A Plethora of Pubs

There are dozens (hundreds?) of pubs in the Lake District, catering to the needs of tourists and day-trippers, hikers and climbers, not forgetting the local population, of course.

The one with perhaps the most interesting name is The Drunken Duck which, like many Lakeland inns, has oak floors and old beams. The legend about the name is that the landlady of the inn found ducks lying stretched out in the road and concluded they were dead, so she began to pluck and prepare them for dinner. However, down in the cellar a barrel had slipped its hoops and beer had drained from the floor into the duck’s feeding ditch. The ducks took full advantage but awoke to find themselves plucked and halfway to the oven. Full of remorse for the rough treatment, the landlady knitted the ducks waistcoats of Hawkshead yarn until their feathers grew back again.

Another pub with an unusual name is The Mortal Man, in the village of Troutbeck, between Ambleside and Windermere. Its name comes from a sign painted for the landlord in the 18th century by a painter called Julius Caesar Ibbetson. One legend is that the remains of a local man may be buried under the pub; but it’s equally possible that the ‘mortal man’ is the drunkard, drinking himself to death!

A newer pub, Wainwrights’ Inn at Chapel Stile in Langdale is part of the Langdale Estate of timeshare wooden  lodges. If its apostrophe is in the correct place, the name refers to the makers of the wooden carts (or ‘wains’) which were used to transport slate in the local quarries, and not, as many people think, to Alfred Wainwright, the author of many Lakeland guide books.

The Three Shires Inn, a traditional slate inn in the Little Langdale Valley, was built in 1872 near the meeting point of the old counties of Westmorland, Lancashire and Cumberland (now part of the county of Cumbria).

My favourite village of Hawkshead has four pubs. The oldest, the Red Lion, was a 15th century coaching inn. The archway through which coaches drove into the stabling yard still exists, as do the medieval carved figures under the eaves.

Another pub, dating from Tudor times (16th century) is the King’s Arms, which is in the main square, and there are two 17th century inns, the Sun Inn and the Queen’s Head.


The latter, a black and white half-timbered pub, is a familiar sight to all visitors to Hawkshead as it stands in the main street, where the road narrows. Inside it is cosy and welcoming, with slate floors, oak beams, and wood panelling. One interesting curio in the pub, now kept in a glass case, is a huge shoe, known as Haaksid's Girt Clog. It was specially made for John Waterson, the local molecatcher, who contracted a form of elephantiasis that greatly enlarged his left foot. The shoe measures 20 inches long and 16 inches wide.

This is just a ‘taster’ of the many pubs in Lakeland, and no, I haven’t been in them all - yet!

Names - Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Norse

Starting another week with the A-Z blogging challenge, and now we're onto the second half of the alphabet.

The names of many Lake District places, mountains, valleys and lakes come from ancient languages.



The oldest probably come from the pre-Roman Celtic language, which is related to Welsh and Cornish, mixed with influences from southern Scotland. This led to words such as stickle (meaning steep place, from the Celtic skikill), and crag (meaning rock, from the Welsh ‘craic’). These words are very common in the Langdale area, with Harrison Stickle, Pike O’Stickle, Gimmer Crag and Loft Crag.

From the Anglo-Saxon times (about 700 – 900 AD) come words like ‘tun’ meaning farmstead or village, and ‘mere’, the word for lake. So we have Coniston (meaning King’s town – not sure who the king was!), and Windermere (Winander’s Lake). Incidentally, although many people refer to Windermere as ‘Lake Windermere’ and Grasmere as 'Lake Grasmere', this is technically wrong, since the ‘mere’ suffix indicates a lake, but this seems to be done to distinguish the lakes from the small towns which have the same name.

A lot of Lake District names are derived from Old Norse. The Norsemen arrived around 925AD, and gradually settled in the area. Maybe it reminded them of their Scandinavian homeland, with its mountains, valleys and lakes.



