Chapter 40

Recent years to 2006

Seeking to update a volume completed in 1979 the author had been amazed at the changes and developments in the following sixteen years, Where possible these had been inserted in the relevant parts of the original text. Some new material however did not fit into the earlier pattern in tourism, twinning, the Civic Trust and the Kirkgate Centre, sport, the town festival, new entertainments and leisure pursuits, etc. These had been grouped in sections in this chapter. This approach has been continued in this 2006 update. Much more could be written about all of them, but economy demands constraint. There is constant change in change on Cockermouth, indicative of a vibrant community.

TOURISM AND MUSEUMS

For many years Cockermouth did not favour the development of tourism, not wishing to have problems of crowding, traffic, etc. experienced by towns nearer the centre of the Lake District. With the loss of employment, such as that provided by Miller’s shoe factory for many years, this attitude has changed and since the 1990s great efforts are made to bring people to the town and to provide for them when they get here. Many of these provisions are of course of benefit also to the residents.

In 1985 the Brewery had plans far advanced for a museum of brewing and of the local history of the brewery area of the town, to be housed in Foundry House and the windmill. The plans did not reach fruition as the use of the various buildings was changed. However there are regular guided tours of the brewery. The offices were also moved from the row of former houses which was then demolished. The distribution department of Jennings moved to a new site on the coast, considerably relieving the pressure on this congested area. In 2005, Jennings was bought by Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries, and despite assurances about the future, worries about the consequences of a takeover were inevitably around.

Nearby in Banks Court a doll museum opened in 1985. It soon left Cockermouth for the south of the country but by then it had been joined in 1986 by Rod Moore’s toy museum which continued as the Cumberland Toy and Model Museum, extending from the old warehouse into the former joiner’s premises (before that a mineral water factory). In 1995 it received national acclaim with the ‘museum on a shoestring award’ but sadly closed in 2005 when the proprietor was unable to raise additional funds to cover even running costs. Also nearby is the Castlegate Gallery of contemporary fine art and sculpture, housed in the Georgian Castlegate House opposite the castle entrance, started in 1987 by Mike and Chris Wadsworth. Visitors come from a very wide area to visit the continually changing exhibitions, many not seen at provincial galleries. Also at this end of the town a Heritage Museum for the town is being developed in the new Kirkgate Centre; and the Tourist Office puts on small exhibitions. At the other end of the town is D.R. Winkworth’s Printing House Museum opened in 1993 with an outstanding collection of printing presses and related artifacts. In Harford House, the former clinic, Mr and Mrs Creighton had a mineral museum and shop from 1991, but closed it in 2003 to depart for New Zealand.

Allerdale [Borough Council] planners left the town hall in November 1991. The following year the Town Council moved the Tourist Office into the ground floor from the cramped conditions of the former armoury just below on the riverside. In this attractive and spacious centre it is still possible to see the gallery and pillars of the 1841 church.

FESTIVALS

In August 1981 D.R. Winkworth organised a week-long Wordsworth Festival, which continued in following years as a broader literary festival. From 1985 to 1989 organisation passed to the town’s Civic Trust and the programme was again broadened, to include (in addition to lectures) music, drama, craft demonstrations, exhibitions, town tours and castle visits. Then Mr. Winkworth again directed the programmes with the help of many individuals and groups in the town and since 1993 the overall planning has been undertaken by the Town Clerk. Attendance at lectures in the early years was disappointingly low. To remedy this various times were. tried in July, August and September and a further experiment was to spread the week’s events over two weeks. Now it has settled to a July festival with a wide range of events, strong involvement in the events by much of the town and a better response to what is offered. In April 2005, to mark the re-opening of Words worth House as a Georgian experience, a Georgian Fair was held in the town in abysmal weather.

Its success nevertheless led to the repeat of this in 2006, when the weather was good; it is intended to run this as a two-yearly event, out of phase with the highly successful Whitehaven Maritime Festival.

SPORT

There have been a number of improvements and changes in the town’s sports facilities in recent years. After much effort the running track at Tarn Close on the Lorton road was opened in 1980. Cockermouth Rugby Union Club moved from their Laithwaite ground to the playing field of the former grammar school, opposite Tarn Close. The swimming pool was opened by Princess Alexandra in May 1978, the climax to the efforts of a group of enthusiasts who raised much of the cost. The sports centre in the nearby drill hall was initiated in 1979, with extensions to the facilities in 1985-7. It now includes a climbing wall opened in 1991 by Chris Bonnington. The Cockermouth Cricket Club leased Sandair from 1823 until 1989, when the club was able to purchase the 5-acre field for £25,000.

Three Cockermouth sports clubs celebrated their centenaries in the mid 1990s -Croft Bowling, Harris Park Bowling and the Golf Club, The Rugby Club was ‘100’ in 1977.

There have been notable achievements recently by individuals living in Cockermouth or strongly associated with the town through their families. In 1983 Adrian and Richard Crane raised about £40,000 for Intermediate Technology by running in the Himalayas. Martin Rush represented his country in the walking event at the Barcelona Olympics. Several swimmers have continued the town’s high level of success in competitive events.

