Conserving Lakeland
The magazine of Friends of the Lake District | Free to members
Hedges
From the Chief Executive
On a recent weekend, my wife and I did one of our favourite ‘rainy day’ walks – from Patterdale up and over Place Fell, then down to Sandwick, and back along Ullswater’s southern shore. There are usually amazing views from the top, even if the cloud is low, and we have sometimes seen majestic red stags roaming near High Dodd.
Once you’re down on the path between the crags and the lake though, the steep narrow landscape becomes inaccessible to sheep and deer, so trees and shrubs of all kinds have flourished, largely without any human intervention.
I found myself imagining what a Lake District without those ‘nuclear nibblers’ would be like. And that’s exactly what local naturalist Lee Schofield has been imagining too. He recently called on UNESCO to withdraw the Park’s World Heritage Status, because he believes it puts too much emphasis on the ‘agro-pastoral’ sheep farming heritage of the landscape, at the expense of nature.
At Friends of the Lake District, we believe there’s value in both the natural and cultural aspects of the landscape, and we try to avoid polarised ‘rewilding versus food production’ positions. Our vision is thriving Cumbrian landscapes – for nature, for people, for ever.
There’s a harmony there, which we believe it’s possible to achieve with imaginative interventions to encourage nature-friendly farming. That’s why we’re launching a major project called Hedges and Edges, working with farmers and landowners to plant or regenerate miles of healthy hedgerows and verges, co-existing with the livestock and eventually providing them with shelter and a more varied diet.
Healthy hedgerows are brilliant habitats for nature, and they soak up carbon from the air and water from the ground, reducing climate risks and flooding. You can read more about this ambitious project on page 14 and, if you agree that nature recovery can be achieved while protecting the valuable cultural heritage of the Lakes, it would be great if you could support our work with a donation. Many thanks for being a Friend of the Lake District, and I hope you enjoy this edition of Conserving Lakeland.
Michael Hill Chief Executive
Friends of the Lake District is dedicated to protecting and enhancing Cumbria’s landscapes. We also represent CPRE – The Countryside Charity in Cumbria.
Mike and his wife, Geri, on another rainy walk in the Lake District
Our head of planning and policy, Lorayne Wall, and I recently met Josh McAlister (MP for Whitehaven and Workington) and Markus Campbell-Savours (MP for Penrith and Solway) at Portcullis House, Westminster to discuss, among other things, support for farmers and the idea of a visitor levy
Around Our Land
Friends of the Lake District looks after 12 pieces of land across Cumbria. Land Manager Jan Darrall brings you updates from a couple of them.
Dam Mire Wood
As you many of you will know from the last issue of Conserving Lakeland, we’ve recently purchased the field next door to Dam Mire Wood in Threlkeld and we’re hoping to create an even bigger home for nature and people there. Thank you to everyone who was so generous in donating to our appeal and the Big Give Green Match Fund. This has raised a whopping £36,000 to help with all our exciting plans.
The money raised so far will mean we’re able to install the bridge needed across Kilnhow Beck so that machinery can get on site to do further work. The bridge and new paths need planning and Environment Agency permission, and to get these we have had to do a raft of other plans such as flood risk assessments, topographical surveys, and outline how we will be improving the site for biodiversity. The applications should be submitted soon.
We’re also developing our plans for a network of ponds and scrapes for wildlife on the new site. To do this, we’re working with the Resilient Glenderamackin Landscape Recovery project, run by West Cumbria Rivers Trust, which aims to reduce flood risk to Keswick while delivering nature-based solutions to benefit nature, farming and communities.
In addition to all that, we’ve commissioned an ecologist to do a baseline ecology survey of the new site that will tell us what we have on the land. It’ll also give us some recommendations for enhancing the site even more for wildlife and biodiversity. In the meantime, more local people are using the new site. Once we get the bridge and path works done we can remove some of the fencing between
the old and new site and make it safe to pass between the two, so everyone can enjoy the whole site in one go!
Rusland Woods: Our Temperate Rainforest
Our two woods in the Rusland valley – Resp Haw and Bull Coppice –are part of a project with Plantlife and several other partners which aims to improve and regenerate temperate rainforest habitat and biodiversity. Funded by Defra, the project runs for two years from April 2024 and covers the south-west of England plus Cumbria. Temperate rainforests are a really important habitat and can be identified by certain types of lichens and bryophytes. The UK has, unfortunately, lost many of these woods and the Plantlife project aims to map the woods that Friends has, and help us make them more resilient.
There’s a lot more to do at Dam Mire Wood. If you haven’t already donated to support the work, you can do so by visiting www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/dammireappeal
You can visit Dam Mire Wood from the comfort of your own armchair using our virtual tour of the land. Visit www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/virtual-tours
A volunteer at a recent Dam Mire Wood workparty with her newly built drain!
Rapid Rainforest Assessments have shown our woods are faring pretty well, but there is more we can do. The pressure from local deer means that we have very few young trees that manage to grow older, and we could do with more diversity in the size and type of trees. We have already been
working to reduce beech, holly and sycamore regrowth in the woods, but we have now added 10 small enclosures. These will be planted with a range of native species over winter as a trial to see what will happen if we can keep them stock-proof. We are also talking to a local farmer about doing some mechanical bashing to help reduce the bracken, and possibly introduce cows next year.
We’ll be bringing you further details of this amazing project in the next issue of Conserving Lakeland so watch this space.
Don't forget!
You can keep up to date with all the work that Jan and our volunteers are doing on the land we look after by reading Jan’s weekly Land Manager’s Diary on our website.
Gillside Tree Circle
Resonance is a living, growing artwork that brings together people, silver birch trees and peat bogs in a changing landscape. Dawn Groundsell tells us more.
During a March volunteer workparty in Gillside, Grasmere, we were joined by Harriet and Rob Fraser who, as part of their Resonance project, are creating seven tree circles around the Lake District. Each circle of seven silver birch trees will be on seven radial lines stretching from a sycamore on Helm Crag (which is thought to be the centre of the Lake District National Park). Each group of trees also has a colour – ours was red, the start of the rainbow, as it is closest to the Helm Crag sycamore.
These trees will be living artworks and the Resonance project is all about bringing people together to discuss issues of land use for net zero, nature and people.
We’ll be planting more trees in the near future, both in Rusland and on the Helm. So, why not buy a native tree sapling for a loved one? Visit our landscape gifts page on our online shop to find out more: www. friendsofthelakedistrict.org. uk/landscapegifts
The birch trees themselves have come from Bolton Fell Moss, a National Nature Reserve north-east of Carlisle. Bolton Fell Moss is being restored to peat bog and so the young trees needed removing. Harriet and Rob dug them up last November, and they’ve been in their garden awaiting planting ever since.
The trees were planted in Gillside with some ceremony – the volunteers measured and marked out the seven lines to make the circle, wrote thoughts and messages on pieces of paper and put them in the holes before the trees were planted, and then Harriet read a poem written for the occasion. We also discussed some key current land-use issues and, of course, ate cake.
Harriet Fraser said: ‘The Gillside location is a wonderful place to site one of the seven Resonance birch circles – it's a stunning part of the Lake District and it's great to know that volunteers will be regularly looking in on the small circle of seven trees, for years to come. It will be fascinating to see how they fit in with the family of trees already at Gillside, and what conversations and events might occur here, in the spirit of caring for the land and working together. Huge thanks to all who helped to get them settled in: the trees are now in full leaf and seem to be doing really well.’
You can read more about the Resonance project by visiting https://theplacecollective.org/ resonance
Volunteers clearing the holly from Rusland Woods back in March 2025
Go Wild Under the Stars
Our new Engagement Trainee Stephanie Gardiner reports on some incredible work helping Cumbrian schoolchildren learn about the importance of dark skies, both locally and around the world.
Over the past month Friends of the Lake District’s engagement team has started running Go Wild Under the Stars sessions with primary schools across Cumbria. The sessions come in two parts. The first looks at teaching children about moths, how to ethically trap them, identify them and understand their food sources, habitat, and evolved features. In the second session, we link this learning with our Dark Skies project, teaching the children about light pollution, and the negative impact that it can have on moths as well as other wildlife and humans.
We’ve been working with schools across Cumbria including Ennerdale Primary School, St Thomas’s in Kendal, Brigham Primary School and Threlkeld Primary School who carried out their sessions at Dam Mire Wood, just up the road from them.
Light pollution is a growing problem and therefore a growing concern for nature. Artificial lights impact
the migration and natural rhythms of nocturnal wildlife. Moths are an essential nocturnal pollinator, and light pollution has been found to reduce nocturnal pollination by as much as 62%. We need to look at ways to reduce our light pollution and rewild our night.
