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  • 5/30/2025
Wainwright Walks episode 9

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Travel
Transcript
00:00Nestled in the far northwest of England, this is the Lake District, a land defined by its
00:12natural beauty. Unknown to millions who love the lakes was the late Alfred Wainwright, author,
00:26guide writer and talented artist. But above all, he was the greatest fell walker.
00:36Wainwright's guides have inspired generations of walkers to roam these
00:40glorious fells. And now, a century after his birth, it's my turn to go in search of
00:46the real Wainwright experience.
00:56Today, I'm in a remote spot in the far eastern area of the lakes, in the Horsewater Valley,
01:18to climb to the summit of High Street. Now, as the name suggests, this is quite literally
01:23a high street, an ancient route well-trodden for at least 2,000 years. Today, I'm setting
01:30out to discover why legions of Roman soldiers who trudged across this glorious fell fired
01:35the imagination of the young Alfred Wainwright.
01:42The name High Street intrigued Wainwright so much so, he climbed it during his first visit
01:51to the lakes in 1930, when he was just 23.
01:55This range forms a spirit along the eastern fringe of Lakeland, providing a splendid full
02:04day's march at a consistently high altitude, but is distant from the areas most favoured by
02:10fell walkers. And it's comparatively unfrequented, appealing mainly to lovers of mountain solitude.
02:21High Street gets its name from the Roman road which once ran across the fell tops and through
02:25the valleys, between two forts at Ambleside and near Penrith.
02:33It's so very quiet here, and dramatic. It's easy to see how Wainwright would be captivated
02:39by the isolated beauty and tranquillity of the valley, and then that imposing ridge.
02:48Behind all this scenery hides a very intriguing story.
03:05Hawsewater itself may look like an unspoilt stretch of Lakeland Valley, but the view here
03:10is almost entirely man-made. Back along the Mardale Road sits an enormous dam. It was built
03:18in 1935 and turned the valley's natural lake into a huge reservoir that could supply drinking
03:24water to Manchester. But beneath the surface today lie the flooded remains of two villages.
03:33Hundreds and thousands of gallons are now pumped south every day. At its maximum capacity,
03:37this reservoir holds more than 18 and a half billion gallons of water. That's enough for
03:42everyone on the planet to have three baths.
03:54Before I set off on my walk today, I'm meeting local journalist Karen Barden to find out more
03:59about the history of the valley floor.
04:02So, Karen, there must be some real ghosts in this valley.
04:05Yeah, there really are. It's hard to think, isn't it, that this lake isn't an actual lake,
04:09and it in fact is a huge reservoir. And underneath it, there's a remains, dismembered remains of
04:15Mardale, which was described as one of the most beautiful and tranquil villages in the whole
04:20of the Lake District.
04:21Now, when Wainwright first came here, he described it as a ghost town. It was before the reservoir had
04:27been completed. There must have been some resistance from the locals in the village.
04:32Well, surprisingly, there didn't seem to be that much resistance. I think you've got to go back a bit.
04:37The Horsewater Act was passed by Manchester Corporation in 1919, and it gave them the right
04:43to buy every bit of land you could see. And the idea was they would put a huge dam at the top,
04:48which was described as a monstrous plug at the time, and then they would flood the whole valley.
04:55People didn't protest as much as they should have because, remember, this was just post-Great War,
05:00and there was very little for the men to come back to, and this was going to provide 200 jobs.
05:05And I suppose for a lot of people that was a positive step. There was going to be all this work.
05:10Why Mardale Valley? Why was Mardale chosen?
05:13Because the original Horsewater was one of the highest, well, I think it was the highest lake in England.
05:18It was about 700 feet above sea level, and that was really important in the logistics
05:23of getting water the 80-odd miles down to Manchester.
05:27Try and describe what was here all those years ago.
05:30Basically, it was a farming community. As you see, the headlands sticking out.
05:34If you just imagine that, about sort of halfway between the headland and the other side,
05:38that's where the Dunball pub was.
05:40When you say headland, you mean there's protuberance just here?
05:42Yeah, it's called the Rig, and it would have looked very different in the time of Mardale Village.
05:47The corporation planted it with conifers, as was the fashion in those days.
05:52In the 30s, by the time that Wainwright would have seen it, it was basically down to about 40 inhabitants,
05:57and there was a vicarage and a beautiful, beautiful little church, one of the smallest in the Lake District.
06:02In August 1935, it was going to be the last service.
06:05Only 75 people could get in and tickets were issued, but in fact 81 squeezed in the door.
06:10And all the others were just outside.
