#142: Review of 2024

12/30/24 • 104 min

...in which we unwrap a selection box of our favourite clips from the year past in the company of Cumbria Wildlife Trust's Jamie Normington and Low Sizergh Barn co-owner Alison Park.

Featuring clips from, among others, James Robinson, Eileen Jones, Mark Hatton, Phoebe Smith, April Windle, Mark Cropper, Angus Winchester and Peter Todhunter, we sift through 19 episodes and 20 hours of recordings from as far flung as Newlands, Windermere, Seathwaite, Orton and Great Moss.

In our annual extended fire-side chat – in which we pick our Cumbrian Book of the Year and Walk of the year – we cover buses, bars and burial cairns; we discuss rainforests, regeneration and gathering the Rough Fell; we visit Barrow, Borrowdale and the Back o' Skiddaw; we reflect on the increasingly precarious business of hill farming; we consider Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s acquisition of 3,000 acres of Skiddaw Forest, and we close by remembering King of the Fells, Joss Naylor.

Alison can be found at Low Sizergh Barn.

...in which we unwrap a selection box of our favourite clips from the year past in the company of Cumbria Wildlife Trust's Jamie Normington and Low Sizergh Barn co-owner Alison Park.

Alison can be found at Low Sizergh Barn.

Previous Episode

#141: A Cumbrian Christmas Cracker

...in which we congregate at the Armitt, Ambleside for a night of readings, historic press reports, dialect poems and music that celebrate a distinctly Cumbrian Christmas.

In the company of Alan Cleaver, Lesley Park, Sue Allan and – on harp and guitar – the Cumbrian Duo, we take a nostalgic trip down memory lane (and beyond) as we learn about seasonal customs from the historic counties of Westmorland and Cumberland: of the 'Waits' who performed dance tunes in isolated valleys; of the 'Merryneets', where dalesfolk would gather for nights of feasting and frivolity; and of the carol-singers of Wasdale, fighting a losing battle against the winter snows.

Turning to dialect, Sue regales us with a miscellany of snow terms from the old tongue and champions works of the tragically underrated Cumbrian Bard, Robert Anderson of Carlisle, while Lesley reads one of the all-time classic Lakeland Christmas poems: 'Down t'Lonning'.

As we move around the county – from the Ambleside postman's path via Buttermere (and its many pies) to a west coast nativity scene – we're accompanied by winter-time tunes from Ed Haslam and Jean Altshuler, including 'Cold and Raw' and the infamous 'Bleckell Murry Neet'.

Alan's book, A Lake District Christmas, is available from Inspired by Lakeland.
Sue's book on The Cumberland Bard is available from Books Cumbria.
The latest CD from the Cumbrian Duo is sold through Willowhayne Music at naxosdirect.co.uk/search/bleckell
Some of their music can be heard at youtube.com/watch?v=xB9CcJLIxKA and youtube.com/watch?v=jbNzqBBTCHk
This podcast was recorded at one of our Countrystride Live events. To be first in line for tickets, sign up to our newsletter at countrystride.co.uk/

Next Episode

#143: Robert Southey – The neglected Lake Poet

...in which we visit Keswick Museum for a deep dive into the life of one of Romantic Lakeland's most under-appreciated figures: writer, former Poet Laureate and long-term resident of Greta Hall, Robert Southey (1774-1843).

In the company of Museum curator Nicola Lawson and trustee Charlotte May, we return to Bristol, 1774 and set the shifting social scene for the birth of a young radical – expelled from Westminster – whose education was beset by bullying.

Alongside new wife Edith Fricker and creative soulmate Samuel Taylor Coleridge, we follow Southey north to Keswick and learn about daily life at Greta Hall, where the young poet became sole breadwinner in a busy household of sisters and their home-educated children.

With tragedy a constant in the Southeys' life – four of the couples’ eight children died before reaching adulthood – we discuss Edith's enduring mental illness, the fast-growing Keswick of the early 1800s, and the great joy Southey derived from family and domestic life.

Reflecting on a (sometimes) controversial and (always) prodigious writing talent (Southey's output far eclipsed that of Wordsworth or Coleridge), we namecheck some of his finest works: from the first published version of Goldilocks and the three bears (The Story of the Three Bears) through his remarkable História do Brasil to the onomatopoeic masterpiece The Cataract of Lodore.

Brazing the frosty cold, we conclude our conversation alongside Southey's grave at Crosthwaite Church, where we consider his relationship with Keswick and the great loss felt at the death of a towering talent and an adored family man.