This is not about removing all artificial light, we know that it has its purposes for safety and security. It is about reducing the levels of wasteful light which spills into our night skies. We all play our part in helping to reduce light pollution. However, it is even more important to teach this to younger generations, as they will be the ones who can put good lighting techniques into practice and reduce light pollution in the future.
The Go Wild Under the Stars sessions also connect the participating schools with the Stars4All initiative, a programme consisting of a growing network of light pollution monitors (TESS Monitors) around the globe.
There have been 1,400 TESS monitors already fitted worldwide, and some have already been installed in Northumberland and North Yorkshire, but the monitors installed through this project will be the first ones in Cumbria. The sessions teach the children to think locally about which moths live around them and how they can improve their habitat. Getting the children involved with Stars4All also includes them in the largest dark sky survey carried out and helps them understand that light pollution, and nature recovery, are global issues, which they are already involved in tackling.
Schoolchild holding a Dark Brocade moth
Full class around the table at Dam Mire Wood
Water Review
Policy Officer Amanda McCleery has been busy responding to a consultation on the water industry.
Water is the lifeblood flowing through the Cumbrian landscape. It sustains natural beauty, wildlife and habitats; supports farming, tourism and other local businesses; provides fresh drinking water for everyone; helps explain much of the county’s ancient and industrial history; and it underpins health and recreation in the area. However, this vital resource is both undervalued and threatened. Pollution, from sewage and other sources, can result in poor water quality. Human demand for water is growing, which puts increasing pressure on finite supplies. Climate change means that extreme flooding and drought events are becoming more common.
This is the background to the Independent Water Commission, chaired by Sir Jon Cunliffe, which was established in October 2024 to review the water industry and make recommendations to government. The Commission published its Call for Evidence in February 2025 which sought the views on the strategic management of water and environmental regulation, for
example. In our response, Friends of the Lake District requested the following: a clear framework for water; strengthened regulators; improved assets; and more naturebased solutions and innovation.
In our feedback, we suggested that the water sector is overly complex, with gaps and overlaps and targets completely missed. There should be a new water framework that is clearer to understand and deliver, with targets that are ambitious yet achievable. The framework will need broadening to extend the range of environmental factors, such as additional pollutants and nature restoration, and outcomes that society increasingly wants from water bodies, such as public health and recreation.
The regulators also need stronger enforcement powers and bigger budgets for more staff and resources. There may be strength and clarity in merging the three existing regulators into one that covers all aspects of water, including quality, habitats and economics.
With climate change and population growth, there needs to be much
greater emphasis and funding by water companies in both maintaining and replacing existing assets. We fed back that the economic regulator Ofwat needs a supervisory function to track money being spent by water companies. In addition, there needs to be interim milestones during the five-year price review period – rather than simply waiting until the end to evaluate if targets and outcomes have been achieved, as by then it is too late to rectify.
Among some of our other responses, we highlighted how engineering solutions are still too often agreed at the expense of nature-based solutions, such as tree planting and wetland creation. We also suggested that the UK should learn from other countries, whether ones in Africa on saving water or France with its sewer main to ensure Lake Annecy’s highwater quality. Much more should be made of rainwater harvesting and grey water solutions to capture and re-use tap water. Plus, more social media campaigns and direct education (such as Waterwise’s Water Literacy training) are needed to increase consumers’ understanding that water supplies are finite.
The Independent Commission received over 50,000 responses –testament to its importance. All these replies are now being analysed and the Commission hopes to publish its final report over the summer, with a government response expected later.
Many are hoping that this review will deliver radical reforms, but the Commission is only being allowed to consider the existing ownership model of private water companies. The concern is that any reform of the water industry’s finances and regulation still won’t be fundamental enough to reverse long-term decline of our nation’s coasts, rivers and lakes.
Planning for Nature’s Destruction
Policy Officer Kate Willshaw explains why the Planning and Infrastructure Bill Part 3 threatens the integrity of nature and the landscape.
The natural world is not a commodity to be shuffled across the landscape like a chess piece. Yet this is precisely what Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill proposes, through the implementation of the Government’s proposed Nature Levy as a strategy for managing the environmental impacts of development.
The Bill’s proposals enable developers to destroy habitats by paying a Nature Levy, effectively turning nature into a transferable credit to be established somewhere else. But this ‘somewhere else’ can never be the same; it lacks the original site’s ecological history, and its relationship with the local ecosystem and surrounding community. Nature cannot be divorced from the landscape it occupies.
Conservation is not simply about preserving isolated fragments of the past. It is about negotiating a meaningful continuity between past, present, and future. This continuity is ruptured when nature is treated as mobile capital, to be uprooted and relocated in the name of development.
By sanctioning the Nature Levy, the bill promotes a model where natural habitats are segregated into reserves or habitat banks, reinforcing the idea that wildlife belongs in isolated pockets, not within the everyday spaces where people live. This leads to both a real and perceived disconnection between communities and their local environment. When green spaces are relocated miles away, communities lose the ability to engage with nature in their daily lives.
Evidence shows that a Nature Levy model will not even achieve no net loss, let alone biodiversity gain. Maron et al. (2012) found that compensation schemes frequently fail to support the restoration outcomes they promise. Newly created habitats often fall far
Nature cannot be divorced from the landscape it occupies
short of replacing what was lost, both in biodiversity and ecological complexity. Microbial communities, symbiotic relationships, and historical layering of species, soil and hydrological processes cannot be fabricated within a human timeframe. The result is a proliferation of ecologically mediocre spaces, inhabited by generalist species, at the expense of rich and specialised communities which will be lost to development.
This is made even worse by the fact that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill removes three critical pillars of effective environmental governance: the precautionary principle, which prevents destruction before we fully understand what’s at stake; the mitigation hierarchy, which encourages developers to avoid harm in the first place – rather than simply pay ‘cash to trash’; and ‘the polluter pays’ principle, replaced by a flat tax on all developments.
The bill also fails to account for landscape-scale ecological processes. Sites are rarely isolated; they are
part of interconnected ecological networks. Destroying a key habitat can fragment these networks, disrupt species movement, and undermine wider ecosystem functioning. The Nature Levy does not address these cascading losses, particularly as replacement sites are detached from the original ecological context.
This disruption is not just ecological, but visual and cultural. Moving or recreating habitats in locations with different soil, climate, or geology changes the landscape character. For instance, a habitat lost in north-west England cannot simply be recreated in the east of England without altering both its ecological identity and its contribution to the local sense of place.
Some habitats, due to their age, complexity, or ecological function, should simply be regarded as nonnegotiable. These include ancient woodlands, deep peat, upland bogs, limestone pavements and slowforming wetland ecosystems. Their loss would represent a permanent
rupture and impoverishment of our ecological and cultural heritage.
By enabling the relocation and commodification of nature through the Nature Levy, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill undermines both habitats and species, and the integrity of the landscapes that support them. True conservation must recognise that nature and landscape are inseparable – that place matters. Without this
understanding, we risk not only ecological degradation, but also a growing disconnect between people and the natural world that sustains them.
If the Government really means to plan for the future responsibly, they must stop treating nature as if it can be moved and replaced at will, and start valuing it as the deeply rooted, place-based, and community-bound legacy that it is.
Planning and Policy Updates
Windermere Study
A feasibility study for Windermere has been established by Only Rainwater –a coalition of local organisations such as the Save Windermere campaign, United Utilities and the Environment Agency. It will determine what is needed to eliminate sewage discharges into England’s largest natural lake and will draw on successful examples and innovation from around the world, including Lake Annecy in France.
Brockholes Farm
An application for an animal reserve in the Yorkshire Dales, on the edge of the Lake District National Park, has been refused. During the consultation on the application, we identified several gaps in the applicant’s evidence
and raised concerns about several issues including landscape and visual harm. The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s Planning Committee took those concerns into account and, as well as refusing the application, have also authorised enforcement action to be taken against works already undertaken.
Rooftop Solar Win for CPRE
The Government has announced that, by 2027, solar panels are to be fitted on all new-build homes in England. The proposed change will be included in the Future Homes Standard, to be published in the autumn. It will ensure energy efficient homes, cut bills, and boost the nation’s energy security. Over the past two years, CPRE – the Countryside Charity (which Friends of the Lake District represents in Cumbria) has been campaigning for a ‘Rooftop Revolution’ and, in January this year, over 10,000 CPRE supporters backed calls for the Government to adopt the Sunshine Bill – a law that would see solar panels installed on all suitable new homes.
