Achievements

Ravenglass

Village Forum


What have we achieved?

New Children’s Playground

Recently we helped Muncaster Parish Council to raise over £55,000 for the complete refurbishment of the Children’s Playground, which has long been a very popular attraction for local children and the children of visitors from all over the world who come to ride on La’al Ratty. Read the full story here.

A link will bring you back to this page. For our earlier achievements, read on.

No overhead wires

Lamp posts

Main Street used to be festooned with overhead power and phone lines radiating from two huge ‘maypoles’. On our behalf Andy Lowe, then the Lake District National Park Authority’s Buildings and Conservation Officer, persuaded Norweb and British Telecom to bury these unsightly but necessary cables. The two utility companies carried out the operation in May and June 2000 and agreed to bear the cost as a contribution to the environment.

The old concrete lamp standards in Main Street were due for renewal. With the help of the lighting engineers from the County Council and Copeland Borough Council we were able to have new standards installed that were more in keeping with the village.


The Millennium Garden



To celebrate the Millennium a neglected piece of the Village Green behind the Old Reading Room was turned into an attractive feature which provides seating with some protection from the wind and a good view of our lovely estuary. It was opened in September 2001 by Eric Robson, who is seen in the right-hand picture with Norman Williams, then Mayor of Copeland. On the left the artist Maggy Howarth is seen installing the cobble mosaic which is featured on our masthead. The Millennium Garden was the product of two years’ work. Chris Greenwood, the LDNPA’s Landscape Architect, planned and supervised the work. The National Park’s Estate Team did the construction. The National Park also donated £6000-worth of materials and managed the project. Other sponsorship came from Copeland Borough Council, Muncaster Parish Council, Cumbria Waste Management Environmental Trust, the Friends of the Lake District, Ravenglass Charter Fair, Cumbria Community Foundation, BNFL Community Support and Tesco, Whitehaven. The Ravenglass Boating Association donated the flagpole. Village people became actively involved in the project. A children’s design workshop produced ideas which Maggy Howarth incorporated into her mosaic. After the opening ceremony Ravenglass WI provided a splendid tea.

Ravenglass seats

The seat on which Eric and the Mayor are sitting is a unique Ravenglass design. The back panel, designed by Olivia and Lucy Inglis, two local girls, depicts a Viking ship, a locomotive wheel and a Roman soldier, all parts of Ravenglass’s history, and sunset over the estuary. Two of the original six seats are in the Millennium Garden and the others are on the main Village Green. In July 2010 we and the Lake District National Park provided two more in the picnic area of the Village Car Park.

Market Cross Plaque

The old Market Cross, which stood in Main Street for centuries, was dismantled by local vandals in the 19th century. This plaque, set into the road, marks its approximate position.

This was a joint project with Muncaster Parish Council. Forum members Alan Bell and Peter van Zeller designed the plaque and its granite surround with the technical assistance of Karl Melville, our friendly local Highway Engineer.

The Forum and the Parish Council both raised funds and the Parish Council took on the management of the project with the Highway Authority. The Rt. Hon Dr. Jack Cunningham, then MP for Copeland and now Lord Cunningham, unveiled the plaque on 15 March 2005.


The Village Green

This is a co-operative project with Muncaster Parish Council, the owner of the land.

The Green is a wonderful place for rest and recreation. There is room for children to play and visitors can enjoy picnics while they admire the estuary and the boats at anchor. At low tide there is a vast area of beach to explore. At any time of year the spectacular sunsets attract photographers, especially at low tide, when the colours of the skies are reflected in the waters of the Mite and the Irt.

Did it need improvement? Only in small ways. The area nearest to the camera provides the only access for wheelchairs via the ramp that leads over the flood defences to the ford over the River Mite (which is navigable only by pedestrians, horses and tractors at low tide). We have commissioned a new cobble mosaic by Maggy Howarth (picture below), which was unveiled by Kate Hunter on 18 March 2013. Two new seats and a stone litter bin are in place. We have laid ground reinforcement matting to help wheelchair users and will install low-level information boards so that visitors can learn more about local history, the sometimes dramatic effects that tides have on the estuary and the local bird life.

This page was last updated on 23 October 2013.

This mosaic, based on a Roman original, was designed by Maggy Howarth and installed by Mark Kelly and local builder Chris Wagstaff. It welcomes you to Ravenglass as you arrive by road.

This picture shows the springtime display of daffodils along the raised bund at the inland edge of the Green. This bund is part of the village’s flood defences; the Green is sometimes inundated during the February and March spring tides.

The Parish Council has installed these handsome handrails for the steps over the bund. The Viking Ship and Roman Soldier in the roundels repeat the designs from the back panels of the Ravenglass seats.