06:12And it's said that as they sang the hymn,
06:15Lift up thy nines to the hills, the tears were the first tears of the reservoir.
06:20What did they do to the buildings? Did they demolish them or just flood them?
06:24By and large, they demolished them.
06:26They allowed the territorial army in to practise blow-up procedures on them.
06:30Nice.
06:31Only the church was spared, and that was taken down stone by stone.
06:35And quite a lot of the materials were used to build the draw-off tower for the reservoir,
06:40which is the sort of tower-like structure you see halfway down.
06:43Presumably as well there would have been bodies to deal with as well, buried bodies.
06:49What happened to them?
06:50Well, there were about a hundred bodies in the churchyard and they were all exhumed and taken to Shapp.
06:57And a special little area in the cemetery was made over to the residents,
07:01or the former residents of Mardale.
07:03Do you think visitors to this valley now understand the sadness?
07:08Oh, some of them do, and particularly in times of drought.
07:13What can you see during those times?
07:15You can see the stone walls, you can see roads, and you can see little piles of stones.
07:22And outside the Dunball you can see the definite square of the tennis court.
07:26But it's a very, very sad time.
07:28In 95 it was quite remarkable because the whole lake just receded and receded and receded.
07:34So, again, it became a huge, huge tourist attraction.
07:38The valley was flooded again, but with people this time,
07:41and there were hot dog sellers and ice cream vendors, and it became a complete circus.
07:46Well, Karen, thanks so much for chatting to me.
07:47I shall think about things very differently as I take my walk today.
07:50But what should I be looking out for?
07:52Oh, the Golden Eagle, definitely. It's the only one in England.
07:55I will do, thank you very much.
07:57Rain stays away.
08:00The hamlet of Mardale Green would be drowned.
08:04The church, the inn, the cottages, and the flowers would all disappear, sunk without trace,
08:14and its history and traditions be forgotten.
08:25Well, that's where I'm heading.
08:26So let's take a look at the route.
08:28From the car park, the walk begins from amidst the reservoir's headwaters.
08:45My route now follows the lakeshore before reaching the conifer plantation on the rig.
08:52The path now strikes up a well-defined ridge.
09:00I'll pass along the summits of Heron Crag, Swine Crag, Eagle Crag, and Rough Crag.
09:12From the ridge, the view looks into Bleewater Crag, and down upon Bleewater Tarn, with the lesser tarn of small water beyond it.
09:19Here, the ridge narrows into the steep and rocky staircase called Longstile.
09:32That brings me to a small cairn where the ridge is met by the plateau.
09:44A grassy path leads across the vast plateau that gives High Street its name, heading towards an old triangulation column and a huge open vista that is the summit's true top.
09:58The indistinct route of the Roman Road lies here, between the two visible paths.
10:10I'm meeting Jamie Lund at the summit. He's an archaeologist for the National Trust.
10:14He's going to explain a bit more about the Roman Road to me, and the history of High Street that's so enraptured Wainwright.
10:21The thing he is, I'm meeting him there in two hours, so I'll bet get a move on.
10:28Most of the high places in Lakeland have no mention in history books,
10:33and until comparatively recent times, when enlightened men were inspired to climb upon them for pleasure and exercise,
10:41it was fashionable to regard them as objects of awe and terror, and their summits were rarely visited.
10:48Not so High Street, which has been known and trodden down through the ages by a miscellany of travellers on an odd variety of missions.
11:11This promontory on the edge of Horsewater is the ridge that Karen mentioned.
11:17It's hard to believe that not so long ago this looked out onto fields and cottages.
11:22Wainwright always liked to give the reader a choice, different ways to make the ascent.
11:43But in this case, he was particularly clear about his preferred route from Mardale, describing it as the connoisseur's route up High Street.
11:53The ascent is a classic, leading directly along the crest of a long straight ridge that permits no variation from the valley to the summit.
12:12The views are excellent throughout.
12:15It doesn't look man-made.
12:23Whilst Wainwright was no supporter of the Manchester Dam, he acknowledged the efforts to integrate it into the landscape.
12:30It must be conceded that Manchester has done the job as unobtrusively as possible.
12:45Now, if you take a peek at the guide, it looks like a pretty straightforward walk just all along the ridge right to the summit.
12:59But you also know that the summit is just shy of 3,000 feet, so it's not going to be as easy as it appears on the page.
13:06Mountain climbing is an epitome of life.
13:33You start at the bottom.
13:36The weaklings and the irresolute drop out on the way up.
13:39The determined reach the top.
13:42Life is like that.
13:46Well, the route may be straight, but the path is not.
14:09It's all twists and turns and loads of rocks which make it really hard going and slow you down quite a lot.
