How Hall. Poetry and Memories. A Passion for Ennerdale by Tom Rawling / Cumbria Reading Detectives

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How Hall. Poetry and Memories. A Passion for Ennerdale by Tom Rawling Find!

Today is National Poetry Day and we had an event at Cockermouth Library this morning, with Michael Baron talking about the Ennerdale Poet, Tom Rowling.

Michael has edited, and also written the preface to, How Hall, which has just been published by Lamplugh and District Historical Society.

The book is a collection of most of Tom Rowling's poems along with some of his memories of life in Ennerdale - and what a treat this book is. A real gem in every sense of the word, and it encapsulates what the Reading Detectives project is about so perfectly.

Michael had mentioned Tom Rawling to me earlier this year, and I am ashamed to say that I had not heard of him. Until this morning's event I was also completely unaware of how wonderful his work is - as indeed are many other people, both within Cumbria and further afield. Michael first heard Tom's poetry about 12 years ago and has been actively promoting it ever since.

So who was Tom Rawling?

Tom Rawling was born in 1916. The How Hall of the book's title was where his grandmother farmed in the Ennerdale valley, and Tom and his parents lived there until they later got a house of their own at Ennerdale Bridge.

Tom always spent weekends and school holidays at How Hall, which had been farmed by generations of Rawling ancestors, with legal records showing that a yeoman called William Rawling had farmed How Hall as far back as 1607.

Tom's father did not follow in his ancestors' footsteps, becoming instead the head teacher at the village school, which Tom later attended. The father-son relationship, and indeed family life generally was quite difficult, as Tom's father had been badly affected by his First World War service.

From the village school, Tom then went to Whitehaven Grammar School followed by University College London, where he read history.

Tom was a soldier in the Second World War, after which he too became a teacher, working for 30 years with children with special needs, until his retirement in 1976.

When he retired Tom started attending poetry workshops at the Old Fire Station Arts Centre in Oxford, which were run by Anne Stevenson, the acclaimed poet.

Tom went on to have three collections of verse published, before he died in 1996. He never returned to live in Cumbria, but visited often to see family, and also to fish the waters of his native county - fishing being one of his great lifelong passions.

His poetry shows that, despite being an "ex-pat" Cumbrian, he never left the county in either his head or his heart. In so many ways his Cumbrian memories, his sense of place and his sense of his ancestry is his poetry....along with the farming and the fishing that was so obviously in his blood!

This can be seen in his poem "Ancestors":

Memorial and more;

There's inheritance in trods,

In dry-stone walls,

In the slow shaping of a quick hedge.

and also in the poem "How Hall":

Enough to hear

The names of the fells -

Herdus, Pillar and Red Pike;

Fields and flowers -

Broad Close, Wham and Fittimer,

Gowan, ling and cotton-grass;

Farms and their poeple -

How Hall, Hollins, and Howside,

Birkett, Rawling, Williamson;

Enough to know

I belonged to the place.

Stylistically, Tom's work has had comparisons drawn with the poetry of Ted Hughes (with whom he later became friends). It is not a twee, sentimental, or romantic type of poetry, and it comes across as very "honest".

As Anne Stevenson says in her introduction to How Hall:

"He wrote poems to tell the truth and in them rehearsed the daily rituals of life and death common to all farming communities".

He used to worry that his poems would not survive his death, and it is so very sad that his work never fully had the recogniton it deserved. For example when a collection of the new Lake poets was produced Tom Rawling was not included.

I was so taken with Michael's readings and also the recording of Tom Rawling reading some of his poems that I just had to buy the book and I rushed straight home to read it.

Apart from poems about fishing and his experiences in the army, I found poems about nature and wildlife, about aspects of Cumbrian life ranging from sheep shearing to Rum Butter - and Mary will be delighted to know that there is also a poem called: "Eskdale Dry-Stone Wall". There is even a poem about a privy!

After a first reading, my personal favourites are: "I can't put it all on a picture postcard"; "Sloe Gin"; "The old showfield"; "How Hall" and "Ancestors", but I suspect that this list will be added to with each re-read, for this is very much a collection to be treasured and read time and again.

We are very lucky that people like Michael Baron and the members of Lamplugh and District Heritage Society are keeping Tom Rawling's poems alive as well as bringing them to new audiences.

8 October 2009 from Helen

14 Comments

Ian Munroe | October 18, 2009 12:50 AM

I have only just discovered Tom Rawlings work whilst on holiday in Eskdale at Cragg Cottage.This cottage was home to Hugh Falkus, and he had two of Tom Rawlings books in his study. I was captivated by the beautiful pictures that Toms work brought to mind.How much of Tom Rawling's work is still available?

