Cumbria has its fair share of famous people, although I never realized how many. Some friends of mine had come and stayed in some independent lake district cottages and we got to talking about who we thought was the most famous. I’ll have to let you decide.
1. Joss Naylor MBE (1936-)
Known as the ‘King of the Fells’, Joss Naylor has been a champion runner for nearly fifty years. And yet Naylor, a sheep farmer from Nether Wasdale, was deemed unfit for National Service as a teenager and overcame a series of injuries that would have caused most of us to live life cautiously. At the age of 30, Naylor completed 72 peaks in the Lake District, over a distance of 100 miles, for a total ascent of 37,000 feet in less than 24 hours. In 1986, he completed 214 Wainwrights in one week. At the age of 60, he ran 60 Lakeland moors in 36 hours. At the age of 70, he completed 70 Lakeland moors; 50 miles and 25,000 feet of ascent in less than 21 hours.
Fans follow in his footsteps in the Joss Naylor Challenge: 30 Lake District summits from Pooley Bridge in Ullswater to Joss’s home in Wasdale.
2. Beatrix Potter (1866 – 1943)
Beatrix Potter was in many ways the best of Cumbria, and yet she was born in London. Single until the age of 40, Ella Beatrix initially struggled to make a living independently. Finally, she herself published 250 copies of ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’ in 1901; these were noted by the publisher, Frederick Warne, and by the end of the following year she had printed no fewer than 28,000 copies. Beatrix went on to write a further 22 books and used the proceeds to buy Hill Top Farm, near Hawkshead.
His legacy to the Lake District is his interest in conservation and traditional agriculture; she was a native sheep farmer for Lakes Herdwick and purchased many acres of farmland. On her death in 1943, she bequeathed 4,000 acres of land to the National Trust, including Penny Hill Farm Cottage in Eskdale. The 2006 film Miss Potter covers Beatrix’s early life; Low Millgillhead Cottage in Lamplugh near Loweswater was one of the uncredited settings!
3. Saint Patrick (5th c)
Best known as the patron saint of Ireland, most sources agree that Saint Patrick was born in Cumbria sometime in the 5th century. Opinions are divided as to whether he grew up in the Roman fort of Birdoswald, in the northeast of the county, or in the coastal town of Ravenglass, in western Cumbria, where another Roman fort is located. Patrick, who had been kidnapped as a slave in Ireland at the age of sixteen, escaped his slavery, landed at Duddon Sands and walked to Patterdale – ‘St. Patrick’s Dale’ near Ullswater. He traveled through Aspatria-‘Patrick’s ash’-where the locals took so long to convert that his ash cane became a tree. There is also a St Patrick’s Well near Glenridding, where the saint baptized people from the Ullswater area.
4. Helen Skelton (1983-)
That’s right, the female action figure from ‘Blue Peter’ is totally Cumbrian! Born in the Eden Valley village of Kirkby Thore, between Appleby and Penrith, Helen began her career as a broadcaster on local radio and Border Television before becoming a reporter for the BBC’s children’s news programme, ‘Newsround’. She became a presenter on ‘Blue Peter’ in 2008. Since then, Helen has completed the Namibian ultramarathon, only the second woman to do so, and has kayaked the length of the Amazon, earning her two Guinness Book of Records citations. the records. . Closer to home, Helen competed in the annual Muncaster Castle Festival of Fools in 2009. Muncaster’s famous 17th century jester, the original ‘Tom Fool’ was actually Thomas Skelton. Maybe they are related?
5. Fletcher Christian (1764 – 1793)
It’s probably safe to say you’re famous if Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, and Mel Gibson have all played you in blockbuster movies. Fletcher Christian was born in Brigham, near Cockermouth, where he went to school with the poet William Wordsworth. Christian had traveled to India and twice with Captain Bligh to Jamaica before making the ill-fated voyage to Tahiti in April 1789. Later that year, 1,300 miles west of Tahiti, Christian led the mutiny on the Bounty.
Having married a Tahitian princess, Christian, eight mutineers, six Tahitian men and eleven Tahitian women landed on Pitcairn Island. By 1808, only one mutineer was left alive. What happened to Cristiano? One said he was shot; another said that he died of natural causes, committed suicide or was murdered. Rumors persist, however, that he escaped, returned to the Lake District, and inspired Coleridge’s Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. Who knows?
