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An accessible paradise Find!

In the early days as a Reading Detective (it seems so long ago!) I wrote a blog about a visit to the Bluebell Bookshop in Penrith. I can never visit a bookshop and leave without a purchase and that day I left with a small book that caught my eye called "An accessible paradise". I have been dipping in and out of the book ever since  - taking my own journey as the book takes its journey along the River Eden.

The book was published in 2007 by the East Cumbria Countryside Project and was funded by the Heritage Lottery as part of 'Discover Eden', a countryside recreation and interpretation programme managed by ECCP in partnership with the Eden Rivers Trust. It is a delightful collection of poetry, creative prose and linoprint images celebrating the river Eden and its tributaries and the landscapes surrounding them.

The river Eden rises above Mallerstang in the south eastern corner of Cumbria and flows north via Kirkby Stephen, Appleby, Temple Sowerby, Langwathby, Lazonby, Armathwaite and Wetheral to Warwick Bridge where it turns west through Carlisle and out to sea beyond Rockliffe and the Solway Firth -  a distance of some 65 miles. It is joined at regular intervals on its journey by a succession of tributaries, many of which are substantial rivers in themselves with their own sizeable tributaries. These include the Scandal, Swindale, Hoff, Lyvennet, Crowdundle, Lowther, Eamont, Raven, Irthing, Gelt, Petteril and Caldew, all emanating from hundreds of little becks flowing down from the surrounding hills and mountains. What wonderful names these are with their Norse heritage - a read-aloud rhyming list of place names!

Dick Capel of the East Cumbria Countryside Project says in the foreword ' There is a distinctive sense of identity that has been brought to the area by the people who have lived and worked here for thousands of years. The patchwork of fields, meadows and small woodlands in the valley, contained on all sides by high bare fells and moorland, has been carved out of the original wilderness by generations of farmers. The ancient stone circles, castles, field systems, vernacular buildings, dry stone walls and hedges are the tangible manifestations of Eden's cultural dimension which determine its heritage character. The Eden landscape is the product of its people and their historic interactions with nature, and this little book features some of the best writers whose work has been inspired by that landscape. Their work is about understanding and communicating feelings. What they see with their eyes they transmit through their hearts'.

The beautiful linoprints by Pip Hall which illustrate the book relate to etched bronze panels which are a feature along the fourteen 'Discover Eden' walking routes. The images depict aspects of human and natural heritage so if you take along some paper and crayons you can taking rubbings from them until you have collected all 84 images - something which children would love doing!

     'Landscape is not only seen with the eye, it is felt in the heart'.

                                                             From Heritage Lottery Fund guidance notes.

I feel that should become the Reading Detectives motto - it sums up the project perfectly.

http://discover.edenriverstrust.org.uk

http://www.eccp.org.uk

30 September 2009 from Mary Rossall

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