Drought, drowned villages and eating updates

This summer has been one of the driest in the region for nearly 80 years and despite the glorious weather being perfect for those on holiday, it has led to United Utilities introducing its first hosepipe ban in 14 years.

We visited Haweswater Reservoir, whose construction required the flooding of two villages – Mardale Green and Measand. The dam was started in 1929 and the villages were eventually dismantled, their residents having to be relocated before the valley was plugged and flooded several years later.

Today, water levels in the reservoir are low; you can see the old road into Mardale and some of the walls left behind after demolition. You can’t quite see the old bridge, which was exposed during the droughts of 1976 and in 1984 (click here for pictures from BBC Cumbria), but it is a melancholy yet compelling sight to glimpse the ruins emerging from the depths and old dry stone walls heading straight into water.

Click here for a fascinating website that outlines the history of the villages and the building of the dam, with some great photos. Particularly poignant are the pictures of Measand School which was so well loved by the locals that they paid to have it dismantled and rebuilt at Walmgate Head, where the building stands to this day. A plaque naming its original benefactors in 1713 is also illustrated.

On another note, this month’s Olive Magazine has a feature titled Insiders’ Guide to the Lake District in which Simon Rogan of Cartmel’s L’Enclume shares his favourite places to eat and drink. The Sharrow Bay, The Samling and Jerichos are among his recommendations. If you are staying at Waitby and are planning to visit the Lakes, it is worth buying the August issue.

Talking of food, we ate at the Tufton Arms Hotel in Appleby recently and had an excellent meal. Guests at Waitby School can take advantage of a special offer when dining at this restaurant; further information can be found in our visitors’ pack.

We also finally got round to trying Kirkby Stephen’s new Indian Restaurant and can recommend it without hesitation – one of the best Indian meals we’ve ever had. Even George (who has been incredibly snooty about curry since he went travelling to India many, many years ago) loved the food. The menu has all the traditional favourites, but also embraces new and unfamiliar concepts; the result is awesome, the food was light, delicate and powerful, and every dish was loaded with fresh herbs and spices. We congratulated the chef, who turned out to be a replacement for the regular one who was away that night – if the replacement chef turns out dishes like that, I can’t wait to taste the usual chef’s food.

I have some spectacular pictures of wild orchids taken at Waitby Greenriggs (recommended by this article in the Telegraph recently as being one of the best sites to see wild orchids). My botanical knowledge being zero, I will post the pictures once I’ve double checked that they really are of orchids and not of pretty weeds...