There are many names which still retain the Norse influence e.g:

Beck – steam  - from bekkr Dale – valley - from dalr
Force – waterfall - from fors
Fell – a large mountain - from fjallr
Ghyll – ravine - from gill
Howe – hill - from haugr
Holme – isalnd - from holmr
Pike – peak - from pic
Side or Seat – shieling/dwelling or mountain pasture - from saetr
Tarn – small lake - from tjorn
Thwaite – forest clearing - from thveit

These words were often linked with the Norse chieftain who established a settlement in the area. For example, the name Hawkshead derives from the Norseman 'Haukr' who had a dwelling or 'saetr' in this place. Its medieval name  was Howksete, which was sometimes spelt as Haaksid - hence the modern name.

I’ve tried to explain some of these names when I’ve used them in earlier posts, but hope this list clarifies any I might not have explained! I must admit the origin of modern place names fascinates me!  

Just Reminiscing

J had me stumped for a while. The only place in the South Lakes beginning with J that I could think of was Jack’s Rake, a steep gully climb traversing Pavey Ark in Langdale. However, as I’ve never done this climb, it would be cheating to pretend I had!

Instead, I decided I’d ‘just reminisce’ about some of my memories of our caravan years that don’t fit into any of my other A-Z categories.

Our caravan stood with 4 others in a field belonging to a farm just outside Hawkshead village. From the road, you couldn’t see it at all, as the ground rose in a small incline from the gate , and the caravan was in a dip at the far end of the field. The small incline caused huge problems at times. If the weather was (or had been) wet, then the ground was muddy, of course. The trick was to turn in through the gate (a sharp turn from the road) then put your foot down to reach the top of the incline without getting stuck. Sometimes I managed it, and breathed a sigh of relief, but it didn’t always work. Several times, the car wheels spun relentlessly, churning up and flinging mud in all directions. Then it was a case of having to ask the farmer to drag us out of the mud with his tractor!

A few feet from the back of the caravan, there was a steep drop down to a small steam (known as a ‘beck’ in Lakeland). My daughters used to spend hours playing among the stones in the beck, paddling and trying to build dams (unsuccessfully) – what is it about kids and water? When the water was low, it provided a gently soothing sound at night when we were sleeping; when it was high, it sounded more like an old steam train going right past the caravan window.

The same view of the beck, this time in full flood

The caravan was under some old beech trees. The sap from these necessitated frequent cleaning of the sides and top of the van. When it rained (as it does frequently in the Lake District), we didn’t get the gentle pitter-patter of the rain on the roof of the van. Instead, the leaves dripped water on to it, in a very uneven pattern – ‘plop… plip, plop, plip …plop, plop..’ etc. Definitely not conducive to falling asleep easily!

Just a short walk (or an even shorter drive) up the lane from our field brought us to the start of a pathway leading up to a small fell (only 800ft) called Latterbarrow. At the top is a very large obelisque, but its main claim to fame is the wonderful view of Windermere. I’ve lost count of the number of times we went to the top – once was with a group of about 12 Girl Guides, another was at about ten o’clock on a beautiful June evening, when it was still partly light and we watched all the lights come on in the houses and hotels around the lake. Magic!




I could go on with many other memories - the late night cooking sessions, the frogs we bought on each visit (pottery ones!), the card and board games we played (Sorry, Uno and Newmarket were our favourites), the domino games with the 'locals' at the Queen's Head pub in the village, squelching through mud and basking in sunshine, and the clear night skies with millions of stars (and sometimes we could even see the Milky Way),

But enough for now. I’m smiling as I remember all the fun we had up there, in all seasons and all weather. Happy days!

Hawkshead - my Home from Home

 I shall have to exercise severe restraint with this post, since this village is my favourite of all the Lake District villages. It’s also the one I know best so I could write reams about it. My parents bought a caravan on a farm on the outskirts of the village in the 1960’s, and I used to go up there regularly for over 30 years.

