Dancing Beck

Driving south from Argyll we decided to stay overnight at a house, now B&B, we once almost bought back in 1985 in the village of Applethwaite near Keswick. It’s an old school with attached school mistresses house, and though it had a magical garden, we thought it needed too much doing to it. Instead we bought a house which needed pretty much gutting. As you do.

But this house rejoices in the name of Dancing Beck and had, at the time we viewed it, a rushing beck to one side with a square cut out to make a swimming pool where the kids used to swim in summer. I imagine it must have been pretty cold even in summer, with the water rushing down from the mountain. Today the pool is filled in to make extra car parking space, and the annex is sold off for a separate dwelling. It's all built from the lovely local stone and slate.

The house used to belong to a well known local writer, Graham Sutton (1892 – prob 1959), who wrote in the summer house, which is still there, with its gorgeous view of the Lakeland fells. His books went out of print due to a family squabble but many can be found second hand. It was he who first converted the school to a private house. It’s now very prettily renovated and warm and cosy, and we had a lovely stay, catching up with local gossip. It’s only 12 years since we left Cumbria, but how much has changed and how our memories let us down. So much familiar, yet strange. Some old friends passed on, it felt very odd not to be calling on them. And of course the memorial seat for my mum and dad is in Hope Park, tradition demands that I go sit there for a photo.

But we did catch up with one old friend for a morning, just as if it was yesterday. Love that, when you can continue where you left off.