Recently instituted communal events include a marathon, from 1981 onwards and included in the national sports league events since 1991. The first quadrathon was held in 1981, drawing entries from all over Britain.

In 1993 an exchange of land was suggested, freeing the Wakefield Road football ground for building and replacing it with land at the eastern end of the Derwent Mill land. Amid much confusion and misunderstanding as to which land was involved public opinion led to rejection of the idea.

INDUSTRY

At the beginning of this chapter mention was made of changes in the town’s industry since 1980. By 1995 the major employers left are James Walker and Co. Ltd., Walker Bros. builders’ merchants, Jennings Brewery and Mitchell’s Auction Co. Millers (shoe factory) closed in July 1990 dismissing the last of a diminishing workforce, in spite of an order worth £2.73 million from Russia less than a year earlier. The famous Fred Dibnah felled the mill chimney on 7th November 1992, to his regret, but it was not used and nobody wished to pay for its upkeep.

Thomas Armstrong, timber merchants, vacated their large town centre timber yard and the old station site on Low Road in the late 1980s, moving to more spacious accommodation in Flimby.

James Walker continues, with a progressive forward-looking policy. Jennings Brewery also continues to thrive, with structural alterations in 1995. Lilliput Lane, makers of small model houses, etc., based in Penrith, had a branch on the Derwent Mill site from 1986 to 1991, then concentrated their West Cumbria activity in the Workington branch, which itself closed in 2005. JEM Patchworks, a small concern in St. Helen’s Street producing embroidery kits, etc., closed at the end of 1982. Alan Dawson took his metalwork business from the Lamplugh Road / A66 junction to the coast to become the renowned Shepley Dawson company, having appreciable business with the middle east. A short distance from the town the Broughton Moor Arms Depot, which drew some of its labour from Cockermouth, has now closed. After much debate, consultation and fight for funding, an ambitious scheme has been adopted for it as the Derwent Forest Park. If the £25 million required can be found, an exciting leisure facility will emerge.

On the positive side English Estates opened the Lakeland Business Park on the Lamplugh road in 1987, providing small units for high tech businesses. The former grammar school became the Strawberry How Business Park in 1992 but has since become a housing development mainly using the existing buildings, and the Derwent Business Park near the Derwent Mill followed in 1994.

M-Sport: Dovenby Hall and all its grounds were purchased in 1998 by Malcolm Wilson, a local man who had been the 1994 British Rally champion. The run-down buildings were restored and new engineering facilities developed for the company, M-Sport to run its business of preparing rally cars for the Ford Motor Company for world-wide rallying. With a work-force approaching 200 and a turn over into tens of millions, this company is now a major employer in the area as well as having rescued the estate from decline. The venture received a Civic Trust award for development in sympathy with the area in 2001.

Two final items related to industry. The cottage once connected with the windmill which stood in Windmill Lane was controversially demolished in 1992 to open up the entrance to a housing estate and, more recently, the Job Centre crossed Station Street to new premises next to Mitchell’s furniture sale rooms.

SHOPPING

Changes in the occupancy of shops are frequent. Many tenancies are short-lived. Occasionally an old-established firm disappears, such as Rydiards shoe shop, now moved by its new owners to a nearby site in Main Street. Huddarts newsagents, forced to move next door by the 1938 flood, has now crossed the road to the former Rydiard premises. Even the post office moved in 1994 from Station Street to opposite the Globe Hotel. The post office has had four locations in the last eleven years [see Chapter 19]. (Cockermouth lost its own postmark in 1990 with much complaint, to be included in “Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway”.)

There have been several new developments in recent years. In 1986 “Limelighting” adapted much of the Grand Theatre for the sale of lights and related fittings and happily retained in the conversion features of the former theatre. “Luchini’s Lane” became the Old King’s Arms Lane in 1987, an attractive two-storey shopping development. On the south side of Main Street the closing of Armstrong’s timber yard left the way open for a further development – Lowther Went, a shopping precinct approached through the former Bush Hotel yard, with WaIter Wilson’s super-market and car park, opened in 1988. Both the Old Kings Arms Lane and Lowther Went developments were given awards by Cockermouth Civic Trust for buildings in sympathy with the town as a whole and a number of new shop fronts have received similar recognition, including Lindsay in Station Street, Fellside Sports near Cocker Bridge, Opus III and Heal’s opticians.

In January 1995 a public enquiry was held into four applications for super-market developments on four sites either vacant or likely to become vacant – the old station site (Armstrong’s) on Low Road, the Rugby Union field, the County Highways yard and Mitchell’s cattle auction buildings. Eventually no doubt helped by a massive (8000) petition, the verdict went in favour of Sainsbury’s but progress had to await Mitchell’s vacating the site (a decision deferred yet again by worries over the impact of the foot-and-mouth crisis of200l). The old buildings were demolished, the materials were re-used to keep something of the original character, and the new store opened in March 2002. After this, Waiter Willson’s declined and was taken over by the Co-op; subsequently these premises were opened by Wilkinsons (hardware and general goods). Another supermarket, Aldi, opened in 1998 on the site vacated by Thomas Armstrong’s DIY operation which moved down the road to re-open as the Lakes Home Centre, later sold to Lister’s of Workington.

