Posted by Duncan on March 15, 2008 at 13:26:15 from 195.93.21.2 user Duncan.
In Reply to: Beckfoot; defining the problem posted by Claire on March 13, 2008 at 04:38:00:
As a child I always looked for geographical accuracy in the locations and got on reasonably well (there were always a few anomolies which age has allowed me to concede were due to composite lakes, etc.) As such I now find the 'composite houses' idea rather appealing.
As a kid, spending most holidays by Windermere, I compared OS maps with the illustration/map of eskimo settlements from Winter Holiday and literally started counting bays, etc! For some time I was quite convinced the old rectory to the south of Bowness was Holly Howe, Ramp Holme Wild Cat Island, etc. When I had a dinghy in the bay at my 'Holly Howe' and sailed it to my 'Wild Cat Island' was one of the great days of my childhood! I couldn't entirely ignore the fact that Ferry Nab was not very like Darien (nor the fact that there had been a ferry there in the 20s and 30s) nor that despite a great landing place and a reasonably tall pine, there was no secret harbour on Ramp Holme. Still I don't doubt that Ramp Holme contributed to the Wild Cat Island, and I rather think the location of the Old Rectory and its little bay might have played a part in Holly Howe, despite the obvious Holly-Howe-ness of Bank Ground Farm.
Using the same logic my childhood Beckfoot was Belle Grange. I did walk up there once and the house looked quite Beckfooty. The woodland around Belle Grange is still rather Beckfooty and it was a significant house (it used to have its own ferry indeed) but the same sort of geographical logic could quite easily point to Huyton Hill, which of cousre has it's own Beckfoot promontory.