Of the many places associated with King Arthur, Cornish Tintagel or Glastonbury Tor spring to mind. But what these places lack in archaeological evidence is compensated by fiction and the lure of the tourist pound (250,000 visitors pay to enter Tintagel Castle annually.) Cumbria also has its fair share of sites affiliated with the name…
Lorna Graves’ Landscape
I sleep in the valley by the river. I work with clay, sitting with my feet in the water. I wonder in the hills above the Eden Valley and rest in a sheepfold sheltered from the wind.Lorna Graves Discovering the art of Lorna Graves was like falling through a portal into a subterranean world. Gateways…
Sea to the West – Blinded by Dazzle
By the mid-1970s my natural playground was the slagged cliffs and green-slimed rocks of Workington beach. There was a rent in the cliffs that let you down over the edge, sliding steeply towards a hole in the cliff face and clamber down through a cave that stank of algae and piss, out onto the coal-jewelled…
Lockdown of Literary Monsters
The long winter lockdown months led to many pages being turned. Maybe the time of year, with thoughts of spring and rejuvenation influenced my choice of books. All four had familiar themes; a quest for knowledge, mystery, macabre, and demons. It was a lockdown of literary monsters. Monster is too strong a word for these…
Walton Wood Cottage No.1
October half-term. A long-planned visit to Edinburgh, staying in the Community Hall of Well Court, part of Edinburgh World Heritage Dean Court. These apartments were built in 1886 as a model housing development for artisans and worker families employed by the many mills that dipped their wheels in the Water of Leith. The Water of…
Thomas West’s Guide to the Lakes
Maggie Smith was right to insist her room had a view. We pay a premium for hotel rooms with stunning vistas and would Helena Bonham-Carter think Florence so sublime overlooking the Pensione Bertolini’s car-park? Merchant-Ivory’s film of E M Forster’s novel grants us an insight into the Grand Tour, the Gap Year for Victorian well-to-do’s…
The Last Post Of Dunluce Castle
For Game of Thrones fans, Dunluce Castle is a highlight of any Northern Ireland location tour. Perching precariously on the basalt outcrops of the Antrim coast, its dramatic situation, plus a touch of CGI, turned Dunluce Castle into Castle Pike, Seat of the House Greyjoy, in fictional Westeros. For naval researchers, H.M.S. Dunluce Castle is a frequent posting on personnel…
Hostilities Only
Hostilities Only is the story of my father Robert Brooks’ time as a Hostilities Only rating in the Royal Navy during World War 2. Over one million people (923,000 men and 86,000 women) served in the Royal Navy during that War. Thousands of men and women enlisted after a recruitment campaign to help meet the…
A Rose Tinted Spectacle
Anthony Salvin isn’t an instantly recognisable name. Yet many instantly recognisable buildings know the hand of Anthony Salvin. Between 1799 and 1881, Salvin became, according to the famous art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the most successful restorer and purveyor of castles in the 2nd half of the 19th Century. Salvin pioneered the Gothic revival in…
A Treasure Hunt Around Grune Point
Sheltering by heavy gorse from a brisk onshore wind, the bowed figure was silhouetted against the pale wintry sky on my walk around Grune Point. There is a place along the curving shingle of the Point where, at low tide, the Irish Sea ends and all that remains is sand. This is where I caught…
Brampton Old Church
Brampton is surrounded by ancient history. Just over a mile to the east of modern-day Brampton stands the surviving nave of Brampton Old Church, perched on a sandstone bluff overlooking a sweep of the River Irthing. Its strategic position was recognised by the Roman Army whose ‘stone road’ or Stanegate ran below the bluff at…