Local Nature Recovery Strategy
We welcome the draft of Cumbria’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy,
Become a Constituency Advocate for Friends of the Lake District
To get politicians (all over the country, not only in Cumbria) to support our goals, we need people to engage them directly – by writing to them or meeting them in constituency surgeries, for example. Contact campaigning@fld.org.uk if you’re interested in becoming a Friends of the Lake District Constituency Advocate. Guidance and training will be provided.
which is a county-wide document that contains a local habitats map, a written statement of biodiversity priorities, and identifies areas for nature recovery. It also has a list of measures that people can take to improve biodiversity and there’s a duty on public authorities to ‘have regard’ to it in decision-making. We have responded to a consultation on the draft; to read it for yourself visit: https://cumbrialnrs.org.uk
Planning Outreach Programme
Friends of the Lake District is offering bespoke and cost-effective workshops to parish councils and other organisations to help them engage in the planning process more effectively. The workshops will help people prepare for forthcoming Local Plan consultations and will equip them with tools to help negotiate for the types of developments they want to see locally at an early stage of the Local Plan process. We will also provide advice on the Development Management process which will help people produce robust responses to planning applications. For more information visit www. friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/ planning-outreach-programme
Windermere
Campaign Updates
Roanhead
The planning decision regarding a proposed 233-lodge resort at Roanhead, on the west coast of the Furness peninsula, has been delayed by Westmorland and Furness Council again. Friends of the Lake District is part of a coalition of nature and landscape charities that continues to work together to object to the serious threat to internationally significant sites.
The National Trust, which looks after Sandscale Haws National Nature Reserve, is also part of the coalition, as is the Woodland Trust, the RSPB, the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust, Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Cumbria GeoConservation.
MP for Barrow and Furness, Michelle Scrogham, visited the area and joined representatives from various concerned groups, including Friends of the Lake District and campaigners from Save Roanhead, to show her support. “The proposed development at Roanhead would be disastrous, causing irreversible damage to this special place,” she said. “It is not often that such a broad range of groups unite with local people to oppose a planning application in this way. This coalition of respected organisations have joined with residents because of the ecological importance of Roanhead and the threat that these plans would pose to endangered wildlife, coastal erosion, flood risk, and land instability. Roanhead is a place of international ecological importance and, at the same time, hugely valued by local people who have enjoyed and looked after this land for generations. We must ensure that it is protected to be enjoyed by future generations in the same way.”
Friends of the Lake District has supported the campaign group Save Roanhead since it began in early 2023. Claire Gould, a local resident and member of the group, praised our efforts: “You have come to meetings,
explained the planning system and policies, shared template letters, and answered our questions about the process. Your support gave us confidence to stand up and rally local people to believe we can save a really important place.”
We have also submitted responses to Westmorland and Furness Council regarding a smaller tourism development proposed on an adjacent site for 20 lodges, 22 caravan and motorhome pitches, and other buildings.
The date the applications will be determined by the Council has not yet been confirmed.
Visit www.saveroanhead.com to find out how you can help the campaign to save this beautiful and important place.
Elterwater
The judicial review into the decision by the Lake District National Park Authority to award planning permission for a Zipworld adventure attraction in Elterwater took place on Wednesday 30 April (and continued on Thursday 1 May). Officers and legal representatives from Friends of the Lake District made our case in
person to the judge, Mr Justice Mould. Recognising the importance of the matter, judgment was reserved on the issue, so we'll bring you updates on this as soon as we know more.
Meanwhile, two members of staff from Friends recently tested out elements of the travel plan, as outlined by the developers of the Zipworld attraction. The plan aims to ensure people travel to the site by sustainable methods, instead of driving into the Langdale Valley – clogging the narrow roads and parking on Elterwater common. The staff members set off from Brockhole car park and attempted to make their way to Elterwater via bus. Unfortunately, a series of unplanned delays to the bus service meant it took them nearly three hours to complete the trip. You can watch a video of their experiences on our YouTube channel.
YOUTUBE
youtube.com/@friendsofthelakes
Michelle Scrogham MP (centre) and campaigners at Roanhead
Annual Review April 2024 – March 2025
Note from the Chair
Welcome to this edition of Conserving Lakeland and thank you for your continued support of Friends of the Lake District. That support enables us to deliver the activities detailed in this Annual Review, by funding our excellent team of employees and by volunteering to help maintain and enhance the landscape through activities such as working on the land we own, re-establishing hedgerows at Basecamp North, and helping in the Friends of the Lake District office.
You’ll find lots of information about our achievements over the last 12 months on the following pages, but I would like to highlight a few to demonstrate the range of activities delivered by the team. The need to challenge, including by way of Judicial Review, the decision to approve a zipwire attraction in Elterwater and the efforts to prevent the development of a large-scale holiday park at Roanhead on the Furness coast, demonstrates that the protection of tranquillity, areas of outstanding natural beauty and the Lake District’s UNESCO World Heritage status should not be taken for granted.
In addition to pursuing these highprofile cases, the team continues to make a significant contribution to achieving our aims by challenging other inappropriate developments, making recommendations which reduce the adverse impact of planning applications and contributing to the strategic Development Plan for the National Park and our two county
councils. We recognise the needs of our communities and those who live and work within the Lake District and, in keeping with the aims of those who created Friends in 1934, we continue to argue for appropriate affordable housing (and now, we also argue for environmentally sustainable housing.)
The land we own across Cumbria provides access to those who wish to enjoy it, promotes sustainable and environmentally friendly farming, and improves biodiversity. The project at Dam Mire Wood in Threlkeld, which began last year, is a great example of what can be achieved with a relatively small area. It is particularly pleasing to see the work being done to engage with the local community, giving children from the local school the chance to appreciate and learn about nature.
There is a conflict between the desire to make the Lake District accessible to all and the need to protect the very things which make it so special. Tourism plays a vital role in supporting local economies, but poorly supported tourism puts pressure on local communities and the landscape, and undermines the visitor experience. We are proud of the fact that we commissioned the report ‘Who Pays for the Lake District?’. The report has kick-started the debate over how the problems associated with visitor numbers and private vehicle journeys might be managed through the introduction of the types of visitor levies used across the world in areas experiencing
similar pressures. One thing is certain, funding to the national park and local authorities will not be exempt from wider cutbacks in public spending.
It is good practice to question the relevance of a charitable organisation. Given the challenges facing the Lake District (I have not even mentioned the need to clean up our waterways, lakes and the sea, or the threat of pylons being reintroduced), I hope that you will agree with me in concluding that Friends is increasingly relevant. Without your membership we would be less able to protect the Lake District and preserve its outstanding natural beauty for generations to come. Thank you.
Malcolm Boswell,
Chair
April 2024 – March 2025
Our Year in Numbers and Pictures
Our annual Kirby Lecture took place in October. Panellists took part in a debate about what the Lake District will be like in 2051, when the National Park turns 100 years old.
638 pieces
The amount of cake consumed by people attending our events and volunteer workparties.
606ha
97
7
The number of virtual tours we launched last year exploring our land
23.5m
The length of dry stone wall that volunteers helped rebuild during workparties and at the Fell Care Day.
The number of registered active volunteers
In April 2024, we held our first volunteer awards event at the Windermere Jetty Museum.
The approximate total size of the 12 pieces of land we look after across Cumbria (that’s more than 6km2).
2,585
Our annual Fell Care Day took place in and around Coniston in December 2024. 40 volunteers repaired 3.5m of dry stone wall, cleared one acre of rhododendron plants, and helped maintain 5km of bridleway.
The number of hours contributed by volunteers on our land – planting hedges and helping us out in the office, for example. That’s an
that there are no litter fairies in the Lake District. Our Facebook posts reached nearly 150,000 people.
The number of children we worked with from schools and Scout groups, delivering practical conservation days on our land, hedgeplanting, biodiversity lessons and forest school sessions.
In June 2024 we held a political hustings event in Ambleside where prospective parliamentary candidates debated issues included in our recently published Manifesto for the Landscape.
In 2024, Friends of the Lake District turned 90 years old! To celebrate, we held our AGM in Keswick and members gathered near the place in Fitz Park, Keswick, where the founding members started the charity.
The number of events we held, including guided walks, dark skies talks, litter picking, conservation days, forest schools, rural skills competitions and training, hedgeplanting, volunteer taster sessions, Fell Care Day, and webinars.
In October, we joined Matt Staniek and the Save Windermere campaign to celebrate a year of their weekly protests outside United Utilities’ information centre following unacceptable levels of pollution in the lake.
The approximate number of times we appeared in print, online, on the radio, or on TV.
The number of new members we welcomed
In March 2025, family members gathered at Dam Mire Wood to unveil a memorial bench and table dedicated to their late sister, Judy Sugdon, and her husband, John. The inscription on the bench reads: Take a moment to sit and enjoy this beautiful landscape. In memory of Judy and John Sugdon.
Photo: © Chris Lewis Photography
Spotlight on Hedgerows
There are estimated to be 360,000 miles of hedgerows across England, of which approximately 12,500 miles are within Cumbria (3.5%).
But, since the 1950s, 118,000 miles of hedgerows have been lost across the UK – so we need to get planting again. That’s why Friends of the Lake District began a nature recovery project called Hedges and Edges, which includes various training and volunteer days to help get hedgerows thriving once more. Here’s a taste of what’s been achieved so far.
We ran three mass-volunteering days at Alpacaly Farm at Basecamp North, near Keswick, during which more than 100 volunteers helped plant 700 meters of hedgerow. The project was supported by Alpacaly Social Enterprise, The Quiet Site, and Ullswater Community Interest Company. A
Our annual Hedgelaying Competition took place at Low Sizergh Farm, supported by the Lancashire and Westmorland Hedgelaying Association. 22 Competitors across all skill levels took part and over 140 spectators joined us. The Chair of the National Hedgelaying Society gave out the prizes.
“Your organisation and hospitality were really appreciated! I think I speak for all who took part, if I said how grateful I am that there are organisations and individuals such as yourself, who are willing to put in the
We organised two Healthy Hedgerow Survey Training Days with People’s Trust for Endangered Species and Ernest Cook Trust. The training took place at Low Beckside Farm (north Cumbria) and Low Sizergh Farm (south Cumbria) and attracted 54 people, the majority of whom (80%) were farmers or landowners.
Attendee feedback forms given to People’s Trust for Endangered Species:
100% of attendees said they understood hedge management better than before the workshop.
75% were more likely to plant hedges, with 22% saying maybe.
95% were more likely to establish hedge trees than before.
92% were more likely to improve their hedge management based on the workshop.
95% more confident about managing hedges than before.
“It was really useful and I really learnt a lot. Useful practical ideas and some very interesting information which I can now apply and try to build on. So glad I came on the course and a big thank you to all your colleagues who provided the learning for the day.”
– Healthy Hedgerow farmer attendee
volunteer at Basecamp North
Jack and kids at Basecamp North
Volunteers hedgeplanting at Basecamp North
Healthy Hedgerow Survey Training
Peter
time and effort to make events like this happen… I had such a good experience of my first competition that I’m planning to go down to Garstang next month for another go at the Forest of Bowland competition. Will certainly aim to get to Gowbarrow Hall next year too.”
– First-time hedgelaying competitor.
We held two Hedgelaying Training Days, one at Low Beckside Farm (north Cumbria) and one at Low Sizergh Farm (south Cumbria), which attracted 43 trainees from a diverse background including farmers, existing and new contractors, conservation volunteers and staff. We also had a half-day walk around Low Beckside Farm looking at Hedgerow Creation and Management which attracted 14 attendees.
Supporting NatureFriendly Farmers
In October last year we wrote to the Secretary of State for Defra, Steve Reed, to request an increase in payments for nature-friendly farming under the Higher Level Stewardship and other agri-environment schemes. At February’s National Farmers Union conference, he confirmed these HLS payments would rise.
We wrote to him again in January 2025, demanding that the Capital Grants scheme be re-opened to help farmers fund the planting of new hedges. Hedgerows are vital corridors for nature, plus they capture carbon and slow the flow of water in our fragile upland catchments. At the same conference, the Secretary of State announced that the Capital
Grants scheme would be re-opened, and the backlog of applications would be dealt with.
Friends of the Lake District’s CEO, Michael Hill said: “We believe that, with appropriate support from the Government, it is possible for farmers to produce food while protecting nature, addressing the climate emergency, and reducing flood risk. These announcements are a welcome move towards encouraging this kind of nature-friendly farming in our upland landscapes, and we are proud to stand with Cumbrian farmers to help achieve it.”
Most of the grants remain in place at time of writing, but the application process remains over-complex, particularly for hard-pressed upland farmers.
Hedgerows on Film
As part of our work around promoting the importance of hedgerows, we’ve commissioned a series of films highlighting best practice. The videos include interviews with Richard Park, a National Trust tenant farmer at Low Sizergh Farm; Danny Teasdale from the Ullswater Catchment Management Community Interest Company; Hector Meanwell, Farm Manager at the Low Beckside Farm; and Hedgelaying Contractor Andrew Kirkwood. There’s also a film about hedgerow planting and volunteering, and one featuring James Robinson, who farms at Strickley, near Kendal. The films are available to watch on our YouTube channel.
YOUTUBE youtube.com/@friendsofthelakes
A still from one of our hedgerow films
Support Our Nature Recovery Appeal Today
Our Hedges and Edges project is just one of the ways we’re fighting for nature in the Lake District and Cumbria. We’re working hard to make sure land is being effectively managed for nature and we’re campaigning for more government support for nature-friendly farming.
Currently just 6% of the land area in National Parks is managed effectively for nature. We are at serious risk of losing habitats, and even seeing species disappear entirely. But we can change this.
With your help over the next four years, we hope to plant and restore 32 miles of Cumbrian hedgerows, and train and empower over 100 farmers, landowners, and volunteers. More importantly, we’ll be working to change the way hedgerows are managed, as a valuable resource at the heart of nature-friendly farming practices.
If you also believe in nature and want to join the fight, then please donate to our appeal today: www.friendsofthelakedistrict. org.uk/naturerecoveryappeal
Gibson, overall winner of our annual hedgelaying competition
Further Updates
A Year in Planning and Policy
Last year, we responded to 27 planning applications out of a total of 5,854 valid applications received by Cumbrian planning authorities. We objected to just 0.2% of applications. Our planning work continues to contribute to positive results. Of the planning applications that we expressed concerns about, or objected to, 37% were either refused or withdrawn, or approved once amended in response to our input. 33% of the applications that we responded to have not yet been decided, including the new car park at Ullock Moss, the luge track in the Eden Valley, and Roanhead proposals (see page 10). In addition, we responded to five applications relating to fencing on common land. We also responded to 19 consultations on a variety of topics. This included the Planning Reform White paper, changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, the National Transport Strategy, and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Local Plan. Responses were also made, among others, to consultations relating to the reform of the Bathing Waters regulations, guidelines for drought plans, Cumbria River Basins Management Plans, and the Independent Water Commission’s Call for Evidence.
While no Electricity North West projects to place wires underground took place between April 2024 and March 2025, we’re pleased to note that there are plans for further projects in the coming years, including on Little Asby Common. We also responded to an Ofgem consultation on the next Price Review period (2028-2032), stressing the importance of undergrounding for both improving the landscape view and climate resilience.
Our Campaigning Year
In May 2024, the Lake District National Park Authority approved plans to establish an adventure attraction at Elterwater Quarry, in the heart of the
Langdales. The Planning Committee had previously rejected the proposal, largely because the increase in traffic could choke the area's narrow, singletrack lanes, already under pressure from high numbers of visitors. Shortly after, we took the decision to seek a Judicial Review of the Planning Committee’s decision.
In November, we launched the report ‘Who Pays for the Lake District?’ written by sustainable tourism specialist, Dr Davina Stanford. The report identifies where tourism is creating an ‘invisible burden’ on the Lake District National Park’s landscape, environment and communities, and examines the ways that local authorities could raise money connected to tourism to make a positive difference to the area. The launch gained a lot of media attention including on BBC television and in the Guardian newspaper. A webinar in January 2025 on the topic attracted around 100 people and the online report has been read around 1,400 times so far.
A Year on Our Land
Last year, we launched an online survey to discover the true value of Hows Wood in Eskdale based on the many benefits it provides. Professor
Lois Mansfield of Environmentors Ltd is using data to write a report which will be published later in 2025. We also started working on a project with Plantlife regarding our Atlantic rainforest woodlands in the Rusland Valley. In 2024, we finalised the purchase of land next door to our existing Dam Mire Wood in Threlkeld and are working up plans for a network of ponds and some additional tree planting to increase biodiversity, slow the flow of water, and absorb carbon.
During the 35 volunteer workparties we held last year, we restored around 20m of dry stone wall, maintained 420m of hedgerow, and looked after over 30ha of woodland. We also ran four training days for volunteers covering topics such as pollinators, fungi, wildlife tracks, and geology.
