by David Murray on August 24, 2011
David Joy’s 270-page volume on the railways of what is now Cumbria is a “must” for anyone seriously interested in either the general history of the Lake District county or the railway history of northern England. Published in 1983 by David & Charles of Newton Abbot it came as Volume 14 of the major series, “A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain”.
Two lines in the south of the region reached to Windermere. The branch from the Oxenhome mainline station through Kendal, Burneside and Staveley to Windermere village (built shorter than originally planned after strong opposition from William Wordsworth) still functions. The Ulverston to Lakeside line branched from the Furness railway and a small part from Haverthwaite survives as a tourist attraction. Then there was the now defunct Coniston branch, and the narrow gauge line from Ravenglass up to the lower slopes below Scafell. This latter continues as the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, and is one of the region’s great tourist attractions.
Only one line, though, ever penetrated deep into the Lake District and went right through to the other side. That was the Cockermouth-Keswick-Penrith line which, following it from east to west, passed to the north of Derwentwater and continued along the shore of Bassenthwaite Lake on its way ultimately to the coast at Workington; the author starts his book with the sad story of its demise in the 60s and 70s of last century.
Whilst a few lines had local passenger carrying and tourism potential the great majority were driven by the growth of extractive industries – coal, iron ore, copper and slate. The complex webs of railway lines around Furness and the Cumberland west coast near Workington and Whitehaven, not to mention those of the Eden Valley and the trans-Pennine route over Stainmore, were all industrially driven. Their decline followed the contraction and disappearance of the industries they were created to serve.
The story was well told by David Joy in this volume written thirty years ago, and although shorter books have been written on individual lines and Gordon Suggitt’s “The Lost Railways of Cumbria” is one that covers similar ground in a smaller format, there has since been no work on the same scale to supercede it.
This title is long out of print but copies are widely available on the secondhand market. To see used copies available through Amazon.co.uk click on the book cover above or here on: Railways History – The Lake Counties
by David Murray on August 13, 2011
Here’s a little book that I came across today at the Rheged Centre near Penrith. I bought a copy and have devoured it since returning home.
Its small size betrays the wealth of information and ideas inside its covers. The idea is simple. The M6 motorway, north of Lancaster and Carnforth, as it enters Cumbria wends its way through some magnificent scenery just outside the eastern fringes of the Lake District. Within a few minutes of motorway insections 36 to 44 are some wonderful places to visit.
You may want to take a break somewhere more appealing than a service station (although the Westmorland Services north of Tebay are probably the best in Britain!) or you may like to make a dawdling detour for a little while, leaving at one junction and returning to fast driving at the next – or the next but one. Peter Johnson, the author, doesn’t go into detail on the nearby towns, such as Kendal, Sedbergh, Penrith or Carlisle but concentrates on smaller interesting places to visit with fifteen minutes of an M6 intersection – and with free parking!
This little book is a great guide in a small space. Sadly, although I bought my copy from a good stock at Rheged today, I’ve checked and it isn’t in great supple on the Internet. However, here is a link through our own bookstore which then takes you to the right place on Amazon’s marketplace, and I hope you can find a copy of M6 Cumbria.
by David Murray on July 18, 2011
It may come as a surprise to many to know that surrounding the Lake District there once was a web of railway lines. Especially since the 60s and 70s most have lost their rails, although quite a number have taken on a new lease of life as footpaths, while their disused viaducts have come to be protected as monuments to the engineering skill and artistry of their Victorian builders. Other stretches of track are now in the enthusiastic care of preservation societies.
This excellent little paperback of 160 pages (published by Countryside Books, 2008) is packed with interesting content. This is supported by a wealth of black & white photography showing ‘lines gone by’ from the Solway coast down to the coal and iron empires of West Cumberland, then further to the steel and shipbuilding of the Furness Peninsula, and round to the east on virtually forgotten lines by Sedbergh, Tebay and even over Stainmore to the east coast connurbations … and these are just a sample of what is covered.
Whether interested in railways for their own sake, or simply in the history of the region from the mid-19th century onwards, I can’t see how anyone can fail to be fascinated by these stories of how goods and people once were moved on rails around what is now Cumbria in the days before the triumph of asphalt and the internal combustion engine.
Click here or on the graphic above to buy your copy … and there’s a good deal; you’ll pay less than I did for mine.
