"Dick's Pocket Book"

"Dick's Pocket Book" is list of Arthur Ransome related links originaly created by contributors toTarBoard and hosted by Ian Edmonson. Having grown somewhat chaotically, it became rather difficult to search and some of the links became broken. Following the relaunch of TarBoard, Dick's Pocket Book was grounded for barnacles to be scrubbed off the hull and seams to be recaulked. Now soon DPB will be sailing again with a fresh coat of paint, but this time as part of the All Things Ransome website. As always new links will be welcome. Please send your suggestions to: DPB@allthingsransome.net with a short explanation if you think that the connection to AR may not be immediately apparent.

AR's politics - part 2

I'm indebted to the three IND... readers who left comments on the last post for the inspiration for this one.

Dr Duncan Hall wrote: (extract)

I would probably begin from a starting point of suggesting that Ransome was not really trying to 'implant' political lessons in anybody's mind... And then there are certain values - what childhood should be like, justice and fairness, being protective of nature, an interest in traditional industry (charcoal burning) and pursuits (hound trailing), etc. Ransome could easily have arrived at all his rather universal values without having a political view. But I think you can just detect a bit of the politics peeking through, particularly in terms of which values become paramount and which characters are portrayed most sympathetically.

Ambling Aussie wrote: (extract)

His political leanings and his interest in Russia never did sit too well in later decades. however, we love him for all that. I'm a member of TARS in Australia, and armed with the books advertised on this page by Roger Wardale and others, I am heading off to the Lake District June 1 for a glorious few days in his footsteps.

Dominic Rivron wrote: (complete)

To someone who only knows the books and has seen photos of the older Ransome, he so fits into a stereotype of a gentleman writer of improving fiction for young people that most people take its accuracy for granted. Prototypes - e.g., Kipling, Buchan, WE Johns, et al - abound. At first glance, his appearance, his subject matter and many of his interests are very “establishment”. He so looks the part that he must have turned into it!

It is almost like the way a magician attracts our attention to what he wants us to see, while distracting us from what is really happening. But I don't think it was a deliberate act – it just happens like that because the stereotype is so strong. However, the sympathetic adult role models in the books, the "friendly natives" are anything but conventional. Superficially, yes: middle-class professionals who are obviously quite well-off. But they all have hidden depths which lead them to conspire with the children who are seeking to remap all the world that is known to them. I could go on (and do, on my own blog). It's more than a game of let's pretend. The post-imperialist world is turned on its head: rather than the "uncivilised" it's those who take civilisation at face value and can't see beyond it who are the "natives" in these stories.

My favourite photo of Ransome is one in which he look young, idealistic, bright-eyed and a bit dishevelled!

Ambling Auusie's comment led me to a delightful series of posts on his blog describing his pilgrimage from Australia to visit The Lake in the North. Dominic Rivron's comment also led me to look up his blog. His post, To the summit of Kanchenjunga, caught my eye. It sums up much of my own relationship with Arthur Ransome's books in general and the Swallows and Amazons series in particular.

Nowhere in the books I read did I seem to find any hint of Ransome's elusive politics. There was an all-pervasive humanism. There is a lot about values, decency, the love of nature and the spirit of fantasy and adventure. I don't remember there being any reference to religion: the nearest we get, as I remember, are the draconian strictures of the G.A. as to appropriate behaviour on a Sunday. All the ritual in the stories (and there is quite a lot) is carried out away from the adult gaze and usually involves a reversion to the primitive. Ransome's most sympathetic characters value the decencies of civilisation while remaining in touch with their “inner savages”.

His children often refer to the adults as “natives” (in the first book they even invent a stupid pretend language to communicate with them, which Ransome subsequently -and sensibly- dropped). The children are the “explorers”,and though they often invent games which mimic the likes of Nansen, they are not extending the boundaries of civilisation and civilised knowledge as the "natives" understand it. Rather, they are literally redrawing the maps of the world around them, rediscovering and renaming things the "natives" around them, who consider themselves to be civilised, take for granted. The term "friendly natives" is reserved for those adults who recognise the limits of this civilisation. For the child explorers, exploration is an act of rediscovery and renewal - and this, surely, touches on the political, in the broadest sense.

Perhaps any political theme to the stories is so over-arching that it is almost impossible to see. And yet, who makes the audacious plans? Who is frequently credited with drawing the maps in the books? Who adopts a pseudonym (her real name is Ruth)? Who, to return again specifically to Winter Holiday, announces the start of the Polar Expedition (albeit unwittingly) by raising a scarlet flag? If we need to look for real life models for the character of Captain Nancy we should perhaps look not only to children known to Ransome but also at his earlier friend, VI Lenin (real name Ulyanov). One could even compare Nancy's late arrival at the North Pole having been prevented from leaving Beckfoot by the mumps with Lenin being delayed in Europe before finally arriving at the Finland Station (2). If all this sounds fanciful, it is only because being a friend of Lenin in itself sounds fanciful. If any other less famous or controversial friend of Ransome's had been a born charismatic leader who lived under a pseudonym, raised a red flag and been delayed from taking part in a plan he had played a major role in shaping, his biographers would have rooted him out long ago.

I'm not suggesting that the stories abound in allegory, any more than the maps in the books are actual representations of the Lake District. However, they do seem to contain interesting allusions and themes relating to Ransome's experience of the Russian Revolution, his feelings about it and the people involved in it. He would be a very unusual writer if they didn't. Was he aware of them? Possibly. Surely, in the case of Winter Holiday. Did he want people to see them? He was shrewd enough, surely, never to let us know directly. What we do know is that he wrote (and wanted children to read) dramatic stories about young explorers who set out to remap the world. And that, I think, speaks for itself.

(1) Hardyment, Christina, Arthur Ransome: Captain Flint's Trunk, Francis Lincoln Ltd 2006

(2) These are not the only possible allusions. Take, for example, Nancy's and the explorers' determined efforts to communicate during her illness and isolation. Winter Holiday is a book about the enforced exile of a leader.

licensed by Dominic Rivron under a Creative Commons License.

Arthur Ransome's Politics

TarBoard, is a very lively discussion board dedicated to Arthur Ransome and his works. Whenever Arthur Ransome's politics have been discussed a consensus quickly arises supporting the view that whatever AR's politics may have been in his youth - and whatever lingering socialist sympathies AR may have retained throughout the rest of his life - the Swallows and Amazon series is completely apolitical. Those arguing the contrary are not taken very seriously.