Dark Skies
As well holding talks and events, such as the Big Switch-Offs in Ambleside, Grasmere and Keswick, our Dark Skies Officer helped facilitate around 10 dark-sky-compliant lighting projects last year. This included supporting Sedbergh Parish Council to install 22 darksky-friendly lights in the town (pictured). We continued to raise the profile of the Cumbria Good Lighting Technical Advice Note (TAN), responding to several applications where conflicts with the TAN were key concerns.
Fundraising and Finance
We ran two 90 th Birthday appeals last year: a Nature appeal and a Fighting Fund appeal, which supported our Elterwater campaign. A total of £46,763 was raised.
Sales of Christmas cards, calendars, notecards, tea towels, landscape gifts and art prints generated £26,472 last year.
Finance Figures for 2024/25
Total Income
£1,681,820 Income from Donations, Legacies, Membership Subscriptions and Grants
£1,548,546
Charitable Activities
£4,647 Trading Activities
£23,193 Investments
£105,184
Total Expenditure
£1,182,428 Generating Voluntary Income
£212,466 Charitable Activities
£940,704 Trading Activities
£6,000 Investment Management Costs
£14,407
Total Funds / Net Assets at 31 March 2025
£7,232,526
Tangible Assets* (including properties)
£ 3,177,490 Investments
£2,660,714 Net Current Assets
£1,394,322
The figures above are extracted from our 2024/25 audited accounts. A full annual report containing these accounts will be made available to download from www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk and the charity commission website after the AGM on 20 September 2025.
*This year, trustees took the decision to re-value the fixed assets (land and property). Whilst this has made a significant positive difference to our balance sheet, we view the portfolio of land as a protected asset; an asset which is unlikely to ever materialise as cash.
Thank you
Thank you to our members, supporters and partner organisations for all their support during the last year. From generous donations to the hard work of our volunteers, we’re grateful for all the contributions we’ve received to help us protect and enhance Cumbrian landscapes.
We also wish to express our sincere gratitude to those who left a gift to Friends of the Lake District in their Will: Eileen Barton, Gordon Biddle, Joan Blundell, Margaret Ann Bousfield, Sheila Brandon, Sylvia Brockbank, Mark Cook, Audrey Dawson, Ellen Dougherty, Rosamund Euden, Gillian Featonby, Eileen Francis, Margaret Gaffney, Patricia Grenfell, Judith Helling, Betty Hinchliffe, David Hitchen, Joy Hutchings, Paul Langley, Rita Langman, John Latcham, Grahaeme Lauder, John Laycock, Donald Margerison, Mabel Markham, Muriel Metcalfe, Gloria Muchowski, J. Norrington, Barbara Peel, Ashley Pugh, Geoffrey Richardson, Brian Saunders, Pat Schwarzenbach, Margaret Taylor, Michael Thurman, William Wood, and Nancy Woof.
Leaving a gift in your Will is a wonderful way to ensure future generations can continue to enjoy the tranquillity and beauty of these special places. If you’d like to know more, please contact fundraising@fld.org.uk
We’d also like to thank and honour donations made in the memory of: Derek Arnold, Jean Cope, John Cousins, David Cutforth, Aileen Goodall, James Haddow, Tricia and Tony Rees, Trevor Shaw, Robert Somervell Jr. and Sr., John Wallace, and David Woodhead.
And finally, we’d like to thank our benefactors for their continued support: John Berry, James Brockbank and Louise Ronane, John Campbell, Richard Coates, Philip Cropper, Margaret Haigh, John Harris, Peter Hughes KC, John and Margaret Jackson, Brian Leigh-Bramwell, Rosamund Macfarlane, Matt and Taysia Malone, Jim and Sue Martin, and Elizabeth Reddaway.
149 people and nine dogs took part in the 2024 Morecambe Bay Walk on behalf of Friends, collectively raising over £4,570.
Membership Matters
Invitation to the 2025 Annual General Meeting and Member Meet
We are pleased to invite you to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Friends of the Lake District and our annual member meet. This important event will provide an opportunity for our members (and supporters) to come together, celebrate all that has been achieved over the last year, review our progress over the past 12 months (as outlined in the Annual Review 2024/25), and discuss our plans which will shape the future of our organisation.
Date: Saturday 20 September 2025
Time: 1.15pm – 5.15pm
Venue: North Lakes Hotel, Ullswater Road, Penrith CA11 8QT
1.15pm Arrivals & refreshments
1.30pm Welcome & Annual General Meeting (AGM)
1. Welcome and apologies for absence
2. Confirm the minutes of the 2024 Annual General Meeting
3. Chairman’s Report
4. Election of President
5. Annual Report and Accounts
6. Questions
7. Appoint auditors
8. Election of Executive Committee members
9. Any other business
Please note only members can vote in the AGM. All AGM papers will be available at www. friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/ agm2025. If you would like paper documents on the day, the documents in alternative formats, or you wish to vote by proxy, please contact us on 01539 720788 or email us at info@fld.org.uk.
3.00pm A choice of the following sessions:
1. The limits to tourism? The benefits of tourism to Cumbria come at a cost: infrastructure overwhelmed, tranquillity undermined, and communities hollowed out by a proliferation of holiday lets and second homes. This session will explore how a visitor levy might mitigate the negative impacts of tourism, and if we can imagine – and how we can reach – an alternative, regenerative model of tourism that is better for nature and local communities, but also for visitors themselves.
2. The right development in the right place: This session will look at how our planning work helps to ensure development proposals support the purposes of the National Park and protect the character of Cumbria’s wider landscapes. We will discuss how
we influence planning decisions and planning policy using case studies (and a quiz!) and explore the important role of Landscape Character Assessments, as well as providing an update on our plans to increase our planning support to communities.
4.15pm Questions to panel
Time to ask our panel questions about our work and future focus.
5.00pm Closing remarks & thanks
We encourage members and supporters to join us by public transport (if possible) and there will be a small gift from us for those of you who can. The venue is a 10-15 minute walk from Penrith Railway Station or can be reached on the 105, X4 or X5 Bus. For those of you who are unable to come by public transport, there is free parking on-site.
We hope you can attend this event, as your participation and input are highly valued and crucial for the continued success and growth of our organisation.
Kindly confirm your attendance by emailing info@fld.org.uk, visiting our website www. friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/ agm2025, or by completing the enclosed booking form before 13 September 2025.
Photos from the 2024 AGM
Photos: © Chris Lewis Photography
2025 Member Survey: You Said… We Did…
We have had a great response to this year’s member survey with 22% of our membership sharing what is important to them. Here’s a snapshot of your responses and you can see more details on our website: www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org. uk/membersurvey2025
About Your Membership
Most members said they joined because of a personal or emotional connection to the Lake District, a desire to support its conservation, and shared concerns about inappropriate development and loss of local character.
We'll keep working hard to protect this landscape we all love! We’ve increased our planning capacity to help us respond to developments across Cumbria.
About Our Events
43% of members attended events over the last year (either virtual or in-person) but from the feedback it was clear that you would like to see more.
We’ve launched a new monthly webinar series (see page 24).
Following our recent Helm open day, we plan to hold another at Dam Mire Wood in the next year. We also hope to have guest speakers and talks from our staff at events across the next 12 months too!
“Please keep up the good work and thank you. It's a challenge but it would be far worse if you weren’t there so keep campaigning and showing reason, professionalism and expertise.”
About Our Work
67% of you have been involved in our campaign work and 48% have supported our planning work. Many of you expressed a desire to be more involved in supporting our work. We will increase opportunities for people to support our campaigns. There will also be opportunities for members who live in Cumbria, or regularly visit, to get involved in a project to measure tranquillity later this year.
“I was born in Cumbria and have lived and worked here all my life, and I feel it’s under threat. Friends of the Lake District is vital in helping speak up for what is special about the county.”
Conserving Lakeland
About Our Communications
You said that you mostly find out about our work through Conserving Lakeland and our e-newsletter. You’re happy with the magazine and 94% of you open and read some of every issue. We’ll keep up the good work! And don’t forget, if you don’t already receive our monthly e-newsletter you can sign up for it on our website.
Your Support for Our Work
15% of members have volunteered with us. Many of you were interested in how you could support our work remotely.
We’ll continue to run our volunteer workparties, but we are also looking to expand our volunteer roles to provide more desk-based and remote options. If you’d like to find out more about volunteering please contact volunteering@fld.org.uk
“I am so thankful for all you do to protect the Lake District. I back all your fights. Agree with your fundraising. Love your communications!”
Who Pays for the Lake District?
Following on from our report last year ‘Who Pays for the Lake District?’ we asked: In principle, do you agree that some form of visitor tax being applied in the Lake District National Park is a good idea?
77% of you said you either agreed or strongly agreed with a levy.
