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Saunterings: Walking in North-West England
Saunterings is a set of reflections based upon walks around the counties of Cumbria, Lancashire and
North Yorkshire in North-West England
(as defined in the Preamble).
Here is a list of all Saunterings so far.
If you'd like to give a comment, correction or update (all are very welcome) or to
be notified by email when a new item is posted - please send an email to johnselfdrakkar@gmail.com.
219. Sedbergh, Brigflatts, the Waterside Viaduct and an Elephant
The recent walk up Lambrigg Fell, which revealed the magnificent panorama of the
Howgills (included again below, to save you flipping back), inspired me to think
about walking on the Howgills again, especially when I realised that it is three
years since I last did so (Sauntering 154).
The Howgills from Lambrigg Fell
There’s a boots-and-books shop in Sedbergh called the ‘Sleepy Elephant’. Its
website
justifies this strange name by saying that it “refers to a comment made by the writer
Alfred Wainwright, who wrote that the neighbouring Howgill Fells were ‘often likened to
a huddle of squatting elephants’” (Wainwright, 1972). Perhaps you can see the elephants
in the panorama above. Anyway, I have a few quibbles about these elephants.
First, though, let’s get underway. On a bright day with a fresh breeze, we
walked down to the bridge over the River Rawthey and then followed the Dales Way west
to Birks, passing the Pepperpot, once a summerhouse within the old Akay estate. We then
crossed several fields, most with horses and horse jumps, some with sheep and lambs,
passing under the old railway line to reach Brigflatts. This bears a date of 1675 and
is said to be the second oldest purpose-built Quaker meeting house in the country (the
oldest being in Hertford, dated 1670). We wandered inside the small building and then
sat in the garden for a while, absorbing the tranquillity and unpretentiousness (for
a religious building).
Brigflatts
As the Sleepy Elephant’s website admits, Wainwright’s elephants weren’t sleepy – they
were squatting. I agree that the ‘Squatting Elephant’ doesn’t cut it for a shop name.
Four-legged animals generally only squat to urinate or defecate.
Elephants do, of course, sleep but not much (about two hours a night) and
most of their sleeping is done standing up. If elephants sleep
in a group then they will take turns to stay awake for danger.
From Brigflatts we walked north on a pleasant bridleway that passed Ingmire
Hall but provided no view of it, which is fair enough – if I owned a hall I wouldn’t
want passers-by gawping at it and me. The hall is of the 16th century and was originally
for the Upton family. We then had a rather difficult walk along the A684, pausing at
the idiosyncratic little church, with its nature-themed stained glass windows,
built in the 1860s, probably by those working on the
railway line.
The River Lune from Lincoln's Inn Bridge
From Lincoln’s Inn Bridge (which has nothing to do with Lincoln’s Inn in
London: a Mr Lincoln used to have an inn here) we walked alongside the Lune to the
Waterside Viaduct, which is called the Lune Viaduct on the OS map. This remarkable
structure was built in the 1860s as part of the line from Ingleton to Tebay and was
intended to be part of a major north-south route. However, disagreements between
rail companies meant that the line was never really used as intended. It closed in 1964.
To the stone arches typical of viaducts in the region was added a central
metal arch, some thirty metres above the river.
As with the Lowgill Viaduct to the north, the stone arches appear to be constructed
from red sandstone, which is not, I think, a local rock. If so, it must have been a
challenge getting all this stone here, to this out-of-the-way place, without trucks
nor, of course, a railway.
Waterside Viaduct
Referring again to the Wainwright quote, we can see that he wrote "often likened to …",
which indicates that he didn’t come up with the simile himself. Who did? Wainwright
doesn’t say but then he never referred to anyone else. Did anyone write about the
Howgills and elephants before 1972, the date of Wainwright’s book?
A little sleuthing soon uncovers “the Howgills … a long line of gentle switchback
summits, suggesting, because of their smooth bulk, sleeping elephants”, written by
A. Harry Griffin (shown left) in one of his ‘Leaves from a Lakeland Notebook’, which
he contributed to the Lancashire Evening Post for almost thirty years (11 December
1970, included in Griffin (2008)). And again, in one of the ‘Country Diary’
pieces that Griffin wrote for The Guardian over fifty years, we find, referring to
the Howgills, which he could see from his window, “… we used to think they looked
like sleeping elephants” (1963, included in Griffin (2011)).
