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Author Archives: solwayshorewalker
‘Signor tuberculato’, PH Gosse and Charles Kingsley
Cockle shells are piled like snow-drifts amongst the trees at the top of the bay; they form banks and ridges along the shore. Balcary Bay, its entrance partly plugged by Heston Island, looks to be a tranquil and sheltered haven, … Continue reading
Posted in fishing, shells
Tagged Allonby Bay, Balcary Bay, Charles Kingsley, cockles, Gosse, mussels, Seaside Pleasures, shells
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The design of the Solway: an aerial perspective, part 2
September 2nd, 0845h: Andrew Lysser, pilot, aerial photographer, instructor, and owner of Cumbria Gyroplanes, and I lifted off from the runway at Carlisle airport in a silver-coloured gyroplane. This time I wasn’t nervous, and there was no wall of rain … Continue reading
Posted in aerial views, Allonby, ports, sand, sea-bed & undersea
Tagged aerial views, gyroplane, megaripples, ripples, River Eden, Romans, Sabellaria, salt-pans, sandbanks, ships, Silloth, Solway
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Waths: fords and borders
On a very low Spring tide in August, my guide Mark Messenger and I crossed and re-crossed the Solway on foot, from England to Scotland and back. We waded across the Firth through the outgoing tide and the flow of … Continue reading
Posted in aerial views, coastal heritage, crossings & waths
Tagged Annan, border crossings, boundary-stones, Edward I, Lochmabenstane, River Eden, River Esk, Solway, waths
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The design of the Solway: Hems, reestings, holes and shoals
The turning tide takes time to fill the Solway. Today (August 12th) the first low tide at Maryport was at 0544h, height 1.5m; after turning, the flood tide was at its highest at Maryport at 1102h, height 7.5m. Heading North … Continue reading
Posted in crossings & waths, sea-bed & undersea
Tagged crossing, currents, haaf-netting, rivers, sandbanks, wath
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The design of the Solway: an aerial perspective, part 1
To understand how something works, you need to understand not only its design, but its interconnections and interactions with its surroundings. So it is with the Solway Firth. My ongoing fascination with the Firth’s ‘design’ is why I have recently … Continue reading
Posted in aerial views, coastal heritage, industrial heritage, ports
Tagged Carlisle Airport, Carlisle canal, gyroplane, Port Carlisle, River Eden, saltmarshes, Solway viaduct
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The volcanoes of Workington
The colours of pebbles on the shore range from grey and ochre through green to blue, and the eroded cliff is banded orange and purple and red, like a section through an old volcano. Pebbles are bubbled with cavities, though … Continue reading
Posted in coal, industrial heritage, slag-banks, The 'Energy Coast'
Tagged Bessemer, blast furnace, coal, limestone and haematite, Moss Bay, slag, Workington, Workington Haematite Iron Company Ltd
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Snippets 4: First notes – Hadrian’s Wall of Sound, Bowness-on-Solway
At 5.45am the tide was still on the ebb, standing waves (‘reestings’) corrugated the surface of the channel, and the only sound amid the weighty silence of the still air was the trilling of oyster-catchers. I walked, and waited, and … Continue reading
Posted in Hadrian's Wall, Snippets
Tagged haaf-netting, saxophone
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Snippets 3: plastic rubbish and a bathyscope
My new piece of kit as a ‘low-tide guide’ (a delightful title conferred on me recently by BBC Radio4’s Open Country) is a bathyscope; with a bathyscope one can peer beneath the ruffled surface of pools and find out what’s … Continue reading
Posted in conservation, Snippets, tidelines
Tagged bathyscope, marine litter, plastic rubbish
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Hobbling through Allonby with an Idle Apprentice
“Of course there was a reading-room. Where? Where! why, over there. Where was over there? Why, there! Let Mr. Idle carry his eye to that bit of waste ground above high-water mark, where the rank grass and loose stones were … Continue reading
Posted in Allonby
Tagged Alfred Waterhouse, Allonby, Dickens, literary connections, Natural History Museum, reading room, Wilkie Collins
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Snippets 2: A chance encounter, as lifeboat ’47-024′ leaves the sea
The man with the camera seemed to know a bit about lifeboats. We were standing on the dock at Whitehaven harbour, watching as a lifeboat was hoisted out of the water. I hadn’t known that was due to happen: I’d … Continue reading
Posted in ports, RNLI, ships, Snippets
Tagged Port of Workington, ports, RNLI, ships, Whitehaven
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Solway Shore-walker 