Woolly says – We had left Wales with frost on the ground, the coldest morning so far for months. The journey was long and Alfie the Dogs new habit of barking on the back seat was driving both Jo and myself slightly insane, well more insane than normal shall we say. As we left the motorway the scenery started to change and the beauty of the Lake District started to unfold before our eyes.
The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, its famous for its lakes, forests and mountains (or fells), and its associations with William Wordsworth and other Lake Poets and writers including the wonderful Beatrix Potter and John Ruskin, some of whom we are hoping to catch up with while we are here. The Lake District National Park was established in 1951 and covers an area of 2,362 square kilometres (912 sq. mi) and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017.
Our main destination of the day was the Lakeland Motor Museum, a place we had gone to many years ago and enjoyed, we felt it would be lovely to remind ourselves of its delights and provide a much needed break from the road.
The Museum was established in Grange-over-Sands in 1978 as an extra attraction for the Holker Hall stately home, created by Donald Sidebottom to contain the collection of cars and related memorabilia that he had been collecting since the 1960s. In 2006, the collection was purchased by a subsidiary company of Winander Group Holdings Ltd, which also own Windermere Lake Cruises and after more than thirty years at Holker Hall, the museum relocated to Backbarrow in 2010. With over 30,000 motoring related exhibits it might take us a while to look round.
As we entered the exhibition, we were greeted by the most wonderful bright red fire engine which had come all the way from Johannesburg, which must have taken a long time to drive given how many hours it had taken us to get from Wales it must have been years! It was surrounded by a whole array of wonderful old open topped vehicles in all of their splendour.
I sighed in delight over a wonderful white Rolls Royce and a magnificent blue car that had once been owned by the record holder Donald Campbell.
Next to these wonders was one of the dodgem cars from New Brighten where we had been so recently. This area was filled with all small cars and I mean ones that would fit me and my bestie Sion but would be a tight squeeze for humans, the world’s smallest car might have been a squeeze for us as well.
We moved on through passing vehicles from the 60’s and onwards including a red CV which was very similar except in colour to one my step mother had driven in the 70’s.
Woolly says – The route led us past huge cases of all thing’s car, from Dinky cars to glass ones they had some splendid objects to look at.
We then found ourselves in the land of bikes from a large penny farthing through to the most modern TT bikes, each shining and so well looked after they appeared new.
A whole wall of number plates proved fascinating as were the old metal signs and posters which would have once been in every town and city.
The final area was for the cars that require a lot to buy and were much sportier in look especially the museums newest acquisition, a corvette.
We crossed over the courtyard and into the area that is dedicated to Malcolm and Donald Campbell. Between them, Sir Malcolm Campbell and his son, Donald, set 10 speed records on land and 11 on water. Driving a series of vehicles called Blue Bird.
Malcolm Campbell started racing cars in 1910 and in 1912 suffered the first of many near-fatal accidents at the famous Brooklands race track. This car was christened Blue Bird, after a stage play by Maurice Maeterlinck, and the name was used for all his subsequent vehicles and those raced by his son. Campbell first broke the land speed record at Pendine Sands, Carmarthenshire, in September 1924. The following July, on the same course, he became the first man to exceed 150mph. The late 1920s saw him vying for the record with Sir Henry Segrave. Campbell set a new land speed high of 231.4mph at Daytona, Florida, in February 1931, for which he was knighted. The ninth, and last, of his land speed records saw Campbell become the first to top 300mph. This was achieved on the Utah salt flats in September 1935. He then turned his attention to the water speed record, which he broke four times between September 1937 and August 1939 in a Blue Bird hydroplane, on the last occasion reaching 141.74mph on Coniston Water in the Lake District. He died at his Surrey home on New Year’s Eve 1948.
Campbell’s son, Donald, followed in his father’s footsteps, making his first (unsuccessful) attempt on the water speed record in August 1949. He eventually triumphed six years later, taking a new, jet-powered Bluebird to 202.32mph on Coniston Water. For the rest of the decade Campbell gained more records on water. Following his sixth – 260.35mph in May 1959 – he made an attempt on the land record that nearly proved fatal. In July 1964 he finally claimed the land speed prize at Lake Eyre salt flats in Australia, recording a speed of 403.14mph. He then returned to the water, and broke the speed record again on New Year’s Eve 1964 – at 276.33mph on Lake Dumbleyung, Western Australia. He became the first (and so far, only) person to set both records in a single calendar year. On 4th January 1967 Campbell’s life was cut short when he was killed in an attempt to take the water speed record over 300mph on Coniston Water. The wreckage of the last Bluebird, and Campbell’s body, were not recovered until 2001. Donald Campbell was laid to rest at Hawkshead cemetery, Coniston.
Inside were three of the wonderful Bluebirds that Father and Son had used with a lovely video montage showing their achievements and records, there was even a Bluebird just the right size for me although I couldn’t imagine going over 10 miles per hour as the wind would wreck my hairstyle.
With the museum complete we headed for the North shore of Windermere which was beautiful but sadly not dog walking friendly without being on a main road so having caught a couple of pictures we headed onwards stopping at Esthwaite Water, a much smaller lake but one that allowed the panting barking beast to race round and enjoy the water.
With Jo fit to drop from all the driving we headed towards our digs for our stay so she would be ready and up for everything I had planned for the next day.
I took the sensible option of dropping them off and leaving them to it and headed to the nearest eatery for a wonderful plate of scampi and a lovely meeting with a group of ladies…I do hope the picture I took for them came out ok.