Posted by Rob Boden on June 10, 2014 at 02:03:57 user humyar.
In Reply to: Dogs Home Layout posted by Peter Hyland on May 29, 2014 at 01:08:54:
I went up to the Dogs Home yesterday. It was extremely gratifying to see the renovation works completed, and I would like to give a huge thanks, indeed three million cheers, to Mark Birchall, Forestry Commission Ranger, for all his work in seeing this through. I'm sure all fellow Tarboarders would join me in this.
I first visited the Forestry Commission to discuss this project in late 2011 I think, following a link from this site to a photo of the Dogs Home on Lakeland Cam and a subsequent discussion here. I subsequently met Mark 'on site' to discuss the work needed, and how it could be funded, and I wrote to Signals about funding in the Jan 2012 issue. This hasn't resulted in any moneys being offered, but luckily Mark remembered about the Dogs Home, and earlier this year he let me know that he had managed to get some underspends from another project, and also some top-up money from within his budgets, so that the work could be done. Mark's interest and enthusiasm, and professional skills, has made the Dogs Home safe I would think for the next fifty years.
I am still keen to put an interpretative noticeboard in Machell Coppice car park which will need some funding, and do some work on the footpath. I am also interested in building a charcoal burners wigwam in the coppice, but having established contact with a local charcoal burner will talk separately to Mark about this. There will inevitably be insurance complications! Though if anyone fancies a working weekend in the Lake District please let me know.
Lastly, a fully glazed window has been put in, and there is also a latch and provision for a lock on the door. I guess the Forestry Commission, having invested all their own money in the project, want to be able to look after it.
front view of the Dogs Home
