by Maggie B Dickinson The daddy of all time pieces, in film-going terms, is probably the gem on Virgin’s West Coast Line at Carnforth in Lancashire, UK. The clock (as The Clock) supported the main characters Celia Johnson (as Laura Jesson) and Trevor Howard (as Dr Alec Harvey), as they headed dangerously and deliciously towards…
Category: The Lake District
For Valour
JAMES HEWITSON VC OF CONISTON 1892 – 1963 Originally published by Cumbria magazine November 2018 On November 11th 2018 Remembrance Sunday falls exactly one hundred years to the day since the Great War officially ended with the signing of an armistice between the Allies and Germany, at Compiégne in France. For four years thousands of men had…
On the trail of Shawn Williamson
Reprinted with kind permission of Cumbria magazine, originally published September 2018 If anyone is leaving their mark for posterity on Cumbria, and other points of the compass, it is Shawn Williamson. At the moment he is creating an amazing trail of rock sculptures around the Low Wood Bay Resort and Spa. Shawn was a seaman on the Great…
Lakeland’s Last Box Standing – The AA in Cumbria
Lakeland’s Last Box Standing – The AA in Cumbria Originally published in Cumbria magazine July 2015 Braving the elements on Dunmail Raise, an exposed mountain pass between Grasmere and Thirlmere, is the yellow and black Automobile Association ‘sentry’ box number 487 that has stood its ground for eighty three years. If only the box could…
‘We’ve gone on holiday by mistake’
‘We’ve gone on holiday by mistake’ WITHNAIL & I In the thirty years since it hit cinema screens Withnail & I has achieved major cult status. It is recognised as one of the best black comedies the British film industry has ever produced. A word of warning: it is definitely not for those with a…
Professor of Adventure
Professor of Adventure Millican Dalton 1867 – 1947 Maggie B Dickinson – Published in Cumbria magazine December 2017 Despite its diminutive height, the pretty wooded conicular eminence of Castle Crag stands its ground within the dramatic “Jaws of Borrowdale” that dominate the skyline and restrict passage through this narrow part of the valley. During November especially…
Peace by Peace
Josefina Alys Hermes de Vasconcellos MBE 26 October 1904 – 20 July 2005 Maggie B Dickinson Cumbria Magazine October 2017 For a sculptor of worldwide acclaim, whose amazing legacy of artistic endeavour also graces Cumbria, Josefina Alys Hermes de Vasconcellos deserves to be better remembered. Tall and slightly-built, she was an attractive woman with green…
Farmer Potatoes Revealed
Beatrix Potter couldn’t possibly have imagined that the 150th anniversary of her birth would prompt the wealth of celebrations taking place this year, both at home and abroad. More to the point – would she have approved? Fame didn’t sit easily on her shoulders. Despite achieving fame as one of the most widely-read authors in…
Coniston’s VC Hero
Reprinted by kind permission of Cumbria magazine – Issue November 2011 Apart from outdoor pursuits and an excellent range of tourist facilities visitors are drawn to Coniston for several reasons, not least through Donald Campbell’s tragic death in 1967 whilst attempting to break his own world water speed record. And what of the influential John…
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