The S&A series books have been on the nursery bookshelves of quite a few remarkable people such as: Clare Francis, Ellen MacArthur, Philip Pullman, Paul Foot and Norman Willis. Quite a few of his famous readers have admitted that they found the books inspirational. Perhaps part of inspiration is in the way Ransome teaches his youthful readers to think for themselves and not take everything on face value regardless of the source. Character's like forceful Nancy Blackett, Captain of the Amazon Pirates, the respectable Doctor's son Tom Dudgeon, or the quiet and literary minded Dorothea Callum, manage to outwit adults and the 'authorities' by a high degree of intelligence and a certain degree of deception. Of course, this plot element is gently understated or Ransome's books would never have had the enormous sales that they enjoyed throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s, in the days when parents chose what books to buy their children. In Swallowdale the enemy is fearsome Great Aunt, Coot Club the adversaries are the Hulaballos who endanger a coot and her nest, and in Great Northern? the villain is a rich and unscrupulous egg collector.

As other posts on If Not Duffers... have shown, it is necessary to dig deep when trying to solve the mystery of the model Beckfoot and the original Amazons. Perhaps one has to dig even deeper still to understand what political lessons Ransome was trying to implant in the minds of his young readers! An excellent starting point is Ransome the Socialist, Duncan Hall's latest post in his own AR blog which coincidentally is also called Great Northern?.

Other useful resources on AR's politics -
Arthur Ransome in Revolutionary Russia - by Paul Foot
The Secret Life of Arthur Ransome - The Sharp Side blog

Welcome Great Northern!

New Ransome research wins Turner Elephant Prize

It's not every day that a new piece of Arthur Ransome original research wings its way across the Internet, so we are doubly delighted to be able to reproduce Duncan Hall's first article on his brand new AR blog Great Northern. It always a pleasure to welcome the arrival of a new AR e-resource, such as Great Northern, but the article Swallow locations: the case for a geographical approach, breaks completely new ground in its analysis of Lake Windermere based prototypes for Swallow and Amazons based locations. After due consideration the Executive Committee of If Not Duffers... have decided to award Dr Hall the the second James Turner Elephant Prize, for original and audacious research which leads to a reappraisal of the origins of the S & A locations and personalities. The first Turner Elephant was awarded to Iain Hobbs for his ground breaking research paper, Beckfoot Found. Below we reproduce the full text of Swallow locations: the case for a geographical approach.

Swallows locations: the case for a geographical approach

Dr Duncan Hall

It is now generally accepted by Ransome enthusiasts that 'the lake in the north' is a composite lake, taking features of Windermere, Coniston and, quite possibly, Derwent Water as well. The photograph above shows some of the more obvious Windermere features: Belle Isle as 'Long Island', Bowness as Rio, the other 'islands off Rio', etc. As a child I took these obvious starting points and started making a search for other locations based on careful comparison of OS maps and Ransome's maps. It led me to find some locations that others have concluded through different methods, but also led to some other, more unusual, suggestions.

My early conclusion that Ramp Holme was Wild Cat Island seemed so obvious, when arriving at the decision through the comparison of maps, that it surprised me when, later, 'Captain Flint's Trunk' and other books did not consider the possibility. An OS Lake District guide did suggest Ramp Holme and Peel Island (on Coniston) as the two originals; others (including Ransome himself) pointed to Blake Holme (at the southern end of Windermere). Some of Ransome's maps suggest that the island is towards the southern end of the lake (as both Peel Island and Blake Holme are) but, in Swallows and Amazons, the Antarctic is a great unexplored area, and the steamers could just be made out in the far distance at the bottom of the lake. The photograph on the left looks surprisingly similar to Ransome's sketch of 'Wild Cat Island from the South' (included in the author-illustrated editions of Swallowdale) and the buoys in the foreground mark where 'the rocks go out so far'.


I once sailed to Ramp Holme, landed there and explored it. It has a beautiful landing place, close to a perfect camp. Behind the camp the ground rises to the pine (which can just be seen peeking above the other trees in the picture above) - but there the similarities end. It is not rocky or high enough, and there is no secret harbour. Those features are so clearly those of Peel Island, and Peel Island was so obviously an important part of Ransome's childhood and adulthood, that no argument could be made to suggest that the whole of Wild Cat Island can be found on Ramp Holme.

Nobody looking at the secret harbour on Peel Island could be left in any doubt that it was the one Ransome had in mind.

Obviously once you accept some composites, it has the potential to undermine the 'geographical accuracy' approach. But not necessarily: it may indeed explain why, not only do hills and island appear to have moved around to make Ransome's world, they also appear to have changed form: like the island they are not one place but several, and that can be as true for houses, views and people as it can for islands. And perhaps, if 'a part' of the island is where it seems to be on the map, perhaps 'parts' of the other places are too.

Take Stephen Spurrier's original map of the lake, and compare with a contemporary Ordnance Survey map:

The two maps are remarkably similar. Clearly Rio and and Long Island are very recognisable. The geographical logic of the Ramp Holme location is also fairly inescapable. Is there a house in the right place for Holly Howe? Yes. There's the old Rectory. It's not Holly Howe. Certainly not on its own. We know about Bank Ground Farm and can compare photographs of it with the illustrations. It is not just its familiarity from the film; it is Holly Howe; it's where the Altounyans stayed the summer before Swallows was written. But you can see this 'other Holly Howe' - the Old Rectory - on this old photograph (taken from Ferry Nab - a most un-Darien-like Darien) and it is not a huge stretch to see it as Holly Howe as well.

The field isn't steep enough, but it has much more of a bay than Bank Ground Farm. There is a perfect stone boathouse and jetty. From the rocky Cockshott Point, along a short path from the house, there is a tantilising view of Ramp Holme down the lake.

Also looking at the maps, my childhood suggested Beckfoot - Belle Grange - seems to be in around the right place. There are so many suggested Beckfoots, and I have no knowledge of a Ransome connection to the house. But it is certainly worth considering. I shall return to Belle Grange for a future article. I shall leave this one here for now - but there is more to follow! Please comment widely!

Colonel Percy Fawcett

An Amazonian Adventure

Source: Lost Cities & Ancient Mysteries of South America
by David Hatcher Childress



Percy Fawcett had always been fascinated in archaeology and history. He often took long walks, exploring. In 1893, while a young British officer stationed at Tricomalee, Ceylon, he ventured out on one of his long walks into the remote jungle areas of the island.

That day, a storm overtook him, forcing him to seek refuge for the night under some trees. The following morning, much to his surprise, he discovered a huge rock with strange inscriptions of unknown character and meaning.

He copied the inscriptions and showed them to a Buddhist priest. The priest informed Fawcett that the inscription was a form of old Asoke-Buddhist that only those priests could understand. Ten years later, a Ceylonese Oriental Scholar at Oxford University confirmed the assertion.

Fawcett now had a keen interest in esoteric history and lost civilizations. During his army career, he led eight (8) South American expeditions under contract with the Bolivian and Brazilian governments to delimit the frontiers that these two countries shared with Peru and Ecuador.

