29 Apr 2024
Over the 1925 Easter weekend my grandfather Maurice, my great-grandfather Clarence, and a friend called Clifford went on a 6-day walking trip through the English Lake District, Easter Sunday being the 12th April in that year, Maurice taking his Kodak Autographic № 3 camera with him. I have three negatives which are seemingly the only ones to have survived, if indeed there were ever any more. Details of their journey were recorded in Clarence’s journal.
Earlier this year we were able to visit the locations 99 years almost to the day, and I took a 100 year old Kodak Autographic № 3 with me that I had bought. With it I planned to try and re-take the images and learn a bit about what photography was like a century ago. True it would have been nice to do it on a date exactly 100 years after, but better to take the opportunity as it presented. Using an adaptor it is possible to use 120 film in the camera but this leads to cropping of the images, as can be seen below. The camera was designed for 118 rollfilm, 8cm wide compared to the 6cm of 120.
Thursday 9th April 1925
Their 6-day walk as recorded in Clarence’s journal started by train to Burneside station near Kendal. From there they walked via Garnett Bridge, Long Sleddale and Gatescarth Pass to Mardale where they had hoped to find rooms at the Dun Bull Inn. But the Inn was full (it was Easter after all) with ’34 in the house’. Riggindale Farm nearby was able to put them up however.
For Good Friday April 10th 1925 Clarence’s Journal reads:
"For tea and B&B they charged us 7/6 each. We left at 9.15 for Kidsty Pike and High Street. Clouds over the mountains but no rain. Long patches of snow on High Street. Walked to head of Haweswater Gill and down it to the small lake and along left bank on the moraines. Then down to Brothers Water and along main road to Patterdale and Glenridding. Got rooms at the Post Office."
On Saturday 11th April 1925 they walked from Glenridding over Helvellyn via Striding Edge, descended to Thirlmere and then walked over the fells to Watendlath. On the way up from Thirlmere they stopped while Clarence took the first photo looking back to Thirlmere and Helvellyn where they had come from.
In 1925 they had rain and drizzle almost all the time except for Easter Sunday 12th April. They stayed 2 nights at Richardson’s Farm at Watendlath (7/6d each a night), on Sunday walking Great Gable and back in the day. Grandpa may have taken the next photo on the morning before they set out, the second must have been taken in the evening after they returned as the shadows show the sun was in the West. That evening Clarence wrote in his journal:
“Today has been one of the finest I have experienced in the Lake District. On Gable it was really hot, no wind and clear sky. A day to be remembered in every way. Good dinner at night.”
On Monday 13th April 1925 they walked via Blea Tarn back to Thirlmere and then on to Grasmere where they found rooms for the night.
Finally on Tuesday 14th April 1925 they walked to Windermere to get the train home to Ilkley.
Little will have changed if you were to do the same trip today, remarkably the railway still operates, and there are numerous places to stay on the route. Like them you would find yourself unable to stay in a room at the Dun Bull Inn or Riggindale Farm either as both places, along with the whole of the village of Mardale Green are now under the waters of Haweswater reservoir.
Finally Photo 4 together with a digital photo of the same scene in 2024, use the slider to compare.
Watendlath Then and Now.