VISITORS to Penrith’s admirable museum may ponder over the age and value of eye-catching exhibits and the part they played in local life.

Equally fascinating, however, are the background and story of the museum itself, for this absorbing showcase of history and interest, now housed in Robinson’s School, is 125 years old in 2008.

For many years the museum has been in the care of local councils — Penrith urban, followed by Eden district — but in the beginning it stemmed from a Victorian initiative to educate and inform.

In his History of Penrith, published in 1894, William Furness recalled how local men clubbed together to buy newspapers — a move which led to the setting up of the Working Men’s Reading Room in 1853, with premises in Hunter Lane.

An even bolder enterprise followed in 1883, with the establishment in the reading room building of a free library and museum.

This new venture seemingly had the backing of the Local Board of Health, whose chairman John Pattinson, presided at the opening ceremony.

Early exhibits included donations from local folk, notably a “valuable geological collection” belonging to Vice-Admiral Wauchope, Dacre Lodge.

According to History of Penrith, other gifts included an Egyptian mummy, old coins, Maori female dresses, shells, birds and a Celtic stone axe, found at Red Hills.

The library and museum were later transferred to a complex in the Town Hall, followed by a parting of the ways in 1985, when the museum was moved to the 340-year-old former school building in Middlegate. Curator Judith Clarke is planning a fitting celebration to mark 125 years of amassing local history and civic pride.

A commemorative booklet will contain a short history and photos of exhibits of significance.

“BACKWATTERING”

“Thoos backwattering”. The old Cumbrian term to indicate a faltering of action or attitude seems highly appropriate in describing the declining accessibility of public lavatories provided by local councils.

For public toilets, or rather the lack of them, are back in the news, nationally as well as locally.

The number of loos has halved to 5,500 in a decade and is likely to drop further, according to the British Toilet Association.

Penrith, where the first public lavatories were underground “dungeons” in Burrowgate and Corn Market, responded to the challenge of being bypassed, back in 1968, by building more orthodox facilities, generally seen as adequate rather than attractive.

It is safe to say, however, that few folk seek out council-provided loos if there is a handy alternative in a cafe or hotel.

In recent years there has been much talk of closures, as part of cost-cutting exercises, and this seems likely to intensify with the news that the Government is “ripping up” provisions in the Public Health Act which force councils to provide free lavatories.

Shops and pubs may be paid to open their toilets, providing them with “a valuable revenue stream”.

The Times headlined the story “The Great British Inconvenience”.

ULLSWATER HERO

Memories of Donald Campbell’s successful water speed bid on Ullswater, in the 1950s, seem to have interested older readers, including former Penrithian Gerald Caygill, who biked to the lake with school pals in the hope of seeing history being made.

Writing from Northampton, Mr. Caygill recalls: “I can remember we heard the noise of the jet engine through the trees.

“When we arrived at the waterside we were able to get quite close to the boathouse and watch Campbell and his helpers doing some adjustments and running the engine near the launch site.

“Sadly,” he adds, “we did not see any high speed runs — only Bluebird chugging slowly round the bay.”

As a member of Penrith Cricket Club in the early-1960s, Gerald played alongside professional Ramnath Kenny, an Indian Test star, who, on leaving Tynefield Park, gave his team-mate one of his favourite bats.

On the occasion of the ground centenary lunch in 2007, Mr. Caygill presented the bat to the club for display in the pavilion.

BILL’S “BEST SWEDE” RELIC

Veterans cherish all sorts of keepsakes to remind them of ancestors and among the most unusual is a prize card awarded at a village show nearly a century ago.

The card is inscribed: “Ousby Agricultural Show. Thursday, September 19th, 1912. Best swede in the show. Given by Messrs. Toogood and Son, Seedsmen to the King, Southampton. FIRST.”

The champion swede-grower was Tom Watson, Crossfell View, Winskill, whose winning card is still preserved by a grandson, Penrithian Bill McKinney, now living in retirement at Reading, after many years abroad.

He is the son of the late William McKinney, a former Penrith joiner, who emigrated to South Africa in the 1950s, taking all his family — except for son Bill.

An old boy of Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, he stayed behind to complete a poultry course at Newton Rigg Farm School before going out to Rhodesia to become a lecturer at an agricultural college. He spent 49 years in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe up to his return to England and, more recently, a trip down memory lane to his native town.

Despite his long, eventful absence, Bill chatted about senior Penrith figures of yester-year like Tom Oldcorn, Jack Molyneux and D. R. Nicholas, grammar school music master. And what of old buddies Ken Nicholson and John Miskelly, both of whom became journalists?

Such is the magnetic power of the Beacon that Penrithians return from faraway places to check on the old town and share their memories.