In 1911, at a lecture before the Royal Geographic Society in London, Fawcett described the "lost world" on the borders of Bolivia and Brazil. In attendance was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes and author of a book based on Fawcett's tales, The Lost World: The Adventures of Professor Challenger.

Later, H. Rider Huggard (author of King Solomon's Mines) gave Fawcett a mysterious twelve-inch-long basalt statue. Haggard told Fawcett that he had received the stone idol from the British Consul, O'Sullivan Beare, who in turn had picked it up in a lost city in Brazil in 1913. Based on the inscription, the idol was thought (hoped?) to have an Atlantean origin. Like a good luck charm, in 1925 Colonel Fawcett carried this stone statue with him on his fateful expedition into the Amazon rainforest.

Percy Fawcett was a true believer in the mythological Atlantis. However, he did not believe that the origin of Atlantis could be found in Brazil, but rather Brazil was once a colony of Atlantis. And it was his hope to prove the existence of Atlantis by rediscovering this lost city.

Years later, however, the basalt statue was found to have originated in the Mediterranean region circa 400 BC at Hallicarnassus before Hellenistic times. But how did this ancient statue find its way to a lost city in the Amazon jungle?

This statue (in addition to other ancient Mediterranean artefacts found in the interior of Brazil, such as a Dorian coin, which I will explain later) appears to prove that Brazil was being exploited commercially by Mediterranean traders long before Spanish explorers discovered South America!

With this understanding, it is now a probability that ancient mines and trading centers were developed in South America prior to 500 BC by the people of the Mediterranean region, namely Egyptians, Phoenicians, and later Ptolemaic Greeks.

Fawcett pointed out that Solimoes was the native name of the Amazon, which is also the same as Soloman or Solomon, suggesting the ships of King Solomon and King Hiram of Tyre made voyages to South America many years in the past. Rock inscriptions in the Amazon region even resemble Phoenician letters.

Interestingly enough, evidence appears to be mounting that the mines of Ophir (which I will discuss in the next section) may well have been King Solomon's mines - or the Lost Mines of Muribeca?

Just prior to Colonel Fawcett's ill-fated expedition, a Nafaqua Indian chief (whose territory lay between the Xingu and Tabatinga Rivers) told Colonel Fawcett about a "city" where strange temples could be found and baptismal ceremonies were practised. The Indians there spoke of houses with "stars to light them, which never went out."

Colonel Fawcett was told by the natives of Matto Grosso that mysterious "cold lights" had been seen by them in the lost cities in the jungle. He wrote to the British author Lewis Spense: "These people have a source of illumination which is strange to us - in fact, they are a remnant of civilization which has gone and which has retained old knowledge."

In Exploration Fawcett (Lt. Col. Percy Fawcett and Brian Fawcett, 1953) Colonel Fawcett states: "This is the first but not the last time I heard of these permanent lights found occasionally in the ancient houses built by that forgotten civilization of old. I knew that certain Indians of Ecuador were reputed to light their huts at night by means of luminous plants, but that, I considered, must be a different thing all together. There was some secret means of illumination known to the ancients that remains to be rediscovered by the scientists of today - some method of harnessing forces unknown to us."

Colonel Fawcett was determined to find this lost city, and in 1925 he launched an expedition deep into the interior of the Matto Grosso region of Brazil in search of that lost city.

On May 29, 1925, Colonel Fawcett wrote a letter to his wife, Nina, from "Dead Horse Camp" in the Matto Grosso region (see map). "Dead Horse Camp" was the same location Fawcett had reached during his 1920 expedition, which he had to abandon because his horse had died here; hence the name "Dead Horse Camp."

It should be noted that "Dead Horse Camp" was the very last outpost of civilization. From that point on, only unexplored, dangerous territory awaited him.

In Fawcett's letter to his wife, he said his first objective was to reach a waterfall in a week or ten days. "You need have no fear of failure..." he wrote. This letter was sent back to Cuyaba by an Indian messenger; they were also the last words Colonel Fawcett wrote. He was never seen or heard from again, at least officially.

Read the rest of this article
Colonel Fawcett at the Virtual Exploration Society
Continuing Cronicles of Colonel Fawcett
Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett
Veil Lifts on Jungle Mystery, Guardian

Treasure Island

Birmingham Stage Company tour



Swallows and Amazons is steeped with references to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. Captain Flint, his parrot and his treasure chest immediately come to mind. In Swallowdale we discover that a previous generation of explorers had already requisitioned Peter Duck's cave for Ben Gunn. Thanks to Disney and Brian Henson's Muppet Treasure Island many children have been made familiar with Stevenson's story, but you can't beat the original for its gripping plot and spine tingling atmosphere.

If you haven't got Treasure Island on your bookshelf an e-text version of the book is available here. The Birmingham Stage Company are on tour with an excellent stage adaptation. See here for dates.

      TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER

If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
   Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons,
   And buccaneers, and buried gold,
And all the old romance, retold
   Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
   The wiser youngsters of today:

So be it, and fall on! If not,
   If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
   Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Cooper of the wood and wave:
   So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
   Where these and their creations lie!

Around Witch's Quay

This satellite photograph, courtesy Google Maps, shows Quay House (top), Pilot's Cottage (middle), and Thatched Cottage, aka Ransome's Witch's Cottage (bottom).

In my youth the foreshore was not fenced off. The new fencing is apparent on the satellite picture and also on this map courtsey of DEFRA's MAGIC Project.



The MAGIC map shows an apparent attempt to divert the public right of way along the old sea wall and round the back of Witch's cottage. However, the latest on-line map of the area from the Ordnance Survey shows the public footpath running over the dam that retains the salt water lake.

Arthur Ransome Recordings

at the British Library

The following recordings made by Arthur Ransome are kept in the British Library Sound Archives. For further information see the BL Sound Archives own WWW pages here.

Note, only three items have call numbers and two are categorised as 'product'.