So, it seems, the shop misquoted Wainwright who may have misquoted
Griffin – and indeed there may have been earlier writers who mentioned these
elephants. If the shop had used the Griffin quotes then they’d have been
closer to what they wanted, although ‘sleepy’ isn’t the same as ‘sleeping’.
I can watch TV when sleepy but not when sleeping.
Why didn’t the shop owners attribute its name to Griffin rather than
Wainwright, assuming they knew about the Griffin comments, as they should? Because,
of course, Wainwright is now a cult figure with many followers. He became a TV ‘personality’,
followed up later by the 'Wainwright Walks' TV series,
and has a society (the Wainwright Society), a memorial (within Wainwright’s Yard, Kendal),
a bridge (Wainwright’s Bridge, Blackburn), and even a range of beers (available from a
supermarket near you) named after him. You can buy a bronze Wainwright sculpture for
£1750. Griffin is relatively unknown. His Wikipedia page is barely 100 words long.
His obituary in The Guardian can be read
on-line.
From the Waterside Viaduct we walked on uncertain paths past Low Branthwaite,
Bramaskew and Craggstones to reach the open slopes of Winder. At one point we found
ourselves on the wrong side of a fence but the stone wall that blocked our way had a
hole for sheep. We just managed to squeeze through it. We then set off up the slopes of Winder.
The gill of Crosdale Beck, Arant Haw to the left
When I had been inspired by the Howgills panorama I had envisaged gliding over the
many elephants along the ridge. But then realism intervened as I reflected that we
hadn’t walked that high, or much at all, for eighteen months. So we settled for the
southernmost elephant of Winder, plus some low-level walking, as described above (Winder
is the rightmost elephant in the panorama above, with Baugh Fell behind it). And
it was good that we did, as we rather toiled up the longer-than-expected slope into
a stiff breeze. We did make it to the top (473 metres) where I looked wistfully across
to the higher elephants to the north. Perhaps some day?
We may respect Wainwright as much as he certainly deserves to be but we should not
attribute too much to him. As it happens, I think that Griffin captured the spirit
of Lakeland better than Wainwright. Neither wrote much about the Yorkshire
Dales, which the Howgills are within. Griffin wrote many books and hundreds of
articles about the Lake District, showing a much broader interest in and knowledge
of the Lakes than Wainwright, although he did have, like everyone, his special
affections, rock climbing and skiing. Wainwright was fixated upon walking to the
mountain tops.
Purely as a writer, Griffin was, in my opinion, better than Wainwright.
His short pieces for The Guardian are polished gems, reflecting Lakeland. Griffin
was generous towards Wainwright, considering him “undoubtedly a genius” and was
among the first to recognise, in 1955 after the publication of the first of
Wainwright’s seven volumes, that it was “the most remarkable book of its kind
about the Lake District ever printed.” I am not aware that Wainwright ever
referred to Griffin although he did allow him to include his drawings within some of his
books. Nowadays, everyone, including the owners of the Sleepy Elephant, wants to
be on the Wainwright bandwagon but Griffin also deserves credit where it is due.
Settlebeck Gill
Our descent from Winder did not proceed smoothly, as
our attempted short-cut led to us scrambling through gorse bushes.
We should have kept to the Dales High Way path by Settlebeck Gill.
We eventually wandered into Sedbergh to find almost
everything closed, including the Sleepy Elephant. Among the books displayed in
the window it was Wainwright 1 Griffin 0.
Date: March 18th 2025
Start: SD658917, Sedbergh, near church (Map: OL19)
Route: SE – bridge over Rawthey – W on Dales Way – Birks – W –
Brigflatts – N, W, N – A684 – NW – Lincoln’s Inn Bridge – N – Waterside Viaduct –
NE – Bramaskew – E, S, E – Craggstones – SE, E – Winder – SE – gate near Settlebeck
Gill – S, SW, S – Sedbergh church
Distance: 8 miles; Ascent: 360 metres
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© John Self, Drakkar Press, 2018-
Top photo: Rainbow over Kisdon in Swaledale;
Bottom photo: Ullswater