6. Norman Nicholson OBE (1914 – 1987)
Where the River Duddon meets the sea, in the imposing form of Black Combe, is the former mining town of Millom and the lifelong home of poet Norman Nicholson. Nicholson’s connection to Cumbria defined both his reputation and his work, with many of his poems paying tribute to the town, the Duddon Valley, and local landmarks such as Scafell Pike, Whitehaven, Patterdale, the stone circles, and the West Coast. . His words vividly contrast the reality of the declining mining town and the timeless grandeur of the natural surroundings of the Lake District.
‘There is the base and the root of the living rock
Thirty thousand feet of solid Cumberland. (To the River Duddon)
7. Stan Laurel (1890 – 1965)
Arthur Stanley Jefferson, better known as Stan Laurel, the skinny half of Laurel and Hardy, was born in Ulverston, where the west coast of Cumbria meets Morecambe Bay. Laurel spent much of his life in the United States, meeting Oliver Hardy in 1927 before the ‘talkie’ took over the movie world. Laurel made 190 movies in all, including ‘Duck Soup,’ ‘Pardon Us,’ and ‘Saps at Sea.’ After Oliver Hardy’s sudden death in 1957, Laurel never acted again, although he continued to write. A statue of Stan Laurel was unveiled in Ulverston in April 2009.
8. Leo Houlding (1981 – )
Leo Houlding attracts many labels. Climber, extreme adventurer, mountaineer, base jumper, snowboarder, surfer and skydiver. Raised in the Eden Valley town of Bolton, Houlding now has his headquarters in the Lake District, but travels the world climbing. He can still be seen at Lakes events, such as the Keswick Mountain Festival, encouraging youngsters to try what he likes best.
Houlding was the first Briton to free climb El Capitan in 1998, at the age of 17. In 2007, he accompanied Conrad Anker on the Altitude Everest Expedition, which followed in the footsteps of George Mallory; this was the first recorded ascent of Everest’s Northeast Ridge. Houlding is often seen on TV these days: BBC’s ‘My Right Foot’, ‘Top Gear’ and ‘Adrenaline Junkie’ with Jack Osbourne.
9. Catherine Parr (1512 – 1548)
Queen of England from 1543 to 1547, Catherine Parr was the last of the six wives of Henry VIII. Catherine was born at Kendal Castle, just south of the lakes, and was a prime example of the strong-willed, outspoken and fair women of Cumbria. She had been widowed twice before coming to the king’s attention in 1543 and she was forced to marry him despite her relationship with Sir Thomas Seymour, brother of the Queen of the Nine Days, Jane Seymour. For three months in 1544, Catherine was appointed regent while Henry VIII was in France and carried out all the responsibilities of the king.
In 1547 Henry died and Catherine was free to marry Seymour; her stepdaughter, the future Elizabeth I, came to live with them. Sadly, the relationship soured over Seymour’s attraction to the young princess, and a pregnant Catherine was forced to send Elizabeth away. Catherine died five days after giving birth to her only daughter in 1548. And the intriguing Seymour? Beheaded for treason a year later.
10.William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850)
William Wordsworth was promoting Cumbria long before Lake District holidays were invented! Wordsworth, a leading figure in the Romantic movement, wrote poetry inspired by strong emotion, but ‘calmly remembered’. Born in Cockermouth and educated in Penrith and Hawkshead, Wordsworth returned to the Lake District in 1799 to live at Dove Cottage in Grasmere.
Perhaps his most famous words, written over a spring in Ullswater, are:
‘I wandered as lonely as a cloud
that floats high above valleys and hills,
When suddenly I saw a crowd,
A multitude of golden daffodils…’
Wordsworth also loved the Duddon Valley:
‘…The Current still slips, and it will slip forever…’
He even mentioned some trees in the Lake District, which were already known to be ancient back then:
‘There’s a yew, pride of Lorton Vale
That to this day remains alone…’
‘…But more noteworthy
Are those four brothers from Borrowdale?
In 1813 the Wordsworths moved to Rydal Mount (also open to the public) in Ambleside. William was appointed Poet Laureate in 1843. He died in 1850 and at St. Oswald’s, Grasmere.
There are plenty of holiday cottages in the Lake District worth a visit so you can walk in some of the footsteps of these famous Cumbrians. Just follow the link in the resource box.