Helen replied to comment from Ian Munroe | October 18, 2009 4:10 PM

Hello Ian and thank you for your comment. Tom Rawling is very much a master at conjuring images isn't he?
I was interested to read that you had been staying in Hugh Falkus' cottage - in fact Hugh Falkus was Tom Rawling's fishing mentor, and they often used to go fishing together. He refers to Hugh Falkus in How Hall - in the section entitled "Seat-Trout by the Book".
If you are looking to buy any of Tom Rawling's work, I have had a quick look at Amazon and one or two titles are listed on there either as 'buy new' or 'used/new', including: Ghosts at My Back and The Names of Sea Trout.
However, there has been no "collected works" produced, and so the nearest publication to this is in fact the book I have posted: How Hall. Poems and Memories. A Passion for Ennerdale.
THe ISBN is: 978-0-9547482-1-0 and it costs £7.50.
Copies are available to borrow via Cumbria Libraries or they can be purchased by contacting stanandmarina@aol.com or bobnbet.64@btopenworld.com or by ringing 01946 861493 or 01946 861503.
Happy Reading!
Helen

Ian Munroe | October 25, 2009 11:11 PM

Got How Hill through the Post on Saturday. BRILLIANT read.Thankyou very much for the information.

Bernard Green | December 16, 2009 7:28 PM

I would love to read How Hall and will try to find it. I am also interested to find out if How Hall was originally Carswell How and now a Farm House.
If you know any of the history I would be very pleased to hear from you.

mary hart replied to comment from Bernard Green | January 13, 2010 12:55 PM

Hi
How Hall was indeed originally Carswell How, and was owned from the 15th to the 17th centuries by a very influential family, the Patricksons, known as the 'Kings of Ennerdale'
There is a chapter on its history in a book by Bob Orrell entitled'Around and about Ennerdale'which I think is now out of print.
If you contact me with your address I can photocopy the relevant bits and send them to you

Regards
Mary

Mary Hart | January 13, 2010 1:24 PM

Hello again Bernard
Further to my above post, I can be contacted at Workington Library, Vulcans Lane, Workington, Cumbria, CA14 2ND.

Bernard Green replied to comment from mary hart | April 9, 2010 2:34 PM

Hello Mary
Thank you for your comments and sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you.
I would love to get the information from you. The Patricksons are my wife's direct ancestors and I am researching her family history. We live in Spain and our address is:

C/Mayor 23 B
03728 Alcalali
Alicante
Spain

I would be very happy to reimburse you any expense you incur.
My E-mail address is bandm.g@gmail.com

Thank you again

Bernard Green

Frederick Martin Wallace | April 20, 2010 3:43 PM

I live in South Africa and would like to get a few copies of this book

Can someone please email the info (fred@rwp.co.za)

My grandmother was Annie Rawling who came to South Africa in 1908 and would be his great aunt and sister to Aunt Jane Rawling who I met in Ennerdale in 1972.

Thank You.

Helen replied to comment from Frederick Martin Wallace | April 21, 2010 9:35 AM

Hello!

Thank you so much for your comment, posted on the Reading Detectives website.
I was fascinated to read of your family connection.

If you wish to get holds of copies of the book they are available by contacting the following email addresses:

stanandmarina@aol.com
or
bobnbet.64@btopenworld.com

or, by telephoning 01946 861493 or 01946 861503.

The books cost £7.50 each, and then there may be postage and packing charges on top.

With kind regards
Helen

Pat Jones | June 5, 2010 10:37 PM

Hi
I am researching my family tree and came across this site after googling "How Hall".
My family on my Mum's side are directly descended from the Patricksons of Ennerdale so all the above posts are very interesting! I'm keen to read the book so I shall be ordering a copy asap!
Can anyone tell me if How Hall is still standing? And if it is, how easy it would be to get there? I'm hoping to travel up sometime during the summer and would love to take pictures of the building and area to add to my tree.
Regards
Pat
xx

mick Patrickson replied to comment from Pat Jones | August 4, 2010 4:51 PM

i googled patrickson and found the ennerdale carswell how info my grandfather came from cumbria according to my mother and i wondered where how hall was as i have just returned from ravenglass and walked round ennerwater looking for the farm

thanks mick

Helen | August 5, 2010 12:12 PM

Hello Mick
Thank you for your comment about How Hall.
As I did with Pat,I forwarded on to local studies colleagues at Workington Library in the west of the county and asked them to contact you with directions and further information.
I also hope to get some directions posted onto this page as a help for any future enquirers
Kind regards
Helen

Pauline | April 13, 2011 5:54 PM

Is this the same Tom Rawling who wrote a moving poem called 'Sutton Hoo - the Shoulder Clasps? It was printed in the Suffolk Poetry Society book of 2001. The National Trust at S.Hoo would like to know if there is any copyright due, if they use it in their new exhibition... imminent, so help urgently needed! Thanks.

Helen replied to comment from Pauline | April 14, 2011 9:08 AM

Hello Pauline
I will forward your enquiry on to someone who knows a great deal about Tom Rawling's work - if anyone can answer your question, he will be able to. I will ask them to contact you directly. Kind regards. Helen

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