ITEM REPORT
Produced Tuesday, 7 August, 2007 at 11:37 AM

Work title: Back to the Stone Age?
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: Back to the Stone Age?/Ransome
WORKS FILE

Work title: Coarse-fishing country.
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell 1884-1967 (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: Coarse-fishing country./Ransome
WORKS FILE

Work title: Fishermens patience.
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell 1884-1967 (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: Fishermens patience./Ransome
WORKS FILE

Work title: Fishing in Lilliput.
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: Fishing in Lilliput./RansomeT
WORKS FILE

Work title: My barbel.
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell 1884-1967 (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: My barbel./Ransome
WORKS FILE

Work title: On giving advice to beginners.
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell 1884-1967 (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: On giving advice to beginner/Ransome
WORKS FILE

Work title: On talking to the fish.
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell 1884-1967 (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: On talking to the fish./Ransome
WORKS FILE

Work title: On watching fisherman
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell 1884-1967 (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: On watching fisherman/Ransome
WORKS FILE

LIST RECORDINGS: 1CE0004023
Acquisition source: BBC
Principal performer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell, 1884-1967
Product title: Rod and line
Contents note: Includes: Benign moment'.- On giving advice to
beginners.- On watching fishermen
Label: BBC MX 12655-12657
Label match: BBCMX12655
Label match: BBCMX12656
Label match: BBCMX12657
Product notes: in metal box previous accession 44 2015-2017
Format: 3 discs 44 cm 33 rpm
Product type: nitrate
PRODUCT CALL NUMBER COPY MATERIAL LOCATION
1)                 1CE0004023

1 DISC BSP
Work title: Swallows & amazons; excerpt
Alternative title: Swallows and amazons
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell, 1884-1967 (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: Swallows & amazons; excerpt/Ransome
WORKS-FILE  CALL NUMBER  COPY      MATERIAL  LOCATION
WORK      INFO:  37870  1      WORK ON-PRODUCT

Work title: The Benign moment.
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell 1884-1967 (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: Benign moment./Ransome
WORKS FILE

Work title: The Element of surprise.
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell 1884-1967 (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: Element of surprise./Ransome
WORKS FILE

Work title: The First day at the river
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell 1884-1967 (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: First day at the river/Ransome
WORKS FILE

Work title: The Local angler and others.
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell 1884-1967 (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: Local angler and others./Ransome
WORKS FILE

Work title: The One that got away
Author/Composer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell 1884-1967 (author)
LIST RECORDINGS: One that got away/Ransome
WORKS FILE

LIST RECORDINGS: 1CE0004022
Acquisition source: BBC
Principal performer: Ransome, Arthur Mitchell, 1884-1967
Product title: The stolen turnips
Contents note: Read by the author
Label: BBC MX 12633-12635
Label match: BBCMX12633
Label match: BBCMX12634
Label match: BBCMX12635
Product notes: in metal box previous accession 44 2022-2023
Format: 2 discs 4 sides 44 cm 33 rpm
Product type: nitrate
NSA copy notes: 1CE0004021 and 1CE0004022 are shelved in same box
PRODUCT CALL NUMBER COPY MATERIAL LOCATION
1)1CE0004022 1 DISC BSP


Sound Archive Catalogue Copyright © The British Library Board
Powered by: Sirsi Corporation, Copyright © 2000-2003

reproduced for purposes of research for non-commercial purposes only under the fair dealing provisions of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Arthur Ransome e-Bio

MTS, with help from BBD and PH

When this was first posted in December 2006 there was no totally satisfactory Arthur Ransome biography on the Internet. Since then a really splendid illustrated biography has been published on-line by The Arthur Ransome Society (TARS).

Our version, which started as a school project and was then polished with the help of contributors to TarBoard, remains here as the first ever collaborative posting on IF NOT DUFFERS...

Arthur Ransome was born on January 18, 1884, in Leeds, where his father was a Professor of History. His father loved the hills and lakes of Furness, and carried Arthur up to the top of Coniston Old Man (later to become 'Kanchenjunga' in the Swallows and Amazon books) when he was only a few weeks old. Every summer, he took his family by train to Greenodd, complete with their belongings packed into a large tin bath, and then by cart along the valley to Lowick and, finally, to Nibthwaite, on the shores of Coniston Water.

The unnamed lake of Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazon books is a mixture of lakes Coniston and Windermere. Frequently blending two or more real places into one he created a fictional landscape which is entirely realistic. Many of the things that happen in the stories are taken from his own childhood memories - the Knickerbockerbreaker, where his trousers were worn out and darned while he was wearing them by Annie Swainson, catching trout in his bare hands, collecting fox-moth caterpillars and meetings with the charcoal-burners.

It was to be a long time before he brought these memories to life in Swallows and Amazons and the rest of the books about the children who sailed and explored the lakes and mountains of Cumbria, the Norfolk Broads and the Walton backwaters. Ransome always wanted to be a writer. After brief employment with a London publisher, he himself had a succession of works published, culminating in Bohemia in London in 1907, and later became a newspaper reporter, working for the Daily News and the Manchester Guardian as a foreign correspondent.

As a young man, Ransome spent many happy holidays on the shores of Coniston with his friends the Collingwood family. Mr and Mrs Collingwood treated him as an adopted son and he thanks them in his autobiography by saying 'My whole life has been happier for knowing them'. He spent hours picnicking, with the Collingwood daughters Dora and Barbara, on Peel Island, which together with Blake Holme on Windermere, was to become famous all over the world as Wildcat Island.

Other friends shared Arthur's love of the Lakes and he talks of walks over to Ambleside, stopping at the Drunken Duck for bread and cheese and beer; of Cartmel, where he lodged at a farmhouse called Wall Nook; of more lodgings at Low Yewdale, where water was dipped from a beck running by the cottage and you might easily find a minnow swimming in the jug. He camped a little further up the valley and made friends with a group of gipsies, who taught him their language and customs.

After an unsuccessful marriage he went to Russia, where he was to report for the Daily News on the events of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and its aftermath. It was while interviewing Leon Trotsky in St Petersburg that he met his future wife Evgenia Shelepina, who was Trotsky's secretary. His most successful book for adults, Racundra’s First Cruise, dates from this time, with Evgenia, in keeping with the of the conventions of the 1920’s, disguised as “The Cook”. In 1924, he gained a divorce, and was able to marry Evgenia and come back to The Lake District, living first in the Winster Valley. Apart from two periods when he went South, he lived in Cumbria for the rest of his life, finding inspiration and settings for Swallows and Amazons. His last house was "Hill Top" at Haverthwaite.

In 1925 the Ransomes bought "Low Ludderburn", an old farmhouse at the head of the Cartmel Fell valley with views as far as Ingleborough, in Yorkshire, and Helvellyn in the Lakes. Before long he was off to China to report on the volatile events there. Much later, he recorded his memories in Missee Lee, where the dragon processions are those he watched parade through the streets of Hankow.

An enormous amount of Arthur Ransome's life has gone into his children's books. The triangular, square and diamond-shaped signals of Winter Holiday were invented at "Low Ludderburn", where he and his fishing friend Colonel Kelsall, who lived across the valley, used them to invite each other to go fishing. A new home at Pin Mill, Suffolk, taken in the hope that the sea air would improve his health, provided a base for exploring the waters which became the stting for We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea and Secret Water. From here, he visited the Norfolk Broads and - of course - sailed there and evolved the stories of Coot Club and The Big Six, with Dick and Dorothea forming the link with the Swallows and Amazons of the north.