14:18We're at about 1,600 feet here and the view has really opened out on both sides.
14:46The dam is that way and if you look down there, you can just see Tower Pier.
14:57Just along from the pier is the small man-made islet of Woodhow.
15:01It was built to mimic similar scenery at the natural lakes of Windermere and Derwent Water to ensure that this reservoir blended with the overall Lakeland landscape.
15:16So far the weather is holding, but there's an ominous amount of cloud over the next valley heading towards the summit.
15:38Something that will come as no surprise to those familiar with the ever-changing weather conditions on the Lakeland Mountains.
15:50Something that will come as well.
15:51Something that will come as well.
15:52Something that will come as well.
15:53Something that will come as well.
15:54Something that will come as well.
15:59My path is steeper as I reach the top of the crag, giving me clear views into the valleys on both sides of the ridge.
16:06And there is my first view of the summit.
16:27It still looks tiny.
16:28Still a long way to go.
16:31And also from this ridge, I can see the other valley, Brigandale, down there.
16:45Along this ridge, each hive point has its own name.
16:48There's swine, heron and eagle crag.
16:55I was standing here a few years ago, looking down into Brigandale, when a huge bird took off from the crags below, and with two lazy flaps of its wings, soared effortlessly across the valley and alighted on the topmost rocks of Kidsty Pike opposite.
17:15There was no doubting its identity.
17:18It was a golden eagle.
17:25The sight of eagles was once commonplace across Lakeland.
17:28Today, Horsewater is the last place in England where the golden eagle nests.
17:34And sadly, the valley's aging solo male has been without a mate since 2004.
17:40Karen told me to watch out for the male eagle.
17:46This is eagle crag.
17:47No sign.
17:48Must be camera shy today.
17:50Although I haven't been lucky with the eagle, there's one unusual Lakeland view here that I'm guaranteed.
18:01Here, from the ridge, there are two tarns in one view.
18:09Small water nestled below Harter Fell, and the larger Blee Water.
18:15Not only is this one of the most impressive tarns in the Lake District, it's also the deepest, plunging to 207 feet.
18:28You always expect rain in the lakes, but it's always so beautiful when the sun shines.
18:43The top of High Street is in sight.
19:07But my path is still interrupted by the seemingly endless rocky spine of rough crag.
19:14Every time you get over one of these mini summits, there's another one.
19:39Well, this is the summit of rough crag, which is really just a nobble on this huge undulating ridge.
19:55And this pitiful pile of rocks is the cairn.
20:02As I pass over each of the crags, there's a brief moment of descent providing a little respite.
20:10But I can see the summit of High Street looming ominously over me.
20:16That last climb is so cruel because you think you're nearly there and then there's one more shift upwards.
20:39One more shift upwards.
20:42But this is Longstile, which means the next spot is definitely, definitely the summit.
20:55Longstile buttresses the enormous grassy plateau of High Street and forms the final chapter of my walk up the ridge.
21:02The long, flat top of the fell is where the Roman road reaches its highest point as it passes from north to south.
21:11On a clear day, the edge of the summit plateau gives amazing views back along the ridge to Haweswater.
21:18But unfortunately, today, it looks like my luck with the weather is running out.
21:37I've made it to the top of the ridge and onto the plateau.
21:40But I've been swamped by cloud, which has blanked out my view.
21:49Well, I've made it to the top of the ridge. The weather has just closed in, but I'm on time to meet Jamie.
21:56So Jamie, where have you brought me? And why is the mountain covered in cloud on this side?
22:02Well, quite typically, we've got all four seasons in one day today.
22:05We have come into the clag, now we're up high.
22:08We're actually here, I brought you here just a short distance to the north of the summit cane
22:13to show you the best evidence of the Roman road along the top of High Street.
22:18We're actually now just parallel to the path we've just walked down on.
22:21Yeah.
22:22The path that people use today.
22:23And it appears at some point in the path there's been a landslip along the Roman road,
22:27which has meant that its use has been discontinued.
22:30Now, what has happened is that a new path has developed alongside, leaving this one in pristine condition.
22:35So, this is it. I mean, it's certainly not immediately obvious to the untrained eye.
22:40No.
22:41So talk me through it.
22:42Well, it is quite subtle, as much archaeology is.
22:44But I think the evidence here can really be seen as this bank that we just walked down.
22:48Yeah.
22:49Now, what this tells us is that the Romans appear to have excavated material from this side of the road
22:56and then brought it about four metres to the opposite side and dumped it to actually build it up and revet it.
23:02So those two ridges are the evidence?
