We could have driven to Haverthwaite. It was only half an hour in the car, but we had decided to approach Bigland Tarn in style. We were going by boat. By boat and by train in fact, for there was no hurry and the journey would be part of the fun.
More than a century ago this was the new way to the Lakes. An extension of the Furness Railway had been laid to the foot of Windermere, a restaurant had been built, an orchestra hired for the summer, and not only had a long platform been constructed for the trains, there was an extensive jetty too, with room for no less than three steamers. Barrow folk, newly wealthy from expanding trade, and people from the Lancashire towns, would arrive on the train, embark on the steamer for a cruise to Ambleside, and then in late afternoon they would return. We liked the idea of travelling in style, but as we were staying near Ambleside our journey would have to be in the opposite direction.
The railway had reached Lakeside at the foot of Windermere in 1869, but there were steamers on Windermere even earlier, for the first paddle boats were griming their way up the lake in 1845.
Down the lake we glided, past the battlements of Wray Castle, past the wooded slopes of Claife Heights, the little island of Lady Holme and the tiny Hen Holme, then after a brief stop at Bowness, we swept past Belle Isle and on to Lakeside where our train awaited. Railway enthusiasts swarmed over the platform, and clouds of steam drifted up from the engine as we climbed aboard. Then with a creak and a groan of ancient ironwork, slowly the train moved out of the station.
Haverthwaite Station was built in 1872, and is now the terminus of the trains. Once the line linked with Barrow, but though it has been restored steam locomotives can puff their way along only three and a half miles of track, ending at the Lakeside pier of the Windermere Iron Steamboat Company, where they connect with the Windermere Lake Cruisers.
Tel: 015395 31594
|
JOHN
and ANNE NUTTALL
