By: Adrian | 2010-10-08 | Hotels In iron making, charcoal was used as a fuel, but it also formed the vital ingredient for a substance in great demand by the mines and quarries gunpowder. The best charcoal for gunpowder production was obtained from alder and juniper. Its use was first recorded in the mines and quarries in the late seventeenth century, but the industry did not start in the Lake District until 1764, when John Wakefield of Ken¬dal built the Sedgwick Works. By the mid nineteenth century powder mills were operating a read more
By: Adrian | 2011-01-11 | Hotels In addition to its main outcrop lying athwart the central and highest part of the Lake District, the Borrowdale Volcanic beds also occur along the northern fringe beyond Skiddaw. Their distinctive character and the way they have influenced the scenery can be seen when one is passing through the strip of country between Cockermouth and Caldbeck. read more
By: Adrian | 2011-01-11 | Hotels In the central part of the Lake District much of the local stone is not a very suitable building material except for rough work. The volcanic rocks are usually too hard and difficult to dress, so that farm buildings are often a jumble of pieces of different shapes and sizes. read more
By: Adrian | 2011-01-01 | Hotels Jonathen Orley's appreciation of the different landscapes associated with the Skiddaw Slates and Borrowdale Volcanic rocks has been a recurring theme in all subse¬quent writings on the scenery of the Lake District. It figured prominently in the first official Geological Memoir covering the northern part of the area prepared by Clifton Ward after he had spent more than a decade in the field. The same aspect is dealt with at length in Marr's classic Geology of the Lake District which, although now read more
By: Adrian | 2011-01-11 | Hotels The varied sequence of older rocks which makes up the heart of the Lake Dis¬trict gives way to a series of younger and for the most part softer rocks on their margins. The Carboniferous and New Red Sandstone rocks form an incomplete encircling rim breached only by the penetrating estuaries of Morecambe Bay in the south. Where harder beds occur, like the compact and massive Carboniferous Limestone, they give rise to a series ofinfacing escarpments. read more
By: Adrian Vultur | 2010-10-08 | Travel & Leisure However attractive the landscape of the Lake District, it is almost as difficult to picture the scene without buildings as without sheep. Whether as isolated points of punctuation ... read more
By: Adrian | 2010-10-08 | Hotels The first roads of which we have any clear knowledge were constructed by the Roman armies in the years after the invasion of northern England in AD7879. The Romans were intent on conquering the whole of Britain, but eventually had to settle for defending a north¬ern border which ran from the Solway to the mouth of the Tyne (along the Stanegate, and subsequently Hadrian's Wall). The frontier was continued down the coast to Moresby (near Whitehaven) as a line of forts linked and backed up by roads read more
By: Adrian | 2011-01-11 | Hotels The most continuous of the low morainic ridges runs from the meander loop of the Stonethwaite Beck by the roadside south of Rosthwaite in an arc across to the Derwent bank opposite Longthwaite, thence southward to near Borrowdale Church. Opposite Longthwaite the River Derwent has cut into the moraine and exposed its constituent boulders, gravels and clays. Further moraines indicating subsequent halts during the general retreat of the valley glacier southwards into the mountain fastness occur aro read more
By: Adrian | 2011-01-11 | Hotels The valleys of the southeastern fell country are amongst the finest of the Lake District and again glaciation has played its part in moulding their form. Perhaps they lack some of the grandeur and splendid ruggedness of Borrowdale or Great Langdale but their unspoiled character more than makes amends. read more
By: Adrian | 2011-01-11 | Hotels In one part of the Lake District, north of Ullswater, the Carboniferous rocks form a conglomerate, with pebbles set in sandy matrix. The individual pebbles are derived from the Skiddaw Slate, Borrowdale Volcanic Rocks, Coniston Lime¬stone, Silurian grit and even Shap granite. As some of the rock types occur some distance away, it is assumed that they were brought to their present site by powerful floods in the distant geological past. read more
By: Adrian | 2010-10-08 | Hotels Although the low axle speeds were needed for the mines and iron working sites, the bobbin mills used narrow lightly built wheels, geared up to drive line shafting and high speed lathes. At Stott Park the mill was originally powered in the late 1830s by a 32ft (10m) diameter wheel which was later replaced by turbines, a steam engine and finally electric motors. The main reservoir of water for the mill is nearby at High Dam, a popular picnic area with its old charcoal coppices and larch trees. Few read more
By: Adrian | 2010-10-08 | Hotels Since medieval times, the Lake District had its turners producing cups, platters and dishes from birch and sycamore. This rural craft became a famous largescale industry with the rise of the Lancashire cotton industry in the late eighteenth century. Steam-powered cotton spinning mills required millions of wooden reels and bobbins. Between the 1790s and 1860 over 60 bobbin mills were established in the Lake District, mainly in the High Furness area, but as far afield as Caldbeck, Keswick, Eskdale read more
By: Sue Dixon | 2010-07-08 | Destinations William Wordsworth wrote his best poetry at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, in England's Lake District. I live in the only house ever owned by Wordsworth, White Moss House and I use my local knowledge to guide readers around Wordsworth's homes. Find which of Wordsworth's homes are open to public viewing, and discover more about William Wordsworth's Lake District. Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, Cumbria, and lived moist of his long life in Grasmere and later in Rydal, in England's lake district. read more
By: Adrian | 2011-01-11 | Hotels One striking feature of corrie basins is the way in which the majority have a north or northeast aspect . There are obvious exceptions like those which serrate the southern slopes of Blencathra, but taken as a whole a northeast orientation is dominant. It is this preferential development which gives many 66 of the ridges their asymmetrical appearance. No greater contrast of landforms exists than on the opposing sides of Helvellyn or the internally ridge separating Ennerdale and Buttermere. read more
By: Sally Fielding | 2011-05-29 | Travel Tips Eskdale is one of the most beautiful valleys in the Lake District. Situated in the quieter side of the National Park, it has a peaceful tranquillity that makes it especially appealing to those who want to avoid the crowds. Amid all this tranquillity are several fantastic pubs serving great food and some fine ales. read more