Thought you might like to see this photo of my new caravan going on site in the 80’s. As you can imagine, I was holding my breath and hoping it wouldn’t go too far and crash over the 10 foot drop into the rocky stream under the trees!

In the 60's, one could still drive into the centre of the village, and usually find a parking spot in the main square. The shops were traditional local shops, post office, newsagent. grocery, even a Co-op store. Over the years, that all changed in response to the needs (demands?) of tourists. The narrow streets couldn’t cope with the increasing traffic, so a bypass was built, and also a large car park on the edge of the village. More and more shops opened, again to cater to the tourists – souvenir shops and clothing stores. By the 90’s the village had become a tourist mecca, with buses dropping them off in droves and cars fighting for a place in the car park.

The centre of the village has, however, remained unchanged (apart from the crowds!). It’s very picturesque (hence its popularity) with whitewashed houses, small courtyards and squares, archways and alleyways, and cobbled streets.

The church, on its hill overlooking the village, was first built in about 1300 and later enlarged. William Wordsworth described it as  “the snow-white lady” as its walls used to be whitewashed. Inside, it still has the wall paintings of Bible texts, dating from the 17th century.

Just below the church is the old Grammar School founded in the 16th century by the son of a local family, Edwin Sandys, who became Archbishop of York. Wordsworth attended this school which is now a museum and his name can be seen carved into one of the desks.

The cottage where he lodged while at school is still there, as is the aptly named ‘Pillar House’ with its outside staircase. Fancy having to go outside and up the stairs to go to bed when it was freezing cold or pouring with rain!

One narrow street, now known as Wordsworth Street, was once called Leather, Rag and Putty Street, indicating the occupations of the tradespeople who once lived there.

The village was granted a market charter in 1608 and the 17th century Market Hall still dominates one side of the market square. The arched windows on the ground floor used to be open arches, known as Shambles, where butchers would come to sell meat products on market day.

I’ve seen Hawkshead in all seasons and all weathers, and although I don’t get up there very often these days, it still holds a special place in my heart, as well as many happy memories. It's one of the reasons I set my romance novel 'Fragrance of Violets' in a small Lakeland village which, although 'imaginary', DOES resemble Hawkshead in some aspects!

The English Lake District

Thanks to Sylvia Ney for this 'Smart Cookie' award.  I've never thought of myself as 'smart cookie' before LOL

Rules for recipients:

1) Thank and provide a link to the persona who awarded you.

2) Share 4 interesting or little known facts about anything.

3) Pass the award on to other "smart cookies".

Okay, so for my 4 interesting facts, I'll give you four facts about the English Lake District, since my recently released romance 'Fragrance of Violets' is set there.

1. The poet William Wordsworth is buried in Grasmere Churchyard.  Probably his most famous poem is 'Daffodils'

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high, o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw crowd,

A host of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

2. Wordsworth attended this school in the village of Hawkshead, from 1778 to 1787. The school was founded in 1585, but the present building dates from 1675, and it remained as a school until 1909.



Like many schoolboys, he even carved his name on one of the desks (now preserved in a special frame)

3. St Michael and All Angels Church in Hawkshead is on a small hill
overlooking the village.

Wordsworth wrote about it in one of his poems:

I saw the snow-white church upon her hill
Sit like a throned lady sending out
A gracious look over all her domain.

At the time he was at school in Hawkshead, the 12th century church was whitewashed, hence the 'snow-white church'.

4. Near to the village Hawkshead is the small hamlet of Near Sawrey, where the children's writer Beatrix Potter lived.  She bought a 17th century stone house, called Hill Top, in 1905, and lived there for several years. Many of her characters, such as Tom Kitten and Jemima Puddleduck, were created here, and her books contain pictures which show the house and garden.



Now to award some other 'Smart Cookies' - doesn't say how many, so any blogger from The Writers' Post blog group is welcome to pick up this award, since you're all 'smart cookies'!