Arthur Ransome died on 3rd June 1967, and his grave is in St Paul's Church, Rusland. His wife Evgenia (1894-1975) is also buried there.

Steaming Down the Thames

Laurence Monkhouse

Being an account of a voyage down the Thames made by three steamboats in September 2006. Suilven has a fixed canopy with side-screens attached at night and in bad weather, Mudlark has a cabin. Phaeton, the smallest at 16 feet is open, the sleeping accommodation is a tent canopy put up at night. Despite this she has made many long voyages in Britain and in France.



TUESDAY

Rain in night, foggy start, mainly overcast Up early but not early enough – P was already 'abseiling' Phaeton into the road. Hitched up and drove round to front and breakfasted. Away 8:45, traffic towards Burton dreadful so went through Ashby, filled up at Tesco – expensive – and got more stores. South along A42/M42/M40 – good new computer traffic control on M42, then off at Warwick and cross country, lovely market at Moreton in the Marsh – Fosse Way, to Lechlade. Missed turning, across Thames bridge, but back, dreadful narrow bridge into Trout field, had to uncouple trailer and wiggle it sideways. Finally there 11:45. David with Mudlark already there. Geoff and Pat with Suilven came 10 minutes later and had even more struggle with bridge. Launched and coaled – perhaps rather too leisurely, moved boats to pub frontage, had bar lunch. David took two wheels off his trailer and reduced pressure in others, and it then rode well. Finally the three men with trailers left about 15:00. David said he knew the way and wanted to go past a place where he could get auto gas – did complete loop of Wantage before reaching M4.

No great problem on M25 and bypassing Staines, then David dived into a garage with the intention of inflating his tyres and we followed him. L beginning to panic about time and all that still had to be done, told David he had an inflator so we went on, having difficulty crossing rush hour traffic, arriving Penton Hook a few hundred yards further on – 17:45. They close at 17:30, but we got in OK before the gates closed. Man arrived, very suspicious but David calmed him, left our trailer and Geoff and David's entire units, put coal for David and Geoff in van – now about 18 x 25 kg bags. All in van to office where man took payments for trailers (£1 per night) and slipping (£12.50). He remembered Phaeton, although it is years since she was there. By now it was 18:30, traffic easing, good run to Benson, that was shut too but we had gate code so left camper van in camping area (wrong plot as it turned out). John Winn arrived and drove us back to Lechlade. Ladies were in Pub, listening to good Jazz band. Good supper, then to boats – Phaeton seemed very full of gear. Rather disturbed night – we haven't got the knack we used to have of sleeping on board in comfort.



WEDNESDAY

Fine and Sunny Sorted gear and packed away cover and tilt. Some order now returning. L put on temporary Licence stickers leaning over the bow and pinged chest! Firebars and bricks had collapsed amid ashes. Cleared ashpan and refitted them with difficulty. Lit fire with Barbecue starter and had steam in 35 minutes. Others not ready, so decided to sail as we were slowest. Had forgotten what the upper Thames was like – very small and winding, with WW2 blockhouse every half mile – it would have been a bit worrying if the German Navy had got this far. Others caught us up at first lock, and after that we found that provided the pressure was kept above 100 psi we could keep up with them and indeed exceed the speed limit. Three of our six sacks took us to Benson – we were burning little over 25 kg per day instead of 40 kg as estimated.

Stopped for lunch cooked on the griddle and baked potatoes and talked to people going upstream, including the owner of a house at Benson whose mooring was used for the weekend by Consuta. Had talked of stopping for the night at the Rose Revived but still going well so pushed on to Eynsham. David had a television in Mudlark and we watched the weather forecast with a heavy rain warning just where we were – weather however looked fine. Walked across toll bridge and to the Talbot at Eynsham – looked OK and beer was fine, but service was slow. L had cottage pie which was OK, but C had fish cakes which turned out to include hard boiled egg which she dislikes. Very dark going back to boats – L stumbled over kerb and bruised a toe.

THURSDAY

Torrential rain in night, clearing late morning, then fine The heavy rain warning was quite right. Woken about 01:00 by very heavy rain on canopy. Older fabric leaking badly, new area over us doing quite well, although water was seeping underneath at front end where it isn't sewn. Put oilskin coats over the feet of our sleeping bags. Rain on roof felt like a waterfall. Slept comparatively well, considering, waking about 07:00 – some patches of wet on sleeping bags but not too bad. Even Geoff and Pat had got some areas wet. Still raining but not so heavily. Breakfast, packed, rolled cover back but keeping it over stern, put on full oilskins, steam in half an hour, sailed at 09:00. Pumped bilge but surprisingly little had got in. C steering found restricted visibility difficult, but managed OK even in locks. Rain stopped as we got into Oxford and it became a nice day. Lock Keeper at Osney Lock said we had had 1.25 inches of rain in the night, 5 times entire June rainfall, so we felt our cover hadn't done so badly after all. David dried our sleeping bags in Mudlark. Took cover and tilt off as weather now looked fair.



Lunch by towpath above Iffley Lock – cooking on griddle and in oven again, then on to Abingdon arriving 15:45. Absolutely no steaming problems at all. David, Pat and L walked into town for stores and money. The Queen was visiting tomorrow – decorations going up. Back to boats and found that gypsies had arrived at the car park by the loos, hundred yards away, but hordes of police were there too – most unusual but they probably wanted to get rid of them before the Queen came – and did so. In evening walked across bridge and met John and Brenda Winn with Ian and Jeannie Whatley – ate at Broad Face Inn just across the bridge – it had been a National Finalist for pub food – deservedly, it was excellent – L had pork and honey sausages with mashed potatoes and red onion gravy, C roast pork loin. Afterwards C + L walked about in Abingdon Town Centre, lovely mild evening, like being in France, before going back to Phaeton to bed.

FRIDAY

Rain in morning, then fine Good night, beginning to get the swing of it. Breakfast, packed, steam in half an hour, and away, but it then began to rain and we had to put on full oilskins. Luckily it didn't last. Went up newly opened entrance to Wilts & Berks Canal opposite Culham Lock Cut, only a couple of hundred yards but still caught the others at the lock – held up by big Dutch barge type boat with only one person manning her. Ran up old course of river below the lock, everybody including the big boat came together again at Clifton Lock, then up the old river, past the Trout Inn up to the weir – only Phaeton got there and we ran aground with a bit of bumping of skeg and propeller. Beautiful 30 foot Frolic there with clerestory roof to saloon. So through Day's Lock and reached Benson on the last of the fire. 30 boats expected, had to moor alongside Mudlark, had left van in wrong place but moved van – next to Calverts in a big new tent. Heap of our own, Mudlark's and San Toy's coal discreetly behind van. Cooked lunch on griddle – Thai kebabs, grilled courgettes, mushrooms. Pleasant idle afternoon of talking and helping people to launch, then in evening showered, put on smarter clothes from van and walked into village to Crown Inn – long tables, very jovial, sat with Robin Wallace Sims and Ian Miles. Back to sleep in van this time.