We’ll continue to explore the potential for a visitor levy to be introduced for the Lake District. There’ll be opportunities to explore the subject with us at our AGM on 20 September and at our Kirby Lecture on 14 November. See page 24 for more details.
“You do a wonderful job in protecting – in my opinion – the finest part of our country!”
“ Something must be done”
The residents of Martindale near Ullswater are once again enduring a season of litter, dangerous open fires, and abusive illegal campers. Christian Lisseman talks to them about the day-to-day problems they, and the landscape, face.
It’s June when four residents of Martindale take to Zoom for an interview for this magazine. While it may feel like the start of the ‘ summer season ’ for many, for the residents of Martindale they’ve been in the thick of it since February half term.
Kathryn Ecclestone, who has lived in the valley for three years, says the fly camping, campfires, roads blocked with illegally parked campervans, cars and mobile homes, and litter have been worse than ever, possibly because of the good weather. “There have been more and more tents up on the fell or by the road, and more firepits and scorched areas of land,” she says. “Three or four motorhomes at a time will sometimes turn up; it’s now commonplace for people to stay up here a few nights, as if it’s just a normal campsite.”
The small valley of Martindale is served by a narrow road which runs along the eastern shore of Ullswater. This road becomes a steep switchback as it climbs over a rise, at the top of which is the picturesque St Peter’s Church. It’s a stunning area, but one that is increasingly plagued by illegal activity and anti-social behaviour
from thoughtless visitors, many of whom park overnight illegally at the side of the narrow road or on the fell overlooking the lake.
“At weekends it’s full,” says Kash Patel, who has had a house in Martindale for over 21 years. “I tend not to go out after about seven in the morning on a Saturday or a Sunday because it’s a nightmare trying to get out.”
Lorna Waldron and Mark Harper, who have lived in Martindale for six years, also tend not to venture out of the valley at weekends. “The thing that frightens me about the recent heatwave is the amount of firepits and throwaway barbeques,” Lorna says. “We live right at the end of the valley so, if there was a fire sweeping through, we’d have no way to escape other than by helicopter. People are just not thinking about residents or wildlife.”
Last year, the residents of Martindale were filmed as part of the BBC series Great British Railway Journeys for an episode which aired earlier this year. Michael Portillo, who fronts the show, joined them on a litter pick around the area and was shocked by the rubbish that people had left behind on the fell
The residents continue to clear up the rubbish – including human waste, discarded food, bottles and cans – on a regular basis. Aside from constantly cleaning up after thoughtless visitors, what else can they do? Do they ever challenge those illegally camping, for example? “Sometimes we do and we sometimes get an aggressive response,” says Kathryn. “I challenged someone camping by the road the other day. I said: ‘You’re damaging the land. You’re burning the land.’ And they said: ‘What is your problem?! We’re not doing any harm!’”
Many, says Kathryn, don’t know what is and isn’t allowed. “They don’t know that it’s private land, they think it’s public land and they have access to it and can do what they want. Some don’t know what a ‘fell’ is, nor that it’s private land, let alone
View from the hilltop near Martindale over Ullswater
Kathryn Ecclestone and Kash Patel
Fire remains and in the small church car park.
who owns it.” Such confusion is made worse by recent news stories about wild camping on Dartmoor (which has different rules) and the fact that the law in Scotland is different regarding where mobile homes and campervans can stop overnight.
There is also wilful ignorance. “People don’t read guidance that’s out there from organisations like the National Park Authority and Friends of the Lake District,” says Kathryn. “And I think it’s weak and it’s all about have respect and leave no trace, with romantic pictures of the Lake District which don’t show the real problems. It cuts no ice with people. There’s a change in how people think about what they’re doing. There’s a kind of ‘up yours’ attitude – ‘if I want to camp here, I’ll camp here’. That view seems to be growing.”
“The other day, we had a caravan!” Kash says. “Someone had managed to tow a caravan up the switchback road – an amazing feat in itself, but then they’d managed to get it up off the road and up onto the fell. I was stunned!”
Kash took a photo of the caravan and was immediately confronted by the owners, who demanded to know who he was and what he was doing. He politely told them that they shouldn’t be there and that he was just taking a photograph of the view, and they happened to be in it. He also called the police. “They weren’t that fussed that there was a caravan parked on the fell where it shouldn’t have been. They got more excited that the car and caravan had different number plates, rather than where they were.”
Residents are frustrated with the apparent powerlessness of anyone to help enforce good behaviour in the area. “During a recent amber alert about dangers of wildfires, I tried contacting the fire brigade when I saw a campfire sparking on dry land,” says Lorna. “They said they can’t do anything about it until there’s an actual fire, and told me to call the council.”
The Lake District National Park Authority employs a small team of rangers, but they too are powerless. “Our local ranger is good in the sense that she understands what the problem is. But they have the same issue that we have. They’ve got no powers of enforcement and, if someone is abusive towards them, there’s nothing they can do. There aren’t enough rangers, either. I know Friends of the Lake District is promoting the idea of something like a tourist tax, and any money from something like that would have to be used for more rangers or deterrents and enforcement of some kind.”
Everyone agrees that clearer messaging and much greater enforcement is the answer. United Utilities has recently employed a private security firm to patrol Haweswater at night, and Cumberland Council have started using Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) to tackle anti-social behaviour by fly campers in the Lake District and is threatening to fine people as a last resort. But
Westmorland and Furness Council, which is responsible for Martindale, has yet to extend their PSPOs to rural areas. And this enforcement is limited, costly and, as of going to press, the residents of Martindale haven’t noticed any change in behaviour.
“It’s great that the Lake District is more accessible to people than ever before,” says Kash, “but it’s how we manage the aftermath of this.”
“It’s not that we don’t want tourists,” adds Lorna. “We know that tourism is important and brings a lot of revenue to the area. We just want people to respect the landscape – not cut down trees to use as kindling or take down walls to build firepits.”
They all worry that the situation only gets worse: “Something must be done.”
Friends of the Lake District calls for stronger action to be taken against anti-social and illegal behaviour such as fly camping, littering and illegal parking. We coordinate the annual Great Cumbrian Litter Pick and continue to campaign on social media for people to leave no trace. We have also launched an online survey to gather evidence about the scale of the problem in the National Park. Visit: www. friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/ litter-survey to send us your views.
What a lovely view... Photo by Kash Patel
Camping on the hill
Michael Portillo and Kay Andrews, litter picking in Martindale
Photo: © Naked West Productions
Fixing the Fells
Earlier this year, Friends of the Lake District announced that it was sponsoring a Fix the Fells ranger to support their work. Christian Lisseman goes for a hike with Patrick Gaffney to find out more about the work he and his fellow rangers do.
You can learn a lot of new words if you spend time with a Fix the Fells ranger: pigeonholes (nothing to do with birds, apparently), humps and hollows, bench paths... These are some of the words and phrases that Patrick Gaffney explains as we walk up Whiteless Pike, near Buttermere, on a blustery, occasionally bright day, at the end of May. We’ve come here to see the work that Patrick and his fellow rangers from Fix the Fells’ North team have done in helping to combat erosion on this part of the landscape.
26-year-old Patrick, the ranger that Friends of the Lake District is now sponsoring, has worked for Fix the Fells for around eight months. In return for supporting the role, he’ll be supplying content for our social media platforms and taking part in activities such as our annual Fell Care Day.
As we walk up Whiteless Pike, we stick to the bench path: a gravel trail that zigzags up the side of the fell. Bench paths are harder to see from the valley floor than a path that goes straight up the side the fell, and they’re less prone to serious erosion from the weather. As Patrick points out the cornerstones, put in where the path bends to stop people ‘shortcutting’ and making the bend wider, a fell runner dashes past and heads up the side of the fell, ignoring the designated path. It’s clear the runner is not alone in using this shortcut, the side of the fell is marked with a series of pigeonholes – marks made by people digging in to go up and down the side of the fell.
The runner’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect as it helps to illustrate the work that’s yet to be done. “We’ll be building humps and hollows where the shortcutting is happening to dissuade walkers
and fell runners from going that way,” explains Patrick. These humps and hollows turn out to be rounded hillocks and troughs, that hide the trail of pigeonholes. It's about subtle manipulations of the landscape to encourage behaviour, explains Patrick. People are less likely to stray from the path if they think they’re the first ones to do so, and if they have to walk over bumpy terrains or through thick vegetation.
Patrick takes a lot of pride in his work. It’s more than just (though it certainly is) hard graft – it’s about working out
what needs to be done and the best way to achieve those goals, and making sure the area is left in a better condition than when the work started. “The idea is to keep things looking as natural as possible,” says Patrick, “so once we’re done people don’t even know that anything has been changed.”
