Welcome to my Lakeland Blog
My Memories
One year i remember was the year it snowed i can’t remember the exact year but i would be about 10 or 12 there must have been about 12 inches and Jack Hill was impassable in a car and we turned it into a sledge run this was great for a few days till some spoil sport put ashes on it (there was no salt in those days) that put an end to that
.Sorry to jump to next bit good few years in between
After i got married we lived at wraysholme crossing for a number of years and i used to be in the Grange & District Wildfowlers association and i had a a labrador dog and i used to roam the Marsh with my friend Banky Williams who was a brilliant shot and who vertually never missed.he was a clever man who could neither read or write but he built a lot of houses down Quarry Lane in Allithwaite also what he did not know about guns was not worth knowing i spent quite a few hours with Banky in Allithwaite Quarry testing his guns and home made shot that he used to make himself, very clever man.
While we lived at crossings i was mad on motorcycles and in my time i have owned most of the british makes of motorbike including a three wheeler Morgan with the JAP v twin on the front not strictly a motorbike but no reverse, one bike in particular was an old Triumph sprung hub with a sidecar on it which i took the body off and just had a board on the frame and with a mate on the board we used to ride over the crossing as fast as we could trying to take off great fun could not do it now would be breaking some law or other.
We used to keep chickens while we were at crossings till one night a fox came out of Blenket wood and killed the lot foxes don’t just kill and take one they just kill but after some sleepless nights i eventually got him early one morning.
In those days i used to do a lot of skin diving a friend and myself went to Barrow in Furness and joined the Furness Sub Aqua Club and over the years got to be a first class diver i have dived in all the lakes and most of the tarns even dived under the ice at Lakeside where we did compass training.
I remember one weekend the wife and i were camped on the caravan site at Coniston and there was some young lads messing about in a speed boat this was getting on towards evening and suddenly the boat turned over and sank even though there was a big rescue atempt there was no one found the currents in Coniston are very srtong.
We have dived in a place called Brantwood which is the other side of the Lake where we discovered a cliff that went down a 100 ft straight down and a lot of fishermens tackle (hooks & floats) used to get stuck there and collecting them and selling them back to fishermen often paid for a tank of air.
One of my favourite dives was St Abbs Head off the coast of Scotland from in line with Edinburgh the water was super clear and visability was over 60 ft, one weekend we took some home made beer and made a night of it needless to say the next mornings dive was a bit strenuous still after being in water for a while it was great.
The wife and i went to Wales one week diving but i was not that keen and unfortunately it never stopped raining and blowing all week, as we were in a tent the wife was really impressed and we cut short our Wales trip and stopped at Chester Zoo for our young daughter on way home.