Elterwater |
Page
1
|
|
|
|
|
Nowhere on earth is like this Easter Week 2002 was spent in Elterwater, the Lakeland village that was my first home. We left this beautiful area, which was also my father’s birthplace, over 50 years ago. It was the first time I had stayed here since. I had visited it many times but never spent more than a couple of hours. I had a strange sense of belonging. The village is now a holiday resort. Almost all of the green slate cottages are let out to visitors. A timeshare complex now fills the grounds of the old hall. The owner of the hotel we are staying in says that its influence dominates the area. After we moved away from Elterwater we led a nomadic life that began in the Home Counties. Visits to the village as a child and young man were to attend services in the mission. A lonely wooden hut on the fellside. I was more interested in the bracken, crags and green slate roofs visible through the mission windows than the sermon from the pulpit. There was nothing like this in whichever English town we were then living. This Easter I was staying under the shelter of one of those roofs. The Eltermere Country House Hotel. It stands not far from the shores of Elterwater, the small lake from which the village derives its name.
|
|
|
Rose Cottage
(white), Elterwater |
||
|
Elterwater
from Red Bank |
||
|
|
Continue |
