Published at 15:45, Wednesday, 31 December 2008

DISTINGTON is a place most of us sweep through on our way to somewhere else but it is a place that harbours a considerable history and social network and is well worth a stop and stare.

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We all think we know our own locality but thanks to Les Nicholson I have learned that there is still evidence of a Druid stone circle near Pica and that at Hayescastle there was a Norman keep, built in the 12th century, the home of the Lords of Distington.

Les, who is 71 and has lived in Distington most of his life, has all sorts of knowledge and interesting things to say about the village, amassed over a six year period of digging and delving and now he is sharing them in his new book simply entitled Distington. It does what it says on the tin.

If more recent history is your thing then maybe you will spot yourself in the pages telling the village’s 20th century story, perhaps amongst the faces in photos of a former Remembrance day, in the Festival of Britain procession, wearing a posh pinny with the Ladies’ Committee or the having fun with the guides and brownies.

In his book Les, who lives at Prospect View covers almost every aspect of the village and its surrounds–its schools, industries, churches, chapels, social organisations and pubs, which once numbered quite a few but most have now gone. The Hare and Hounds was at Pica and later became the Greyhound Inn. There was also the Black Lion, the Queens Head, Hope Inn, the Black Cock and the Robin Hood.

The stories of Hayescastle, the oldest part of the village, of the Gilgarran Mansion (nice old pictures of this now no more grand house) of Distington Hall, High Duty Alloys and the old Distington Ironworks are all told. Local sporting pursuits and teams all get a mention and demonstrate the many hours of research, with help from his wife Ethel, that Les has put in. It is no mean feat for someone who is visually impaired as a result of diabetes.

Born on King George VI’s Coronation Day, Les, who is chairman of the Distington History Society, arrived in the village in 1943 as a young boy from Slough when his father came to work at HDA. He went to Distington school, leaving in 1952 to start work with the North Western Electricity Board as an apprentice electrician. After two years National Service with the Royal Engineers he returned home and back to working with NWEB and eventually moved to street lighting maintenance, a job that occupied him for the rest of his working life.

In 1975 he left West Cumbria for a time, to work in Hounslow, London but returned to Distington in 1994 following his retirement through ill health.

Do give Distington, price £7.50 a try and take the opportunity for a more leisurely journey through an interesting, and oft maligned, West Cumbrian village. MC

Published by http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk