Wartime refugees, sheep dip days and tales of sweet saving
Last updated 05:15, Friday, 21 November 2008
A NEW book recording memories of Caldbeck life from yesteryear has drawn praise from celebrated Cumbrian author Lord Melvyn Bragg.
The Caldbeck & District Local History Society has spent more than two years gathering untold stories for Memories of Lakeland.
Spanning more than 80 years the accounts draw on photographs, childhood tales and the lives and work of farmers, miners and millers.
Dr Ron Davie, president of the society, said: “This publication has been a labour of love for a group of the society’s members.
“Stemming from interviews with 25 people from Caldbeck, Fellside, Hesket Newmarket, Uldale and Dalston, the book taps a rich vein of local heritage.
“It is full of fascinating, often poignant, accounts of rural life from the early part of the twentieth century to its end.”
One chapter is devoted to the story of the grandmother of Caldbeck resident Olive Hadwine.
Widowed in the 1920s with a young family to feed, Olive’s grandmother started Cadlbeck-based Tyson’s Haulage with just a horse and cart.
Dr Davie said: “It is an inspirational story about how a young woman worked to bring up her family by the bootstraps.”
Another chapter contains the wartime reflections of a 14-year-old Nelson Thomlinson schoolgirl who died prematurely.
Based on a school essay kept by her sister, Kathleen Ashbridge, it describes the local excitement at the outbreak of World War Two, which was quickly followed by sadness when many of the young men who left Caldbeck to fight never came home.
Dr Davie said the evocative account also details how children would save their sweet pennies for the Red Cross and how they would gather herbs and newspaper for the war effort.
Sheep clipping day at Woodhall Farm is also remembered along with a wartime refugee’s recollections of the village.
Lord Bragg, who grew up in Wigton, said of the book: “Caldbeck has always been one of my favourite villages and this is a wonderful companion.
“Over the past few decades the history of this country has increasingly been told by those who have lived through it and this is a notable contribution.
“The photographs are a fine reminder of past times and I would guess the whole enterprise has brought the community together and it gives the rest of us a rich history of Caldbeck.”
The book is being launched in the Parish Hall, Caldbeck on Saturday, November 29, at 2pm at a special launch price of £7.50.
The book is also available from Bookends in Carlisle and Keswick and from the Bluebell Bookshop in Penrith, priced £8.99.