SATURDAY

Fine but mainly overcast David and Newtons decided to have a day off, although David had lit his boiler, but he came with us. Leisurely start, almost the last boat to leave. Up to Thame Mouth with David helming, River Thame looked (and was) very narrow but quite deep, went boldly through reeds to staithe which natives told us was head of navigation but pressed on another hundred yards to bridge. Got through but a few yards further it was very shallow and we turned. No other steamboats (some went up in afternoon). Back in the main river it was obvious we had picked up weed – L got some off but worried about ribs, David took over and cleared a huge ball. Up through the lock and stopped for lunch beside a convenient hedge. Fed all with grilled chicken and mushrooms and baked spuds. A Dragon Boat went by. Then on to Clifton and up backwater past the Trout moorings – lots of boats still there. Gently back to Benson, mooring alongside this time for loading. David engineered this time, rather better than L but he concentrated more! Several casualties including Annabelle and the Chairman – would have been unremarkable once but surprising now. Pottered for a while, trollied three sacks of coal and loaded into Phaeton. David made huge stack on his foredeck. Then changed into posh clothes including L's new pink jacket and to The Three Horseshoes for formal Thames dinner. Sat with Rutters and Adrian. Chairman arrived in time for L not to make a speech!

SUNDAY

Fine and sunny, clouding later with slight shower Leisurely start, moving gear from the van to Phaeton. Suilven ready quite early and sailed, but Pat reappeared having walked back from the lock to pick up a fender and finding it rather a long way – we took her back with us. Had to queue for lock, but then a long clear run to Cleeve Lock. Went through this and Goring Lock and stopped for lunch. L walked back with David to the pub to say farewell to friends – very posh and expensive, bought shandy for David – £2 75!! – and not even proper beer so L didn't have a drink, which embarrassed David. Can't win. Instead back to boat and drank from our own copious (rather excessive) supplies, lunch on griddle. Geoff and Pat reappeared having had moules with Julian. On downstream past Reading – where we couldn't see a shop for stores for David – past our Island where we camped in 1988, and moored just above Sonning Lock. San Toy arrived a bit later having diverted from her return up the Kennet and Avon. Made up cover, then all in gloaming through churchyard (L talking loudly until he realised Evensong was still in progress) and to Bull Inn. Sat outside, although it got rather dark, good beer and food – L had liver and bacon, C Thai and rice.



MONDAY

Fine, clouding in evening Once again steam in half an hour. Stopped briefly at Shiplake Lock to get rid of rubbish and get water, then again at Henley Bridge – small free mooring place, just big enough for us. C, Pat and David went into town to shop while Geoff and L talked to onlookers. On down Henley reach and stopped at a bank for lunch – C had got lovely lamb burgers, but had to be careful L didn't get the ones with berries in. Signs said charge of £4 for mooring, but nobody came. On through Marlow and passed Ian and Sylvia's – whistling and waving. Carried on to Cookham, some disagreement about where to moor – Geoff's map seemed to show imaginary mooring places, but all finished up beside a park a hundred yards above the Bridge. Geoff rang the Rutters and invited them to dine with us. Made camp in leisurely style. Somebody came along to charge mooring fees but charged all three of us the price of a single boat. Got as respectable as we could – L had no clean trousers at all! – and to Ferry Inn – now revamped as a most stylish eating place, but surprisingly modestly priced (for the Thames) Sat outside waiting for the Rutters, expecting a car, but they arrived in Irene under electric power. Ate indoors – started with home made bread dipped into olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then L had burger bun and C had risotto. Afterwards all sailed back to the boats in style on board Irene.

TUESDAY

Fine and sunny Rain expected in the night didn't materialise. Geoff had instructed us to be at the lock when it opened at 09:00 – we were there in good time but the lock keeper wasn't. Loos also shut, but there was one in the shower room. C helped David and did next bit on board Mudlark. L had so much steam that he led away, and saw a kingfisher in Cliveden Reach. C felt cold and returned to Phaeton. Steaming now not quite so good and others got to Jubilee River first. This was a cheat – a public navigation marked RESTRICTED NAVIGATION and shut off by what looked like an unbroken fence, but as the Rutters had briefed us this was merely a slalom course which we all negotiated without difficulty. So up this unspoiled bit of river to the weir at the end beside the paper mill. Back and to Boulters Lock, where nothing happened despite much whistling. No lock keeper and lock empty. However a single handed cruiser appeared at the bottom end and opened the gates and we got the message that we had to work through ourselves. By now several other boats had arrived, but L still had to work it single handedly, until a lady from the River Authority appeared to say that the lock keeper was ill and to work us through. The lock keepers this day were in marked contrast to up river where the keepers were invariably jolly – today few said much, one made it clear that he thought that we ought to put our fires out because of the 'Stop Engines' rule, and one was so busy talking to a supervisor that he didn't open the bottom gate until we shouted at them.



Through Maidenhead, Windsor and stopped at Datchet for lunch – a second lot of lamb burgers and roasted vegetables. Runnymede, successfully raced a huge Dutch barge to Bell Weir Lock as we were getting a it worried about time. By Staines L was running down the fire and the hitherto excellent steaming was becoming very dull (we found later that the grate was heavily clinkered) – gingered it up with kindling. More kindling needed from Penton Hook Lock, and particularly in Marina – most of the embers had been thrown overboard and the wood which burned to nothing got us to the slip. Suilven came out first – their systems were impressive. We had the problem that our trailer was locked and C had left the key at Benson, but we tied the trailer to Geoff's towball and she came out without difficulty and was parked next to Mudlark's trailer. David was going on to Teddington. Essentials were taken out of Phaeton and put in Geoff's car. So away, towing Suilven, through the London rush hour – rather slow to M40, then good run to Benson. We all ate at the café – adequate but no more after past two nights, then Newtons left, we unloaded residual coal from van, did some washing and drying as it was free, L showered, exhausted bed.

WEDNESDAY

Fine and sunny Up, light breakfast of beans (all we had), packed, including 3 x 25 kg sacks, paid parking, away. Smooth run to Penton Hook, fuelled in Sainsbury's in Staines, arrived 10:30, unpacked boat including 2.5 x 25 kg sacks, had to move van to avoid crane laying up a cruiser, but still away by midday. Had gone 100 yards when we remembered we had left spare wheel on David's trailer, but back without problems. Then smooth run home, stopping at Services on M25/A1M for lunch, thence via Royston. Shop at Beccles. Home.

