Current location:style >>
The perfect introduction to Wainwright's Lake District world
style3879People have gathered around
IntroductionAlfred Wainwright once compared Coniston in the southern Lake District with Zermatt way up in the Sw ...
Alfred Wainwright once compared Coniston in the southern Lake District with Zermatt way up in the Swiss Alps — saying each seemed to have a particularly strong affinity with their nearest mountains.
OK, the Old Man Of Coniston may rise to a mere 2,635ft, while the Matterhorn by Zermatt soars to a loftier 14,692ft, yet there is an element of truth to the great hiking scribe's fanciful comparison.
The village of Coniston, population 928, somehow feels as though it belongs to its mountain.
This close connection has a long history, with industry providing the glue.
For many years, copper and slate have been mined on the eastern slopes of the Old Man, dating from the days of Elizabeth I, when the first copper mines were established, with German miners shipped in.
Benevolent giant: Tom Chesshyre travels to the village of Coniston in the Lake District. Above, the Old Man of Coniston and Coniston Water
Tom stayed in a 'mountain cottage' (pictured) in Coppermines Valley, which sits above Coniston village
These Germans turned out to be more than just dab hands at working the copper seams. They are also believed to have introduced the recipes for local sausages that were eventually to become known as Cumberlands.
Whatever the truth of this, copper mining began in the 1560s and continued till the 1950s.
Slate is still quarried and it’s possible to buy lovely silvery-green slabs at Coniston Stonecraft, a workshop on the path up to the Old Man behind the Sun Hotel.
This tucked-away business is in old railway depot buildings for copper ore and slate; tracks used to wind up from Broughton-in-Furness.
Meanwhile, the Sun Hotel was where Donald Campbell is understood to have stayed the night before his fatal crash at nearly 300mph in Bluebird K7 during his attempt to break the world water speed record on Coniston Water in 1967.
Alfred Wainwright once compared Coniston (pictured) with Zermatt in the Swiss Alps, reveals Tom
The Old Man of Coniston has seen copper and slate mining activity since the days of Elizabeth I. Above, an abandoned slate mine on the mountain
LEFT: A 'mountain cottage' hot tub. RIGHT: Tom felt 'safe and sound' in his rental in Coppermines Valley
You can learn all about this at the Ruskin Museum, just off the high street, close to the gurgling water of Church Beck and a busy clutch of hostelries that mark the village centre at a crossroads by a bridge.
There’s a mangled piece of the ill-fated vessel at the back in a special Donald Campbell section.
The museum’s name comes from another historical ghost: John Ruskin, the social reformer and essayist (1819-1900), who had so loved the local scenery that he bought a mansion on the far bank of Coniston Water.
This building, called Brantwood (about a 45-minute walk along the lake from the village), is open to the public and offers an intriguing insight into Ruskin’s somewhat peculiar life.
Tom said the holiday cottage and its roaring fire 'felt a long way from anywhere in Britain’s "Swiss Alps"'. Pictured: The living room in one of the cottages
During his trip, Tom visits the Ruskin Museum - a 'rich source of local history'
Tom is the author of Lost In The Lakes: Notes From A 379-Mile Hike Around The Lake District
The Ruskin Museum is a rich source of local history. The root of the name Coniston goes way back to the Old Norse Konigs Tun (king’s settlement), referring to a Viking king named Thorstein.
Displays also capture the early days of mountaineering and the Fell & Rock Climbing Club, founded in 1906 and based in Coniston.
It would be churlish, if fit and the weather’s good, not to climb the Old Man. This I did, enjoying sweeping views across sparkling tarns to the Irish Sea and south to Morecambe Bay.
Then I descended to the village and went for a pint of Bluebird ale at the quaint Black Bull pub.
I was in good historical company. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge recorded that he had ‘dined on oatcake and cheese, with a pint of ale, and two glasses of rum and water sweetened with preserved gooseberries’ at the nearby Blacksmiths Arms, Broughton Mills, on his own hiking jaunt round the Lakes in 1802.
Back at my holiday cottage in Coppermines Valley, the fire roaring, it felt a long way from anywhere in Britain’s ‘Swiss Alps’, safe and sound with the ‘benevolent giant’ (Wainwright’s words) of the Old Man looming above.
TRAVEL FACTS
Three nights in a two-bed Coppermines cottage from £350 (coppermines.co.uk). More information: visitlakedistrict.com.
- Tom Chesshyre is author of Lost In The Lakes: Notes From A 379-Mile Hike Around The Lake District, published in paperback on February 7.
Tags:
Reprint:Friends are welcome to share on the Internet, but please indicate the source of the article when reprinting it.“Stellar Station news portal”。http://hungary.majalahburung.com/news-011e099987.html
Related articles
Cannes 2024: Studio Ghibli takes a bow with an honorary Palme d'Or
styleCANNES, France (AP) — Studio Ghibli, the Japanese anime factory of surreal ecological wonders that h ...
【style】
Read moreFamily Inherits Spirit of Lei Feng
styleContact Us HomeNewsHighlightACWF NewsSocietyWom ...
【style】
Read moreZhaji Ancient Village: Diamond Hidden in Mountains
styleContact Us HomeNewsHighlightACWF NewsSocietyWom ...
【style】
Read more
Popular articles
- Insider Q&A: CIA's chief technologist's cautious embrace of generative AI
- Green Women Power
- Bringing History of Women Red Army Soldiers to Life
- Tianhetan: 'Bonsai of Guizhou's Mountains and Water'
- Tamara Ecclestone is criticised as her daughter Fifi, 10, heads out wearing heavy make
- Inheriting Patriotic Virtue in Family 'Born with the Red Gene'
Latest articles
Who is Jacob Zuma, the former South African president disqualified from next week's election?
Hoping for a World Without Illness
Chinese Woman Reaches Peak of Neuroscience Research
China cruises past Mongolia on Asiad men's basketball opening day
Nadal returns to Roland Garros to practice amid doubts over fitness and form
No Struggle, No Success
LINKS
- Trump loses bid to halt Jan. 6 lawsuits while he fights criminal charges in the 2020 election case
- Punjab Kings run out of steam as Mumbai Indians win by 9 runs
- Packers could still look to upgrade secondary in NFL draft even after adding Xavier McKinney
- Kansas adds AJ Storr after he led Wisconsin in scoring this season
- San Francisco sues Oakland over new airport name that includes 'San Francisco'
- Two shootings, two different responses — Maine restricts guns while Iowa arms teachers
- Officer fatally shoots man who confronted him with knife, authorities say
- Kansas adds AJ Storr after he led Wisconsin in scoring this season
- University of Missouri plans $250 million renovation of Memorial Stadium
- MLB suspends Pirates Aroldis Chapman, fines him for 'inappropriate actions'