Newlands Valley

Newlands Valley holds so many memories for me. It is the first, or last section of the Bob Graham Round. Catbells which looks down into the valley is the home of Beatrix Potter’s Mrs Tiggy-Winkle. I purchased a six-hole stone gate stoop from Geoff Relph of Little Town Farm, which now stands proudly in my front garden in Keswick. Talking to Geoff about living in such a popular and beautiful valley he came out with the memorable phrase ‘thank Christ we haven’t got a lake’.

I have a wonderful lithograph of Newlands Church by the artist Percy Kelly. A Celtic cross in the churchyard and the six-hole gate stoop were the inspiration behind the image.