No.35 Market Place, near Cocker Bridge. was until 1953 Ellwood’s ‘filling station’. The petrol delivery arm swung out from the shop front to the car parked on the narrow roadway. The repairs garage was hidden away near the brewery. In 1991-2 the business moved to the spacious Fairfield Service Station in Station Road. It is no longer owned by the original family.

The Sheep and Wool Centre, built at the A66 Oakhurst roundabout to act as a gateway for visitors to the Western Lake District, has exhibitions, accommodation, cafe and shop.

On Wakefield Road the old MAFF buildings were vacated and redeveloped as the Millfield Veterinary Clinic.

THE CIVIC TRUSTAND THE KIRKGATE CENTRE

The Civic Trust has continued its programme of lectures, interest in planning and town affairs, coach outings, exhibitions (bygones and others).

Pre-Easter litter sweeps continued until 1988 but when Allerdale Council increased its street cleaning these were no longer necessary, so such activity has been in specific areas – tidying up the Double Mills area in Environment Week 1992 to enable features on the site to be seen and ‘cleaning’ the Greenway in 1995. Other recent practical activities have included rebuilding a collapsed stone wall at the confluence of the rivers and clearing brambles, etc., in National Environment Week 1991.

Allerdale Council responded to the Trust’s request to repair the fence at the brewery end of the site, going further by tipping soil to level this end of the area and then grassing it. In the following year, 1992, with the help of a grant and work by the Groundwork Trust, Venture Scouts and others, the wall of the old rope walk opposite the Kirkgate Centre was repaired and the Council contributed by upgrading the footpath to Butts Fold, erecting lights and planting trees. The Trust’s outstanding contribution to the life of the town is the Kirkgate Centre. In 1990 Allerdale Council announced plans to demolish the former All Saints School, virtually unused since 1973. The Trust, with other groups in the town, had for long been concerned at the lack of a hall larger than the Victoria Hall and saw this building as a possible solution. Peter Colley, a member of The Trust’s executive with much experience in planning, produced plans for converting the premises, a conversion which he was later to supervise. A crowded public meeting in 1990 was enthusiastic in support. Negotiations dragged on but after many difficulties between the Trust and the Councils, recourse to the Town and Country Planning Act of 1971 and narrow avoidance of a public enquiry, the Trust bought the building for just £5. The enthusiastic Trust secretary, Barbara Colley, obtained gifts, grants from local and national sources, sponsorship, etc. The first grant was for £30,000, followed before the end of 1994 by an additional £170,000. A group to run the Centre was formed, holding its first meeting as the Kirkgate Centre Trust on 14 September 1992. The Civic Trust, on whose monthly agenda ‘All Saints’ seemed to have featured for a very long time, handed over the building in March 1993 – again for £5! As mentioned elsewhere, the first event on the premises was “Much Ado About Nowt” presented by the CADS in January 1995, since when the building has housed a wide variety of activities. The upper floor of the Jennings Hall, seating 160, is completed, with lift access for the disabled. The lower floor in 1995 still needs money for display cabinets and other museum fittings, as well as material illustrating the history of the town.

TWINNING

In 1983 Cockermouth twinned with Marvejols in the Lozere region of southern France, the agreement being signed on 27 October of that year. This date is celebrated by alternating visits by town officials and others to Marvejols and Cockermouth. The twinning scheme has been a great success, due largely to the enthusiasm of the town clerk, A.D.Bertram. In spite of the great distance between the two towns, in the twenty-plus years since twinning began there have been over 9,000 interchange visits, Some of these have been individuals on holiday, others have travelled in groups October anniversary, choirs, sports teams, schools, cyclists (sponsored Cockermouth to Marvejols in 1992), etc. There are about ten group exchanges each year. Students have found jobs in Marvejols, the French have planted trees and bulbs in Cockermouth and contributed items to Cockermouth Festival, A Cockermouth Corner was opened in Marvejols in October 1993, In Cockermouth a new housing estate to the south-west of the town has been named Marvejols Park.

In 1991 the town was awarded a European Diploma by the Council of Europe and also received a Commemorative Certificate under the Royal Mail International’s Twin Town Award Scheme. In the following year, 1992, the town was given a Flag of Honour. On 24 August 1995 representatives of the Council of Europe visited Cockermouth to award a Plaque of Honour in recognition of its efforts for European Unity, only ten such plaques had been awarded in the rest of Europe and Cockermouth’s was the only one in England. The only higher award is the Europe Prize, just one a year, and indeed in 2000, Cockermouth won this Europe Prize. Awarded since 1955, only three British areas have won it Coventry in 1955, Devon in 1976 and Leamington Spa in 1984.

We may note here the great increase over the last few years in the number of overseas visitors to the town, many of them attracted by Wordsworth House.