Something more interesting

Blip Number 1500

When I celebrated four years' of blipping just a few weeks ago, I was thousands of miles away from home. For this blipday I decided somewhere much closer to home was required. The idea was to go to a place I like a lot and which holds many memories for me -  Fellside, near Caldbeck. I love to walk along the old miners' track by the stream, over the bridges and up to the mines at Roughton Gill. It is peaceful, undulating and a joy to be in so much space. Today I would take a pretty picture of fells and valley.

This was not to be - it was fine and warm and it was great to walk, but the cloud cover was very low over the hills and hardly lifted whilst I was out. Pretty pictures of hills and blue skies were definitely out, but then pretty pictures are not really my thing anyway. I like a bit of interest.

I was just looking over these ruins and wondering, when a guy with a lovely sheepdog stopped by and asked if I would like to know about the ruins. Of course I would!

I knew the Caldbeck mines were once very important - they were a major producer of copper and lead ore and at the time this would have been a very busy place indeed. For here was once a Smelt Mill for the mines further up the valley. Here the lead ore was refined into pure metal ingots to make transportation easier. One can even see, across the track behind where I was standing, the indentation where a pipe once ran up the fell side to take away fumes from the mill.
 
When the mill was no longer used and became derelict it was converted into six cottages for miners and their families. Sadly, it is thought that they all died of Diphtheria, but I can find no record of this anywhere.
  
So not a pretty view, but an overview of the valley, the track, the stream and some ruins with a history. Much more interesting - or at least I think so anyway and that's what counts.


 
Two afterthoughts
We have decided at the last minute to go and see the live screening of Hamlet from Stratford. We didn't know whether to go to see it, as we so much loved seeing it live on stage. But we are going - hope they manage to capture some of the sheer exuberance of the production.
 
It is the awarding of the Bailey's Women's Prize for fiction tonight. For the last few years I have managed to read all the books and successfully picked the winner. I have only read two of the books this year so cannot give an opinion. I hope The Green Road by Anne Enright wins, but that's just because I liked it and I have nothing to compare it with.