked hat splilling water into the gas main and flooding the houses down the hill at Parkside. What a great downhill boggie run that hill was. Stewarts Farm delivered the bottled milk in a chariot, then there was the Bewley -... Read more
Bonfires
I remember most fondly the bonfires og Guy Fawkes Night in November. These structures would take weeks to build and always had a three piece suite at the centre. This was where the gang would 'live', yes live for some time prior to the 5th in order to guard the bonfire from envious onlookers and spies from other parts of the village desperate to burn it bown. Camping out night after night with mates like Whacker, Biscuit, Ronnie and Toshack. Sadly Toshack is no longer with us but the memory of him at silly o'clock in the morning would wake all gang members with his imaginary bugle! The bonfires were so big that tar from Jenkies sheds would melt many metres away. What great times, great people and fantastic places to play-yeathose, line-wood, woodhouse, blue dub, scars etc. Peter Walker
Slag Heaps
I was born in Birks Road, Cleator Moor in 1954. I was from a large family called Sheldrake. We lived over the railway bridge towards the brewery. The neighbours that I know of are: the Watsons, the Moors, the Wrights, the Richardsons, the Sumptons (I married one), the Rogans, Dempseys and Brocklebanks. Does anybody remember the old gasworks house that the Lister family lived in? Also John Kirby that lived at the brewery. My brothers, sisters and husband re-enacted many a cowboy film that they had seen at the Hip on the slag heaps.
My family moved to Birmingham in 1959. A lot of my relatives still live in the area so I still visit occasionally. My grandparents used to live in Egremont Main Street. Their names were Elizabeth and Philip Andrews. Their house was converted into a hairdresser's shop after their deaths. My mother had a large family and maybe someone can remember some of her siblings if not my mother. Her name was Elvina Andrews. There was also... Read more
"Mainscroft"
My father was headmaster, I think at St Cuthberts or St Patricks secondary school and we lived at" Mainscroft" in Cleator Moor. I remember going to school at St Mary's infants and have memories of fr Clayton and the grotto at the church. I remember the walk to school, the quarry pits and the doctors who lived opposite, one of whom drowned tragically at sea when we lived there. We moved to London in 1952 I think. I still have many memories of the streets, the surrounding mountains and the slate roofs of the houses and the stone steps.