The Cairn on Kanchenjunga:

Some musings on an ancient debate
andyb

First published on Tarboard on May 21, 2006


I found this amongst some old papers. I think I wrote it some years ago with the intention of sending it to Mixed Moss in response to a debate about the origins of the Amazon pirates. I’m not sure if it ever arrived at Mixed Moss, certainly it never appeared in it. Anyway, I read it, quite liked some of it and decided that even if it is not up to MM’s standards I might inflict it upon Tarboard.



The Cairn on Kanchenjunga

I was delighted to Read Pauline’s Marshall’s “The Children on the East Side”. This put forward the claims of the red-capped Rawdon-Smith girls to be the ‘original’ Amazon pirates.

No one who has met Pauline could doubt that she is anything but a “real Amazon pirate”. She is as real as Kanchenjunga. I remember her, a few years ago, on a TARS trip to Piel Island (down the river and along the coast from Peel Island). Piel Island is crowned by a rather splendid but ruined castle which is inaccessible without a stiff, hands on the rock, scramble of the sort not usually associated with ladies, in or approaching, their eighties. I looked up to see a pair of pirates striding the battlements: Pauline and my (then) 15-year old son, Ian, striding the battlements, her redcap and his ponytail streaming out in the breeze.

Pauline’s claim to be the original and authentic Amazon is based on the simple claim “I was there.” Others have argued from their knowledge of AR’s life and letters that the sources of the Amazons lies elsewhere, with the Crossley or Collingwood girls.

The historian R. G. Collingwood (Uncle Robin to the Altounyans) never, to my knowledge commented on this piece of history so dear to the hearts of lovers of Swallows and Amazons. In his “The Idea of History he did, however, say something about historical knowledge in general which I find helpful when wondering ‘how it all began’. He claimed that what is important, when thinking about history, is not the closeness to the event but the ability to “think it again for yourself”.

“Even if a very learned historian or an eye witness, or a person in the confidence of the man who did the thing he is inquiring into, or even [if] the man himself hands him on a plate a ready made answer to his question, all he can do is reject it; not because he thinks his informant is trying to deceive him, or is himself deceived but because if he accepts it he is giving up his autonomy as a historian and allowing someone else to do for him what he, if he is a scientific thinker, can only do for himself.” (1994: 256)

For Collingwood, therefore, history becomes real when it is ”re-enacted in the mind of the historian”. This observation seems particularly apt when applied to the origins of the Swallows and Amazons stories. These books are peopled by characters who make a landscape vivid through their re-enactment of stories of exploration and piracy. Like paintings, the books have a depth conjured out of layers of landscape, action and character; it is this depth which makes the books ‘real’.

Now neither TARS, nor Tarboardistas, are under any obligation to be either historians or scientists; they don’t need to weigh the Rawdon-Smiths against the Altounyans against the Crossleys if the don’t want to. And even if they do want, if they are driven by a desire to know ‘what really happened’, are we not are trying to capture the thoughts of an author at the point of creation? This is like trying to catch sunbeams. Instead we should try to decide what it is which counts for each of us as a true and original Amazon pirate.

If the books are real to us it is because, like evidence for Collingwood, they answer questions we ourselves have posed as we relive the stories and make our own voyages in the “Swallow” or “Amazon”. This latest edition of “Mixed Moss” [I’m not sure which one I was referring to] with its reminiscence and research is like the cairn on Kanchenjunga. Each stone was placed by past explorers each message from them carries our expeditions forward by reminding us of those who came before.

Rawdon-Smith upon Altounyan, Altounyan upon Collingwood, Crossley upon Blackett, Kanchenjunga upon Matterhorn, Matterhorn upon then Old Man, the more layers, the more depth, the more ‘real’. Pauline’s (I always catch myself calling her Peggy) account of her childhood on the East Bank of Coniston Water and her life as an Amazon pirate adds to the messages in the cairn and should be celebrated for it.

Beckfoot Found?

The Crossley Girls by Iain Hobbs





Studying the map

If you follow the hints laid out by Ransome in Swallows and Amazons and Swallowdale, and study a map of Windermere, you arrive at a place on the North-West shore that matches the description of Beckfoot in all except the layout of the house. The geography of the area is detailed later in The Picts and Martyrs.

In SA, the people who live in the house are called Blackett and they own a houseboat. They also have a boathouse just to the left of the main house as you look at it from the lake. On the river, just to the east of the house, in the mouth of a beck, they have a ¹motor launch. (In SA the two boathouses are combined, but AR establishes them as separate ones by the time SD is written.) In real life, from 1911 to 1935, Pull Wood House was owned by Sir Kenneth Irwin Crossley. He did not live there, but used it as a summer residence for himself and his family.

Also, from 1922 to 1928, Sir Kenneth ²owned the houseboat Esperance upon which AR based the one used by Captain Flint. The houseboat in the book had an upper railed decking on the cabin roof and steps from the for'ard deck to reach it. The photograph in Roger Wardale's book taken by the Scott family of Esperance shows this very decking. The picture has to be examined in magnification to see it, but it is there. There is also a good photograph of Esperance taken by AR in the Brotherton Collection, Leeds University Library. The similarity is unmistakeable to the WH illustration 'The Houseboat is frozen in'.

Their actual ownership of ³Pull Wood House (later to become a boarding school and renamed Huyton Hill), is supported by information from the present and previous owners, details of which are now in the TARS archive. The existence of a motor launch was confirmed by the staff of Huyton Hill. They pointed out the location of a former ‘Steamer House’ on the shore of the Pull Beck, exactly where AR illustrates it in SD. This remained up to the Second World War when it was demolished to make space for a bungalow called ‘The Noggins’ and Nissen hut.

The house and grounds can be seen from Waterhead Pier at Ambleside. It is directly across the lake. Just by the landing stage is the Waterhead Hotel. This was a favourite place to dine of Arthur Ransome and he would have been very familiar with the view. Until a few years ago, when trees grew at the edge of the lake, it was eveb possible to see the lawn from the steamer pier.

The staff of Huyton Hill confirmed that the grounds of the house contained a pigeon loft and also stables. The stables were on the far side of the grounds and were linked to the house by an electric bell to summon the Groom or Chauffeur.

The surrounding geography of Beckfoot/Pull Wood House/Huyton Hill is given in surprising and accurate detail within the pages of PM. You can follow the ⁴route taken by the Amazons from the back gate of Beckfoot over to the Dogs Home. The Beckfoot back gate is the exact location of the rear entrance to Huyton Hill.

North of the grounds of Huyton Hill is the valley of the Pull Beck, a large former stream valley populated by reeds and sheep. The map shows the remains of a long lake (now a swamp) and the meanders of a large stream, highlighted by reed beds on the bends. This area is known as Pull Beck Swamp and the Beck is the Pull Beck. Most of the time there is hardly a foot of water in the lake and the beck is un-navigable.

