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The hidden history of the Lake District

A spectator at a hound trailing meeting. The activity is still a part of Lake District life - GETTY
A spectator at a hound trailing meeting. The activity is still a part of Lake District life - GETTY

There’s a lot more to the Lake District than meets the eye. Yes, we love its hills, fells and beautiful stretches of water, but The Lakes with Paul Rose, a new four-parter beginning tonight (Friday October 19) on BBC Two, delves a little deeper into the region’s history and people.

For the last 20 years, the Lake District has been the place that the ebullient explorer Paul Rose has called home. “I originally come from Romford in Essex and have spent my life in wild places at sea or in the Polar regions,” says Rose. “The Lakes have been important to me since I was a kid when I came here in the Seventies on an outward bound course. It was here that I first realised the true value of wilderness.”

The series certainly celebrates the beauty of a region, which last year, after a long campaign, was awarded Unesco World Heritage status. But it also reveals its hidden history with fascinating stories, far from what you might usually pick up around the “honeypot” centres of Ambleside, Bowness, Keswick and Windermere.

In the opener, set around Windermere, Rose meets Arek Hersh, one of 300 Jewish orphans and survivors from the Holocaust, who arrived in the Lake District in 1945 from camps near Prague. Originally from Poland, Hersh stayed for six months before he was dispersed with the others around the UK. “We felt alive again. Here I was liberated, I will always love this place,” he says. And Rose adds: “What he had seen, surviving the long marches, the camps and the horrors of the war and the way he described being welcomed and the sense of being safe was quite beautiful. For me it was a life-changer, and gave me a new perspective on the area.” You can see a small memorial to the survivors, the Lake District Holocaust Project, in the local library.

Another eye-opener for Rose was when he looked at why the region became such a go-to destination for the Victorians – many of whom were seeking an alternative to the Grand Tour. In the 1720s Daniel Defoe had described the region as “the wildest and most frightful of any country.” And a century later, the Victorians, says Rose, saw visiting the Lake District as a “pleasurable terror”; the aim was to get a thrill by surviving a trip to this remote, “dangerous and hostile” wilderness. He suggests that here we find the roots of adventure tourism.

A 19th-century painting of Keswick - Credit: GETTY
A 19th-century painting of Keswick Credit: GETTY

Later, he visits Claife viewing station, a Victorian edifice where Victorians could look over the surroundings and “experience” different seasons by gazing through coloured glass windows.  

The key to making the most of the Lake District is to get out into the wilder places, says Rose: “A little bit of effort goes a long way up here.”

He might also add engaging with the local way of the life. This, after all, is a region with an enticing heritage and a culture shaped by its inhabitants over hundreds of years. To this end Rose witnesses the sport of hound trailing. It’s an event that’s been going for 200 years and drew high crowds in the 1930s – essentially the hounds, “which are treated like Olympic athletes”, follow a scent (a mix of paraffin and aniseed) over 10 miles across the fells and the first one home is the winner. “It’s a proper Lakeland spectacle,” says Rose. “Watch it while having a cup of tea, a burger and you can even bet on the races.”

Hounds follow a scent over 10 miles across the fells and the first one home is the winner - Credit: getty
Hounds follow a scent over 10 miles across the fells and the first one home is the winner Credit: getty

Other episodes see Rose learning about the “father of wilderness guiding,” Millican Dalton, who in the 1920s moved into a cave in Borrowdale and lived there for 25 years. “He loved nature and had a push back against urban living. He had a spirit of adventure and used to take people climbing and abseiling.”

Elsewhere, Rose joins in Cumberland wrestling (“I lost every bout”) at the Eskdale Show, another properly traditional affair. “If you took a farmer from the region from 200 years ago and plopped him down there today, he would feel completely at home.”

Cumberland wrestling - Credit: GETTY
Cumberland wrestling Credit: GETTY

He also joins the crew of a Viking longboat for the Derwentwater regatta and ascends Orrest Head, the first hill climbed by the famed fell walker Alfred Wainwright in the 1930s.

The region may attract around 18 million tourists every year, but Rose has found numerous tales and pastimes that have escaped the crowds.

Orrest Head, the first hill climbed by Alfred Wainwright - Credit: getty
Orrest Head, the first hill climbed by Alfred Wainwright Credit: getty

The Lake District with Paul Rose is on BBC Two on Friday October 19 at 8.30pm