A Lake District Trespass

Welcome to the Lake District National Park and ever such a lot of NO TRESPASSING and PRIVATE KEEP OUT signs.

Well, on the North-West corner of Derwent Water at least. In fact, apart from the Nicholl End Marina, it’s incredibly difficult to access the lake at all until you get down to Brandelhow.

The Path from Keswick to Portinscale where walkers ARE welcome

Yet this is land where, until Victorian times, there was a great deal more public access than there is now. It was only when wealthy Victorians built a few houses along the shore that the rot set in and access to the public was – and still is – denied. And please note, I have no desire to access the present-day gardens of these properties – only the acres of woodland and lakeshore that surrounds them.

The one surviving footpath that winds through the Forbidden Woodlands

Now, as regular readers of my blogs will know, I’ve complained about this lack of access to this corner of Derwent Water before. And there’s actually been an improvement – of sorts – since the last time I wrote about this. When we last walked from Portinscale out towards Brandelhow, the very large property belonging to the Holiday Fellowship had its own PRIVATE notices. It is pleasing to see that these have now gone, though how much better if the HF, which was founded to help improve access to the countryside for peasants like me, actually put up a few WELCOME – PLEASE DO WALK THIS WAY AND SEE THE LAKE notices!

A Lake District National Park welcome

At the same time as the Victorian Mass Trespass on Latrigg Fell in 1887, on the other side of Keswick, there was a similar Mass Trespass here at Fawe Park. I give here an account of that – you can read more in my book The Compleat Trespasser:

    “Fawe Park Woods were described by the Victorian novelist, and Britain’s first salaried journalist, Mrs Lynn Linton as “the sweetest ever grown between the sun and the generous earth.” Interestingly, when the path through Fawe Park Woods came into dispute, this now almost forgotten novelist supported the landowner in trying to keep people out!

    The land was once owned by Waterloo veteran General Sir John George Woodford, who lived at Waterlily Bay, and who welcomed walkers on his land. As the Pall Mall Gazette remarked “he loved the people and the children of the people, and it was his delight to make and maintain for public use good roads to all the best view stations on his estate. In his time, and long before his time, the Fawe Park road had been public, and he jealously kept it so.”

    By 1887, the estate had come into the possession of Mrs Spencer Bell who had a very different attitude to the presence of walkers and sightseers. At her instruction her servants locked the gates, put up barricades and made it clear that the public were not welcome in the woods and lakeshore of Fawe Park.     

  On Tuesday August 31^st 1887, the Keswick Footpaths Association and hordes of local people set out to storm the barricades – in the morning at Fawe Park and in the afternoon on Latrigg.   As the protestors marched through Keswick, they were cheered by the local inhabitants. Their first obstacle at Fawe Park was a gate interlaced with thorns and barbed wire, backed by a number of oak branches. Mrs Bell’s servants were already in situ, and it wasn’t long before the lady herself arrived.

     The Manchester Weekly Times reported that

(Mrs Bell) expressed regret that among the trespassers were many whom she had thought were her friendly neighbours… Such proceedings would cause not only her but the resident gentry to leave the neighbourhood, and when they were gone no visitors or tourists of any account would come to the place. This would ruin the railway and the hotel keepers and Keswick would be left in poverty and desolation.

     Her belief that tourists only came to the Lake District to gawp at the landed gentry probably triggered a few grins in the crowd. As it happened, among the protestors were a great many hoteliers, local gentry and ordinary folk who wouldn’t have taken such a threat very seriously. Mr Fitzpatrick, on behalf of the protestors, replied that they had a painful duty to perform, that they were sorry to have to resort to direct action, and pointed out to Mrs Bell that she could always resort to the law courts if she thought she had a case. The thrilled journalist of the Manchester newspaper reported:

Mr Fitzpatrick, then gave orders for the barriers to be removed, which was quickly done by a blacksmith who had been taken for the purpose, and the way having been cleared a charabanc was driven through with about ten occupants, other members of the association following on foot. Several other obstructions were removed as the party proceeded, and after the asserters of the public right had reached the other side of the hill, where the public road from Newlands to Borrowdale is reached, they returned by the same way they came. By this time the barriers had been replaced, and they had to be cleared away again.

    This action was widely reported in newspapers across Britain, and subscriptions flooded in in support of the association, including donations from the Duke of Westminster and the Bishop of London – the latter was holidaying in the district at the time.” Extracts from my book The Compleat Trespasser.

Another threatening sign in the National Park.

Another misleading sign suggests that “remote cameras are used in this area for the protection of wildlife and property”. Really? By wildlife do they mean shootable game birds, for the wildlife that throngs these woodlands do not seem to be particularly bothered by ramblers on the one footpath that is allowed through the woods – and the wildlife in these woods is not markedly different from the wildlife elsewhere around Derwent Water, in places where the public is allowed.

Where Lake District folk once roamed

As for the threats to property – what property do they mean? These woods are no closer to the landowners’ houses that much of the rest of the lake shore. Nobody is seeking access to their houses and gardens. Just the woodlands and lakeshore. Places where folk once roamed freely. Like much of the rest of Derwent Water.

The woods that Mrs Linton liked

So what can be done? It’s is sad that the major political parties are so reluctant to improve access to our countryside, something along the lines of the Scottish model. At present we in England have access to just 8% of our countryside – welcome, but just the crumbs from the table.

Last year, the Labour Party promised that if they got into government, they would create a Right to Roam Act along Scottish lines – a few months ago they reneged on that promise, and are now promising little more than more urban parks. No other party, bar the Greens who won’t be forming a government anytime soon, are even mentioning Right to Roam.

The Locked Gate

Of course, what should be happening right now, is that the Lake District National Park Authority should be using its powers under the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act to improve access to this corner of Derwent Water.

But don’t bet on it. LDNPA might be madly enthusiastic to theme park the Lake District with zip wires etc., but they seem to have completely forgotten why – and for whom – National Parks were created in the first place.

So, what will I be doing? Well, exactly what I’ve been doing for the past several decades – treating these notices with the contempt they deserve. Free Roaming where I will, supporting the Right to Roam campaign, and pressing for much better legislation.

Let’s all REFUSE to acknowledge the doubtful validity of these PRIVATE – KEEP OUT signs.