23:04Those are the edges of the Roman road, that's right.
23:07Now, why here for A High Street?
23:10Well, it is a tremendous operation, a tremendous achievement by the Romans.
23:15We're actually about 750 metres above sea level now, which means that this is the highest piece of Roman road in Britain.
23:22Now, the reason why it's here is because it was constructed to link the Roman fort at Broome in the north near Penrith
23:29with the Roman forts of Ambleside and Keswick in the south.
23:33And we believe that it was built probably around the end of the 1st century AD, at the start of the 2nd century AD,
23:39which is the date for those two latter forts.
23:41Now, as ever, the Romans were incredibly efficient then with their positioning of this road.
23:46They were. They were a model of economy, really.
23:49Now, what they appear to have done is use materials that are local, that are easily at hand,
23:55which makes an awful lot of sense when you're working at this height.
23:58Because we're used to seeing Roman roads, the old cobbled roads or the long straight.
24:01Yeah, that's right.
24:02That's what most people have in their mind.
24:04And that's what it would have been like in the towns and cities.
24:06But here, of course, it's a little bit different.
24:08What they appear to have done is actually taken the peat, the surface layer, and made this level platform.
24:15They've then dumped on individual layers of gravel, peat, brushwood in places where it's wet,
24:21and then an overall covering of larger stones.
24:24And that, even though it's not particularly compact, it doesn't sound like it's particularly hard-wearing, it is.
24:30And it's very similar to the technique of pitching that the National Park and the National Trust use today
24:35when they're repairing upland footpaths.
24:37It just is so vocative when you're up here on the summit of High Street.
24:42Talk us through some of the scenes that would have existed over the years.
24:46Well, again, that's something else that Wainwright picks up on is the use of this, of High Street,
24:51for occasional fairs, annual fairs and shepherd's meets.
24:54And there appears to have been sort of two dimensions to this.
24:57Firstly, there's a very functional dimension in that shepherds do need to get together at certain times of the year.
25:02Yeah, the commonest element.
25:03That's right, largely to return sheep that have strayed over from one valley to the next.
25:07So what they did, they all got together on the same day and returned stock that had strayed.
25:11But, of course, the most important aspect of this is the social dimension.
25:15And it appears there was a great deal of merriment, lots of eating, lots of drinking and feasting.
25:20But the most memorable aspect of this was the athletics and the games.
25:24The thing that made the games on High Street quite unique is that it featured a horse race.
25:29Yes, this amazing image.
25:31It's amazing of people galloping down the straight between High Street and Rigandale,
25:37which is quite a steep slope, so it would have been a real test of nerve.
25:40And, of course, the name Racecourse Hill is preserved today.
25:43Well, Jamie, thank you so much. I'm going to head back to the summit.
25:46Now I know I'm walking on the Roman road, I'm feeling quite chuffed.
25:49Well, do try and enjoy the rest of the day.
25:50I will. See you then. Bye-bye.
25:52Goodbye.
25:53As I cross back to reach the trig point at the summit, the solitude of my surroundings gives me the chance to truly appreciate the rich history of this fell.
26:12Any person so favoured may recline on the turf and witness in their mind's eye a varied pageant of history.
26:24For he has been preceded here by ancient Britons, the Roman cohorts, by the Scots invaders, by the shepherds, dalesmen and farmers,
26:37who centuries ago made the summit their playground and feasting place.
26:56Being right on the eastern edge of the lakes, this is a fantastic place to see all the giants of Lakeland along the horizon in a long ordered line.
27:06That's Skiddor.
27:11And then Halvelyn.
27:16The upside down basin, that's Great Gable.
27:21And then under cloud, that's Schofield Pike.
27:26As Wainwright frequently remarks, there's something unspoiled and special about this now remote frontier area of the National Park.
27:48Despite its long and crowded history, the High Street range can still be walked from dawn to dusk without meeting another soul.
27:57Of all the large plateau summits I've visited, High Street is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable.
28:10Not only is it simply enormous, a whale back as Wainwright described it, but it's also a place of a thousand stories, lost secrets, history.
28:20No wonder when Wainwright first visited here 77 years ago, he became so fired up by it.
28:29It really is an evocative whale.
28:32It really is an evocative whale.
28:33As Wainwright.
28:34I was born as a double-scale whale.
28:35Over a young boy.
28:36It really is an evocative whale.
28:37It really loves to be so far.
28:39Let me be so.
28:41It's now a year.
28:42It's time for you to walk.
28:44And now I'm over the hill of the hill.
28:46And now I'm over to Swist起來.
28:48My sister has aopen to the Holy Spirit.
28:51How is my sisters.