A paddle up the Pennines 1977 Published June 2012 in Down Your Way as “Jubilee bunting spurs us on for big walk” To celebrate my fortieth birthday in 1977 I walked the Pennine Way with my late husband David and 12-year old daughter Vanessa. Sodden sheep lurking without intent behind dry stone walls, life-threatening peat…
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…
Road to Freedom for Girl on a Golden Rudge
Road to Freedom for Girl on a Golden Rudge Re-published by kind permission of Down Your Way from their issue of June 2012 One extremity-numbing Saturday morning in November 1953 a friend and I set off on our bicycles for a weekend at Aysgarth Youth Hostel, a YHA buzzword on the strength of the warden’s…
Guide Dog on Samos
Guide Dog on Samos April-May 1989 I’m not a huge fan of animals, being nervous of most dogs and squeamish about wildlife. But just now and again I could cheerfully take a cute little pup or a fluffy kitten home with me: like the winsome little mongrel we met on Samos. My late husband, known…
Miss Hartley’s Peanuts
Miss Hartley’s Peanuts Originally published under Margaret Drake in Lancashire Life – 1970s Miss Hartley, who taught third-year infants at Barrowford Council School (now Barrowford Primary School), was everyone’s favourite teacher. In her classroom were a piano, a grand wooden desk on which she kept a box of Ink Eradicator and the register. Huge windows,…
New Forest Snake Catcher
New Forest Snake Catcher Published Countryman magazine June 2011 The old man had a huge forked beard and wore a large hat with an upturned brim. In one hand was a tall pronged stick and dangling from the other were some kind of metal traps. The shabby attire included a substantial long jacket and leg…
‘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…
Swanside Packhorse Bridge
Swanside Packhorse Bridge, Rimington, Lancashire GRID REFERENCE SD 78496 45380. Grade 11-Listed Lancashire County Council takes care of this genuine packhorse bridge, which has been well serviced and repaired over the years. I would date it 17th century, and believe it would have replaced an earlier model. The major building period for packhorse bridges was…
Precious Time
From choice I’d have preferred a store voucher, instead of a carriage clock for my mantel shelf, when I retired for there is something strangely perverse in giving a tick tock of any denomination to mark the occasion. It’s almost an insult, considering a person’s entire working life has centred round the need to arrive…
The Wrinkled English Woman on Patmos
I was so mad I could have Riverdanced on the spot in sheer temper. To make matters worse I was minding my own business at the time. Before she delivered the blow I could honestly say that not only was I happy I was at peace with the world – but let me rewind to…
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