We stop walking for a moment, for me to catch my breath and for Patrick to examine a large stone which he's considering using for pitching. He turns it over, looks at the different sides and considers which one would be the best to be under foot, and which would be best placed against the side of the hill. “It’s about having an eye for detail,” he explains.
The stones that the rangers use in their work are either ones that have been placed here in the past, used on previous paths, for example, or brought in by helicopter at the start of the season and left near the work area. As we pass one such pile, Patrick points out that some of the stones have been moved downhill by members of the public, so they’re well out of reach and will either
Fix the Fells ranger Patrick
A fell runner heads uphill where 'pigeonholes' mark the landscape
have to be carried back up by the rangers, or left where they are.
This is one of the occasional irritations of the job: that and people stealing tools that have been left on site to save the team having to take them down and bring them back up again, day after day. Recently someone stole the handle from a one such tool. “They probably decided to use it as a walking stick,” Patrick muses.
Being a Fix the Fells ranger is a physically and mentally demanding job. Patrick talks of early morning, fast-paced hikes up the fells, often carrying tools along with steel toecapped boots (which he hates walking in). “I'm getting fitter as the season goes on,” he says. “The work doesn't get any easier, but your stamina increases so you notice it less.” Having said that, office days are some of his least favourite days. The teams don’t go out on the fells if there’s an Amber
or Red weather warning, or if any thunderstorms are forecast, and he gets frustrated being sat at a desk and not out getting done what he knows needs sorting.
Despite all the hard graft, it’s a job Patrick loves, and when we reach the top of Whiteless Pike, it’s easy
What is Fix the Fells?
to see why. The clouds clear and the wind dies. It’s suddenly warm and calm, and we gaze out from the fell top towards Crummock Water, Loweswater, and beyond that, the coast.
“Seeing the end result of our work is one of the biggest joys,” Patrick says. “When you look at the before and after photos it's incredibly rewarding. And being outside, working in nature. There are times that I just stop and look up, especially on a beautiful day, and I realise how lucky I am to be out here doing this. Everyone walks past and says: ‘you've got a great office!’ And you know what? I really do.”
Make sure you’re signed up to our monthly Postcard from the Lakes for further updates from Patrick and the
Fix the Fells is a partnership organisation that helps tackle erosion, while repairing and maintaining 344 of the many upland paths that criss-cross the Lake District landscape. The partnership is made up of the National Trust, the Lake District National Park Authority, Natural England, the Lake District Foundation, and Friends of the Lake District. It employs four teams of professional upland rangers and a volunteer development ranger. Volunteers look after the day-to-day maintenance of the paths, while the professional rangers like Patrick deal with the bigger problems. Depending on what’s needed, rangers repair paths, build or repair drains and stone pitched steps, and landscape the area to help guide people and prevent further erosion.
View from the top of Whiteless Pike of Mellbreak and Crummock Water
Fix the Fells team.
Air-lifted bags of stones waiting to be used on the nearby path
Events
For more information about any of these activities, and to book, visit www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/ events or contact the Friends of the Lake District admin team on 01539 720788.
Guided Walks
Wednesday 13 August
Map-marker-alt Great Asby Scar
Wednesday 10 September
Map-marker-alt Great Asby
Wednesday 8 October
Map-marker-alt Sweden & Greenbank Wood
Join us on these guided walks around some beautiful and fascinating places. Free for members and £5 for non-members.
Kendal Walking Festival
10am, Saturday 23 August
Map-marker-alt Helm Guided Walk
A 2.5-mile guided walk along the ridge of the Helm, near Oxenholme.
Wednesday Webinars
Wednesday 27 August Litter and Anti-Social Behaviour
Wednesday 24 September Hedges and Edges
Wednesday 22 October Gifts in Wills
Wednesday 26 November Common Land
Our lunchtime webinar series gives members and supporters time to find out more about our work and put questions to the experts. They take place on the fourth Wednesday of each month from 12.30pm-1.30pm.
Volunteer Workparties
Our programme of volunteer workparties is available on our website and now includes some weekend opportunities. Volunteers of all skill levels are welcome to come along and join us. You may get wet and muddy, but there'll be cake, laughs and some wonderful scenery. Various dates and locations, including some Saturday events. See our website for more details.
Hedgelaying Training
Saturday 15 November
Map-marker-alt Barkin House Farm, Gatebeck, near Endmoor
A chance to learn the art of hedgelaying. Suitable for anyone from farmers, land managers and contractors to conservation volunteers.
Dark Skies Walk
Wednesday 19 November
Map-marker-alt Kendal
Join our Projects Officer Jack Ellerby from 7pm on a walk around Kendal town centre looking at dark sky lighting projects covering road and footway, business and private lights.
Annual General Meeting
Saturday 20 September
Map-marker-alt North Lakes Hotel, Penrith
Join us at the North Lakes Hotel in Penrith for our AGM. See page 18 for more details.
Kirby Lecture
Friday 14 November
Map-marker-alt Kendal Town Hall
We have a panel of exciting speakers talking about the impact of tourism on Cumbria and about how a different model of tourism would be better for nature, better for local communities, and better for visitors themselves.
Volunteer Spotlight
Rachel Pugh lives in Didsbury, Manchester, but is a regular volunteer for Friends of the Lake District. She describes herself as “half Swiss, half Shropshire, brought up in Cheshire in a French-speaking household”.
When did you first volunteer for us?
The week before lockdown in 2020 – a very wet and cold day dry stone walling at Mazonwath. Defeated by the weather, we went home at 1pm!
What kind of things have you volunteered to do for us?
My passion is dry stone walling, which I’ve learned to do and have regularly practiced at Mazonwath, near Little Asby. I’ve also worked at High Borrowdale and Dam Mire Wood. I’ve done training in wildflower recognition and geology. And I'm an ambassador for Friends of the Lake District and helped out at the Shap Show last year and the recent Helm open day.
What do you do when you’re not volunteering for us?
I’m working towards being a full-time professional storyteller and am a soonto-be ex health/medical journalist. In my first trainee journalist job, I told the archaeologists where to look for Lindow Man (a preserved Iron Age bog man) and thus saved him from the shredder. The story is part of my show, Bog Standard, which I’ve just toured with harpist Lucy Nolan. We got two four-star reviews! We’re touring further in the next 12 months. I’m working on another programme about mountains.
What’s special about Lake District and Cumbrian landscapes to you? Mountains are in my blood - as I’m half Swiss. My love for the Lake district goes back to my early childhood, camping and walking with my family, and later rock climbing with my dad. My husband Laurie and I continue to explore the Lakes on foot – we’ve done the Cumbria Way together and we have a share in the UK’s first cooperatively
owned pub at Hesket Newmarket. The Lake District is where I go when I really need to sort my head out. All I need to do is to climb a mountain to find the answers to what is taxing me – or experience pure elation.
I gain inspiration from the landscapes – particularly the more serene northern parts – and have gone there (to a barn in Ravenstonedale) to complete two plays and a storytelling show, which have launched my new career. My family planted a ‘wood’ at High Borrowdale for my father, Ashley Pugh, using donations he received from his friends for his 90 th birthday. He never got to see it, but he was enthusiastic about it right up to his death. Having left that behind as something permanent to the joy that the Lakes had given to him, and to me personally, is really satisfying.
Tell us some fun facts about yourself... I played my cello on the summit of Helvellyn, with my professional bassoonist husband, in a performance for a friend’s birthday. It was very cold, but one of the best things ever! I still remember the expressions of the walkers reaching the summit. Also... I’m mad on bogs, love green shoes and I’m a trained clown!
Volunteer Thanks
We held our annual volunteer thank you event at Threlkeld Village Hall this year. David Sykes, John Halstead and Roger Eves were awarded best new volunteers and the Jean Savage Award for Outstanding Contribution went to Ian Brodie, who works with us tirelessly on issues such as common land, access, and nature conservation.
If you'd like more information about how to volunteer, either on our land, at an event or in the office, visit: www. friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/ volunteering
Rachel Pugh and her cello
Ian Brodie won the Jean Savage Award for Outstanding Contribution
David Sykes, John Halstead and Roger Eves were awarded best new volunteers
Author Q&A
without a
by Ron Kenyon
How would you describe this book?
