Bowness on Windermere Tips
CORRECTION....Not an enquiry but a little correction! In your history of Bowness-on-Windermere (generally enjoyable), you state that the name "Birthwaite" was lost because the railway company called their station "Bowness". This is not true. Although I believe the station at the end of the branch line from Oxenholme may, for a short time, have been called Bowness, it was soon renamed "Windermere" in order to attract visitors. The village that grew up around the station came to be known as "Windermere", after the station, and hence the name Birthwaite fell into general disuse, except by Bowness natives. In any case Birthwaite was never a village; it was a farm and a tiny hamlet at most. The township in which it was situated was (and is) called Applethwaite. Your reference to the Lakeside and Haverthwaite railway implies a connexion with this line. There is none. The latter line was built by the Furness Railway Co and connected the southern end of Windermere (the lake) with their line at Pl! umpton, leading thence to Barrow. Through trains also ran to the main line at Carnforth. By the way, one should not really say Lake Windermere: this is an unfortunate modernism. The lake is called simply Windermere. If one must add a further generic term, it should follow the name in correct Lakeland or Cumbrian style, thus: Windermere lake or Lake (as opposed to Windermere town). - With thanks, John Campbell (native of Bowness)
Bowness on Windermere Town Details | Cumbria County Page | Cumbria Attractions | More Cumbria Tips
Brit Quote: |
|
On this day: |