Bill's Blog

Water Desert

Lake Windermere… land of Beatrix Potter, Wordsworth… and now the land of ‘Vacancies’ signs in every window… the land of closing boatyards… suffering businesses and restaurants. Is this what the Water Authority and the Lake Park Authority wanted when they imposed the incredibly ill-thought speed limits on the the Lake? No. I don’t suppose for a minute that it is. I also don’t suppose either that they gave the result of their caving in to the clamouring voices and distorted opinions of the Fell-Walkers and Hikers, retired Colonels and especially the overseas residents that they consulted regarding this matter, a seconds thought.

What we now have is an economic wasteland along the shores of the lake. One that could be mitigated by a review of the imposed limitations, and that is something that the various authorities steadfastly refuse to do. Why? Because they know that their original decision-making was flawed and that they had allowed themselves to be unduly influenced by the vociferous minority interests who infest the area.

Half-empty Cruise Boat

The government report for the lake usage suggests that the lake is partitioned so that water-skiers can use certain sections away from any housing and general use by swimmers and day-boaters. There would also be a section where speed rules would undergo a general relaxation that was well away from the ferry or other specific habitation. This ineffably sensible suggestion regarding the lake was totally ignored by the powers that be. Like John Ruskin,  harborer of the right to selfishly restrict the use of Coniston Water because he owned a house there, and being also the man of great influence who obstructed the  incursion of the railways into the Lake District by condemning them as “…animated and deliberate earthquakes, destructive of all wise social habits or possible natural beauty, carriages of damned souls on the edges of their own graves…”,  they condemn the right of enjoyment by the majority in the pursuit of similar ‘Holier than thou‘ minority pursuits. In a world so crowded as ours, we must respect the need for commercialism in order for our way of life to exist and to support us when we travel. In a life of ever-narrowing available niches we must look for and find beauty through the visible gaps in our activity, but in order for us to find the gaps, there must be activity. To stifle it is not only unwelcome but most undemocratic. The combined Lakeland Authorities refuse unflinchingly to enter a debate regarding the huge mistake they have made.

I think their silence speaks volumes.

I think we should respond with our feet until they recognise our silence.

Boats, beauty, and commercial activity are not mutually exclusive.

They just need managing.

Properly…

The loss of the boaters means the following;

Loss of revenue for every activity surrounding the lake

Vacancy signs at most of the B&B establishments, even at busy times

Restaurants and Public Houses suffering a recession due to the social engineering of the Rules of Use for the lake

Shops and Retail Outlets in crisis with ‘Sale’ notices and reductions in most shops

Businesses for sale

Boatyards and shore-side businesses financially poised above a rule-induced precipice

The demolition of certain shore-side properties in Bowness in order to create a new ‘Holiday Inn’ hotel in the vain hope that this will bring ‘Tourism’ to the area. I might suggest that you had ‘Tourism’ in a way that other parts of the country can only yearn for before you thoughtlessly and completely ruined it by adopting a blinkered approach to the public that you are intended to serve.

As an open letter to all the involved authorities, if this is what you truly intended for the lake and its environs, then I wish you all the luck in the world with your social engineering project but I extend my sympathy to the unheeded people and businesses in the nearby towns over whom you wield your Ruskin-like influence. These people’s voices are never heard, or if indeed they are, they are never listened to.

And now… you want to dig up the Golf Course to create a picnic area instead…

What part of Economic Reality do you refuse to subscribe to?

Hi. Some years ago, my partner, Bryony Doran, (‘The China Bird, Bookline & Thinker Press, see link from my site.) sort of coerced me into making contact again with an old school friend, Michael. Now when i say an old school friend, this is a guy I lost contact with 37 years previously but never stopped talking about. When we were between six and 12 years old we used to hang around together getting into all sorts of mischief and also train-spotting.

It turned out that Michael had continued with his love of steam trains, eventually making a good living from Railway Memorabilia and other items of antiquity and had moved to South Wales. I contacted him through Friends Reunited and this is not, I hasten to add, an advert for that site, but it was a useful tool in this regard.

Mick came up to Sheffield on a three monthly basis to attend an auction of railway ’stuff’ and we had been surprisingly proximate in those visits but never coincided. He now stays with us on a regular basis although the auction has since moved down to Derby. Eighteen months ago Mick suggested that we travelled to Poland to try out ‘The Wolsztyn Experience’. This is a facility where you can be taught to drive, fire and clean out live, working steam engines. We made the arrangement and last September we set of for Wolsztyn, via Wroclaw airport thanks to Ryanair. I for one had little idea of what to expect. What we found was exceptional, wonderful and gratifying.

The first good news was that the Polish people are polite, understanding of foreigners, good-natured and very happy to show/discuss their homeland with you. So many spoke very good English that we came away with having learned little of Polish except thank you. (But don’t ask me to spell it!)

We overnighted in Wroclaw and spent next day there. The centre of the city is ancient, with areas unspoiled by the wars that have ravaged the country in the last centuries. The buildings are gracious and tall and the interiors of the churches are decorative almost beyond belief. Wherever we went the food was good, cheap and plentiful, evidence that the EU has not yet penetrated Polish society fully with its poisonous tentacles of uniformity.

From there the journey to Wolsztyn was a quite bland drive of lorry-dodging on well-surfaced but single lane roads for most of the time. There is only one motorway in Poland and I can assure you, we were not on it. Without mishap we arrived in Wolsztyn to find a hidden jewel of a town. The outskirts appear at first a little functional but as you move into the town proper it becomes a touch more quaint, with buildings of historical significance, famous artists, doctors etc. By the western edge of town, it is bordered by two beautiful and completely unused lakes that were crying out for a host of small sails, the slap of dipped oars or even the putter of engines. Where the town meets the lakes there is a small ‘promontory’. Almost pier-like, with a large circle of seating at the end, this juts out perhaps a hundred metres into the water. Because the entire western half of the town is covered by a free wifi broadband service, it was possible to sit out there surrounded by water, swans and late September breezes, answering emails on my iPhone.

As part of the Wolsztyn Experience our accommodation was provided in Howard’s(the organizer) house on the outskirts, yet only ten minutes walk from the station. The accommodation was rudimentary but clean and adequate and a catch-as-catch- can breakfast was available or even a cooked one if you ordered it previously. We ate out. We were given shift times. The train from Wolsztyn to Poznan ran twice a day, the journey of approximately 55 miles taking two and a half hours (or longer if we were driving). The train times were 5.25 a.m. and 1.25 p.m. I can tell you that the 5.25 a.m. train came as quite a shock to my system but as it turned out it was the best shift of the two. There are few things as dynamically dramatic as driving a steam loco in the pitch black pre dawn.

Dawn Firing

As we became used to the engines, the controlling of same became easier, and also the crews became used to us. They knew what we were (and were not) capable of and eventually allowed us to drive through areas where we were supposed to move over to allow them to take charge. Misplaced emotion or not, I felt this to be a great honour.

There are four main things to state about live steam locomotives. They are Noisy, Smelly, Hot, and Damned Hard Work… but there is a fifth… they are also wonderfully alive with a seemingly patient intelligence. Here is the inanimate made animate. Forget Shelley’s Frankenstein and his poor monster. This is what he would have made had he been a man of more pure vision. Even their ailments,  we encountered one or two, and remember, these are 56 year old engines, seemed to be human… sticking valves… misaligned joints… the very same arterioscleroses and arthritic complications we ourselves encounter. There is no doubt left in my mind as to the epithet given of …live steam.

I will write more on the Poland trip later but for now I have posted pictures and downloadable video of the trains on the site under ‘Wolsztyn Experience’. Enjoy.