Having worked in fairly industrial areas of West Yorkshire in the early part of my career, it was a major change when I moved to Cumbria in the late 1980s to join The Westmorland Gazette as a Senior Reporter.
The Lake District was already one of my favourite parts of the country. I had read Arthur Ransome’s classic Swallows and Amazons books as a child and so felt a strong affinity with lakes like Windermere and Coniston Water. I had also already climbed a number of the Lakeland fells.
So I was very keen to get out and about and experience the marvellous scenery this area has to offer.
My first week at the newspaper was largely office-based, with occasional trips out on assignments in Kendal, such as to the local magistrates’ court, which in those days was located in Kendal Town Hall.
But on the Monday of my second week I had the opportunity to finally get out into the heart of the national park.
The News Editor asked me to do a news feature on the work of Wray Castle College of Marine Electronics, which in those days was located in Wray Castle, near Ambleside. RMS Wray Castle was a training college for Merchant Navy radio officers, with up to 150 cadets living in the castle while studying the procedures and regulations regarding the use of radio at sea.
Coniston Water - Image by Dave Noonan from Pixabay
I drove there in the morning, enjoying the journey along the A591 to Ambleside and then on to Wray. I was shown around the college and told about its work by one of its officers and enjoyed lunch with the cadets in the dining room.
Words secured in my notebook, I headed back to Kendal. But, instead of returning on the same route, I chose instead to take a bit of a detour and headed through Outgate, over Hawkshead Hill and down the western shore of Coniston Water, all the time admiring the fantastic scenery.
As I reached the southern end of the lake I spotted Peel Island over to my left. This was one of the islands that Arthur Ransome used as the model for Wild Cat Island in the Swallows and Amazons series. It is shaped like his fictional Wild Cat Island and has the same rock-sheltered ‘secret harbour’ at its southernmost point.
I pulled over and got out of the car. It was a warm autumnal day and I stood for a while gazing up and down the lake and taking in the natural beauty.
I still had to return to the office and write up my feature but at that moment none of this seemed like work. I felt very privileged to be working in such a wonderful place.
Soon afterwards I was given the ‘Lakes patch’ as my specialist district, from which I was asked to make contacts and bring in off-diary stories each week. This patch included Windermere, Bowness, Ambleside, Grasmere, the Langdale Valley and Coniston.
I quickly realised how lucky I was and how there could not be many other reporters with such a spectacular working environment.