It’s part diary, part travel guide and reference book. The main point of the book is to highlight the public transport available to get people to the various fell walks in the book. It’s not a guide to the walks themselves, although we’ve given details of the routes taken. Some of the walks in the book use quite common routes, others are done to fit in with using public transport. There’s also a lot of other information contained within the book. I do a round-up of all the valleys in the Lake District and the public transport that’s available to go up and down them, for example, and I’ve included a handy section on the 12 best views in the Lakes – because everyone loves a good view! Alongside all the practical information, there are various anecdotes from myself and others, including my wife, Chris, which detail our experiences and the people we meet along the way.
How did it come about?
I’m a founding member of the Eden Valley Mountaineering Club (EVMC), which is based in Penrith. The Club was formed in 1973. At the end of
2022, Robin Illingworth, one of our members, suggested that we should take up the challenge of doing all the Wainwrights without a car. We wanted to show how people could reduce their carbon footprint by leaving the car at home and still enjoy all of these amazing walks. Our first summit was Latrigg, which Chris and I did on a sunny day in January 2023. Throughout the year, various members of the EVMC then took up the challenge of doing one of the Wainwrights using public transport. The idea for the book came to me during that time, as I really wanted to promote the idea of leaving the car at home and making the most the public transport available in the Lake District.
Did you encounter any problems using public transport to get around?
Not problems so much… but in some circumstances using public transport certainly requires more planning that it would if you were in a car. As well as developing a good knowledge about the Lake District, you have got to think outside the box slightly, I’d say. Some areas of the Lake District are well served. There are a lot of buses around Keswick, for example, and it’s great seeing people using them. In fact, there’s a photo on the back cover of the book of people queueing at Keswick bus station. Many other areas only have buses which operate on certain days, or with a limited timetable. There are also the train services, boats, and the use of available bikes. Some of the walks required us to stay overnight, sometimes camping, so we could get there, do the walk and then get home again.
What did you enjoy about the experience?
So much! Part of the joy of doing these walks by public transport were the journeys themselves, the people we
met and the scenery we passed. That’s what we’ve tried to capture in the diary entries. Those things really added to the experience of the walks themselves.
What’s one of your favourite fells?
One of the earliest walks I ever did was Blencathra with my mum. I was 10 at the time. Even though I grew up in Penrith, my mum and dad never did a lot of walking. I love Blencathra and still go up there a lot because it’s one (or should be one) of the most accessible fells to reach on public transport from Penrith. In fact, in the book, this is the last fell we climbed as part of the project – a group of us from the EVMC went up there on a misty day in December 2023.
Wainwrights without a Car is published by Jagged Lakes Publications (https://www. jaggedlakes. co.uk). It’s available to buy online and in various outlets across Cumbria. Profits from the sale of the book will be donated to local charities and causes, with a third going to Fix the Fells.
Ron (right) as a young boy on Blencathra
Wainwrights
Car: A Year on the Lake District Fells
Ron Kenyon with his book
My Memories of the Lake District
My most distant recollection of the Lake District goes back to about 1934 when, as a three-yearold, I have a precious memory of my father holding my hand as we waded together in the shallows of Buttermere. We were then living in Carlisle, where I was born.
In late May of 1940, we stayed in the Langdale Estate near Chapel Stile. It was there as a boy of nine that I first learned the joy of playing with sticks in a beck with my little sister, of walking and climbing the local paths, of a swirling bowl of porridge to start the day, and the colours of the fells: the brown and fresh curling green of the bracken, the old stone of the walls, the grey and black rocky outcrops and the distant sunlit Pikes, waiting to be climbed.
Many visits later I nearly broke up my future marriage when I took Jean for a walk on Armboth Fell, notorious for being ‘dreadfully boggy’. However, we both survived, married, and after two years abroad were able to return to our beloved Lake District, with our growing family of four children.
We’ve stayed in many places within the Lake District over the years. The houses gradually needed to be larger as most of our 12 grandchildren were able to join us. Outstanding in my recollections are a house on the edge of Esthwaite Water, from where we could launch our canoe from a small jetty; a remote farm on Birkermoor with distant views of Scafell and ready access to the surrounding moor; and discovering the many wonders of
Eskdale and Hardknott Pass from a site near the Green. An Easter service in the little chapel by the river steppingstones, with a boy pulling on the rope of the single bell, will remain in my memory for the sheer joy of that special time.
Our love of the Lake District has been passed on to many of our children and grandchildren. A few weeks ago, two of my great grandchildren spent a week with their parents and grandparents near the shore of Derwentwater and have already booked a similar family trip for next year.
This is an edited extract from a longer piece by Dr Peter Ashton. You can read the whole piece on our website www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org. uk/mylakedistrictmemories.
Do you have any memories of the Lake District or Cumbrian landscapes which you’d like to share? Email them to christian. lisseman@fld.org.uk.
Where is it ?
The Where is it? photograph in the last issue of Conserving Lakeland was of Tarn Crag from Stickle Ghyll, photographed by Nicholas Green. Well done to Don Morris from Kendal, one of a few people who emailed in the correct answer. Thank you to everyone who took time to enter.
We’ve plucked this month’s image from the many photographs we received as part of the 2025 Photography Competition. Thanks to Alex Hannam for submitting this wonderful image. Can you name the valley that’s pictured? If so, write your answer on a postcard and send it to Where is it? Competition, Friends of the Lake District, Murley Moss, Kendal LA9 7SS or email christian.lisseman@fld.org.uk. One winning entry will receive a copy of ‘Wainwrights without a Car’ by Ron Kenyon. If you have a photograph that you would be happy to share for a future competition, please send it to christian.lisseman@fld.org.uk with the subject line: ‘Where is it? photo’.
And don’t forget, the winning entries from our photo competition will soon be revealed and used on our 2026 Friends of the Lake District calendar. Keep an eye on our website, social media posts, or sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date.
Peter with three of his grandchildren, taken above Birkerthwaite Farm in 1997
The family possibly en route to climb Causey Pike in 2004
Support Us
There are plenty of ways that you can continue to support our work protecting Cumbrian and Lake District landscapes:
Volunteer
Learn new skills and meet new people while making a tangible difference to the landscapes you love.
Spread the Love
Share your passion for the landscape by inviting your friends and family to join our community and become members too.
Support our Appeals
Help us promote nature recovery within Cumbria. See page 15 for details.
Buy a Gift
Our landscape gifts mean you can give a loved one something meaningful that supports our precious landscapes.
Join our Campaigns
Take a stand with us against threats to our natural wonders, like the zip-wire attraction in Elterwater.
Meet Up
Join us at one of our many events, such as a guided walk, the AGM and the Kirby Lecture. See page 24.
Honouring a Lifetime of Memories
We were delighted and extremely grateful to receive a donation of £1,000 from Joanna and Nick Rees, in memory of their parents Tricia and Tony Rees, and their maternal grandparents, Fred and Olive Hinkley.
When Fred retired in the early 1970s from his job at Rolls Royce in Derby, he and Olive moved to Grange in Borrowdale and lived there until 1992. Fred and Olive had two daughters and four grandchildren, and they all enjoyed holidays together with them in Grange over the years.
It was important to Joanna and Nick to honour the memory of their parents and grandparents and to leave a gift to Friends of the Lake District, ensuring their memories live on in this beautiful landscape. Nick and Joanna, and their families, still love the Lakes and fells and continue the family tradition of enjoying holidays in the area. Joanna told us:
“I am a member of Friends of the Lake District and appreciate the work that they do on behalf of the people who live in the Lake District and those of us lucky enough to visit. In the 50 years that I have been coming I can see changes – some good, some not so good. It seems to me that the number of visitors continues to increase, and it is wonderful that so many more people enjoy all that the Lakes has to offer, but the pressure that this puts on the fragile natural Lakeland environment is enormous. Friends of the Lake District is helping to ensure that the beauty and tranquillity that are the reasons we want to come, are protected for future generations. My brother and I are delighted to make this gift and know that our parents and grandparents would heartily approve”.
An ‘In Memory’ donation leaves a lasting and fitting tribute to your loved ones. By honouring them in this meaningful way, you will help us achieve our vision of thriving Cumbrian landscapes – for nature, for people, for ever.
Webinar: Gifts in Wills
A gift in your Will, no matter the size, is a donation that costs nothing today, but has a lasting impact beyond our lifetimes. It is also a vital income stream for Friends. Join us for a free lunchtime webinar on Wednesday 22 October to discuss the importance of having a Will, how you can leave a gift in your Will to charity, and how generous donations made through gifts in Wills to Friends of the Lake District are used.
If you would like to know more about leaving a gift in your Will or an In Memory donation, please contact our Fundraising and Membership Officer, AnneMarie Rooney on 01539 720788 or via fundraising@fld.org.uk
Tricia and Tony Rees
Fred Hinkley (lower right, in glasses)