A Walk in the Park!

 Recently, we have discovered the Pub Walk!
An amazing invention that incorporates all of our favourite things. Pubs, for the obvious reasons. Food, also found at the pubs, funny that. Photography, goes without saying. And walking, gets us from A to B, or Photographs to Pub, as the case may be.
At work we borrowed a book called 'Good Walk, Good Pub - South Lakes'. Its fantastic, just what we need. It gets us out and about, takes us to visit all the different towns, do some touristy things and check out the great little country pubs at the same time. The maps you see on here, showing the routes of our walks, are from that book.

The first walk we did was around Coniston. It was about a 7 mile walk, well was supposed to be a 7 mile

 walk. We got ourselves a bit lost in the woods, literally. Our walk ended up closer to 9 miles, according to B2's fancy GPS tracking device (that's 14.42 km to those of us who use the metric system).
The best kind of day for hiking, it was cloudy and cool, with a touch of precipitation thrown in for fun. Therefore the cameras remained safely in their waterproof case, along with the swimmers as it was too chilly to swim by the waterfall.

We had a great time in Coniston, another gorgeous village. We tried to do our first webcam geocache and failed, miserably. We looked around town, and went to the Ruskin Museum, which taught us all about the history of the town. Including the life of Sir Donald Campbell, he broke the world water speed record here in 1955. Twelve  years later, when trying to beat his own record his boat 'Bluebird' flipped and broke apart, travelling at 320mph. He and his boat remained at the bottom of the lake until 2001, slightly morbid but a good story.

We will return to Coniston, when the weather is better, and check out some more of the many pubs in town as well as some of the other sites. The 'Old Man of Coniston', actually a mountain, not a man at all. John Ruskin's former home, Brantwood, apparently one of the most picturesque homes in the district. And go back to the fudge shop which was so good, B1 at enough to get quite ill.

Our next day off, thankfully was full of blue skies, sunshine and lollypops. We did the second of our fantastic pub walks. It took us around the village of Bouth, through paddocks, woodlands and Rusland Moss. Rusland Moss is a nature reserve, it covers 58 acres, and includes the northern parts of one of the last remaining raised mires (peat bogs) in the country. It was interesting, quite pretty in its own way. The many signpost erging you to stay on the path or risk getting bogged yourself added that element of excitement.  You can see the map of the walk here, slightly shorter and easier than the last.

One of the most different and amazing things about the Lake District is the distinctive brick walls built all over the county to separate paddocks and properties. Some of them even criss cross the mountains and through the woodlands. Its really quite beautiful, almost like a giant patchwork lying over the land. You'll probably notice a lot of our photographs show these walls.

The pub we stopped at for lunch on our second walk was the White Hart at Bouth. We had been recommended this pub by lots of friends, so it was no surprise to find it in our Pub Walk guide. The food was amazing and huge portions, we shared a main and even B2 had enough to eat.
Surprisingly, on leaving the pub, we managed again to get ourselves slightly lost. We wondered why?  Are we beginning to see a pattern here?
Some of the wonderful things about walking in the area is the chance to see all sorts of flora and fauna. (yes we know what that means).

We were lucky enough on this walk to see a few locals in their natural habitats. While walking through the Nature Reserve we witnessed a fox eating its lunch. Im not sure who was more startled him or B1. A few minutes later we saw a large group of deer, running together through the woods. And to finish we saw a Kite, the bird kind not the one attached to the string. He was also having lunch, we could clearly see a big snake hanging from his beak. All very exciting! B2 has also been taking great photos with our macro lens. Lots of flowers and moss, mushrooms rocks. Similar to this one here. Weve really been making the most of our time off. Its like being on holiday!

Until next time, B1 and B2. 

The Mason's Arms

Since our last blog we've really done nothing but work! We know, not a very exciting topic for a blog. Our days off last week were spent huddling in doorways, sheltering from the rain. Not fun!

During one of these not so busy at work, rainy days B2 spent some time studying the long history of the Mason's Arms, and this we thought was much more interesting.

The first evidence of a house/venue at Strawberry Bank, the hillside where the pub is situated, is 31st December 1754. Apparently there was a 'Merry' New Years Eve party that particular evening. It's thought that a building was there long before that and was passed from father to son, therefore no deeds or titles were generated. 
There are several theories as to why the Mason's Arms is so named. One is that this was where members of the Masonic Lodges used to meet, at a time when meeting of this kind where prohibited. Another is that a wealthy family, named Mason visited or finaced the pub. The final and most likely is that the inn was owned by William Tyson, a stone mason in 1838.
Personally we like the idea of clandesting meetings held under the cover of darkness, snuggling in dark corners and whispering. Ha Ha.
 It sems the pub was established to accomodate the needs of travellers passing on the new turnpike road.
By 1832 the house was already licensed to sell liquor, and public auctions and meetings had been held there for years before that.
William Tyson, who the pub is thought to be named for, only owned the building for 3 years. He died and passed it to his widow Margaret and on her death in 1960 to their neice, Betty. She ran the in for 20 years, living there with her elderly aunt.

John Matthews, the live in help, was their brewer and ostler. It would have been necessary for a man to carry out the heavy work for the womenfolk. Then whether for conveinience, genuine attachment or to avoid scandle, after Betty's Aunt died, Betty aged 56 married John Matthews. Her Brewer was 13 years her junior.
By the early 1900's things were changing with the invention of the motor vehicle.

People were starting to visit the area for day trips, and in 1909 the inland revenue survey shows that there was more tea drunk at the venue than beer. The pub was then passed from mother to daughter it seems untill the 1970's when it was bought by the Dargues. 

Luckily for us, the left the building largely as they found it. With the flagged stone floors, the ranges and assorted tables and chairs left as they were. Later the pub gained a reputation for having a huge variety of beer from all over the world. A reputation that still holds today.

Hope this small bit of information on the History of the Masons Arms has been interesting. B2 found the info in a book called "Cartmel Fell- A patchwork history"