Posted by Dave Thewlis on December 11, 1998 at 18:22:25:
In Reply to: Re: Is the North Pole at Brantwood? posted by Robert Dilley on December 11, 1998 at 16:23:35:
Roger Wardale talks about the location of the North Pole in both "Arthur Ransome's Lakeland" and
"In Search of Swallows and Amazons". Page 45 of "Lakeland" has Roger's 1960s photograph of the Conservatory
extension to Wanlass How which seems to have been the leading contender to having been the North Pole until
Dick Kelsell remembered seeing the summer house somewhere around 1930 (I'm paraphrasing Roger in "In Search"
on Pages 56-57).
I was also at the 1994 AGM and went on the expedition to the North Pole site -- I've got photographs of several
people trying out dowsing at the site, and of the plaque which Robert mentions. The difficulty which Roger cites
in "In Search" is that he at least hasn't been able to find any corroborating evidence from photographs, maps, land
surveys, etc. that there was ever a building on the site marked by the plaque, and he comes to the conclusion that
the Wanlass How conservatory (above the road running by Borrans Park) was the inspiration.
I can put the pictures from the 1994 AGM up for viewing if anybody is interested.