In times of heavy flood, just as happened in August 2005, the lake returns to its former glory, and AR’s Octopus Lagoon lives again. The lake has the same relationship to Huyton Hill as Octopus Lagoon has to Beckfoot; in fact they are identical even to the shape of the lake and that of the estate layout. The drawing in PM of Nancy clearing the weeds to make a birth for Scarab were based on this lake and surrounding area. The picture of the D's looking down on the Beckfoot lawn from 'The Lookout Post' shows the Steamer House in the distance exactly where the real one was.

The time when SD was being written is practically the same period as when Pull Wood House was being sold to the building firm of Pattinsons. AR has the builders in at Beckfoot redecorating. Something similar would have been happening at Pull Wood House.



Pamela and Ruth

Sir Kenneth's two daughters were born in 1913 and 1909. The younger sister, Pamela Catherine Field Crossley, was born on 30th December, 1913 at the Crossleys' new family seat of Combermere Abbey. The elder sister by three years was Ruth Irwin Crossley. She was born on 17th September, 1909.

Remember how Peggy Blackett introduces her sister at the parley in SA?

"Her real name isn't Nancy... her name is Ruth."

Each summer Sir Kenneth brought his two daughters from Altrincham to Pull Wood House so that they could use his sailing dinghy during the school holidays. At the same time their father could check up on the state of the house.



The sailing dinghy was kept in the boathouse to the left of the main house, as seen from the lake. The sides of the boathouse were decorated to match the decoration of the main house. It was built on the far left side of the house alongside the wooded boundary. The entrance is at the back in full view of the house as per PM. The front of the Boathouse used to be decorated with large Skull and Crossbones.

Evgenia Ransome's suggested that the Skull and Crossbones was put up by the Huyton Hill School pupils. However, the son of the Huyton Hill Headmaster, a former pupil, disputes this and claims it was already there. George Pattinson also denies any involvement. With those two owners excluded, that only leaves the Crossley girls. There is no record of where or when the girls were educated although it is thought that they attended boarding school.

Ruth and Catherine are reported to have sunk their father’s Houseboat, much to his annoyance. (Captain Flint wasn’t very pleased when the Amazons exploded a firework on the roof of the houseboat.) The location of the sinking is in dispute. According to one source, the houseboat was moored next to Silverholme and the girls were using it as a floating tent. According to another source, the houseboat was moored fairly close to the house. The next time the houseboat would be sunk was by the Sea Scouts when the Scott family owned it. If the official ownership dates are correct then the Crossleys still owned the houseboat when SA was written.

AR has the Great Aunt making the Amazons practice the piano. One of the Crossleys’ pastimes was to give musical recitals. They continued this practice when in residence at Pull Wood House, installing an organ for this purpose.

Ruth and Catherine both fell in love with RAF Pilots at the start of WW2 and both married. However, both husbands were later killed in action. The girls remarried and Ruth emigrated to North West Ireland and then to South Africa. Catherine moved to London where she remained until her death. By a twist of fate, while in South Africa, Ruth gave birth to a son and named him TIMOTHY (echoes of Pigeon Post!).



Captain Flint and Sir Kenneth

AR based the appearance of Captain Flint on himself. The character background of Captain Flint, however, is Sir Kenneth Irwin Crossley. Sir Kenneth in his spare time was a big game hunter and travelled the world on hunting expeditions. He listed the places he had been in his entry in Burke's peerage. He competed in the University boat races when at Magdalen College Oxford, where he rowed as bow and may have won silver cups from university rowing competitions. He was an author of a book of poetry entitled Mere Verses.

Captain Flint flies "The White Elephant" flag on the houseboat. A pun on the expense of purchasing it? In the books Captain Flint explored the world and brought back souvenirs from his travels. In PD it is suggested that he is a big game hunter; he even has firearms. He writes about his travels, but the money earned is just a bonus. He kept his souvenirs in the study at Beckfoot and in the cabin of the houseboat. In PM it is mentioned that he has silver cups from rowing competitions. The one book written by Captain Flint and mentioned by name is Mixed Moss.

As well as Pull Wood House, the Crossleys had a well appointed town house in Altrincham, Manchester. Their doctor was a cousin of AR upon whom AR would often visit. However, according to the visitors book there is no record of AR coming up to his cousin and meeting with the Crossleys.

Sir Kenneth and his father, Sir William, were partners in two companies, Crossley Motors, a car manufacturing company and Crossley Brothers an engineering Company. Sir William had provided one of the cars for his wife to use as he left her to look after the estate. She would drive around to see the estate employees. Was this the original Rattletrap?

Sir Kenneth sold his late father’s Pull Wood House and grounds to local builder, and steam boat collector, George Pattinson.



The final chapter

George Pattinson in turn sold the house and rented a large section of the grounds to Huyton Hill School which on the outbreak of WW II was being evacuated from Liverpool because of the bombing. The house was renamed Huyton Hill. The school would later purchase the land that they were renting and the Pattinsons would manage the estate for them.

George Pattinson wanted to start up a museum to display his collection of steamboats. The original location for the museum was going to be on the shore of Huyton Hill House but he was persuaded to relocate it close to Bowness on Windermere as it would be easier to get visitors there. The Windermere Steamboat Museum is still there.

In the 1960’s the BBC filmed Swallows and Amazons in the real locations mentioned in the book and Huyton Hill was used as Beckfoot. AR objected and tried to get the filming stopped. The reason he gave was on the grounds that the actors were wearing lifejackets (a Health and Safety condition) and the children in his book did not.

The late Brigit and Taqui Altounyan were questioned over whether they had ever met the real The Crossley Girls or had been to Huyton Hill. The answer from both was “No.”



¹According to the Windermere Steamboat Museum (WSM) and the daughter of the gardener at Huyton Hill, the motor launch was called Daffodil and it started out as a steam launch. It was used to pick up the laundry from town, Shopping trips, and family picnics. It was berthed in the Steamer House exactly as depicted in SD.

²The ownership of Esperance by the Crossleys is supported by the Windermere Steamboat Museum who provided details of her previous owners.

³In a letter to Betty Reid in 1972, Evgenia Ransome mentioned Pull Beck and Huyton Hill in relation to Beckfoot. The letter is reproduced In the Footsteps of the Swallows and Amazons.

⁴This is not the location of the woodsman’s hut known to TARS members as the DH.


Information Sources:

Barrow in Furness Library
Lancaster Library
Windermere Steamboat Museum
George Pattinson Ltd.
Huyton Hill House
Members of the Arthur Ransome Society past and present
Former staff members of Pull Woods House
Taqui and Brigit Altounyan
Coniston Museum
Lloyds Register of Shipping