REPORT ON THE MARCH 2008 MEETING

WH AUDEN AND THE NORTHERN PENNINES

When the Alston Moor Historical Society invited Robert Forsythe to deliver a talk entitled ‘WH AUDEN AND THE NORTHERN PENNINES', it appeared that there was to be a diversion into the literary world. Whilst WH (Wystan Hugh) Auden is an internationally appreciated and very prolific poet and writer, the speaker pointed out that the inspiration behind many of the works was to be found in the North Pennines. Mr Forsythe has spent many years studying the works of this author and unlike other students of Auden, has the advantage of having an extensive knowledge of the North Pennines. He has therefore been able to relate the writings to the area and has carried out intensive research to identify places referred to either by actual name or by disguised reference. Real names are freely used throughout the writings but there are occasional hidden clues, e.g. a reference to the Old Mountain Lead Company presumably is the English translation of the Vielle Montagne – the mining company which operated in Nenthead in Audens time.

Auden was besotted by the North Pennines in particular, and limestone in general, and in 1948 even wrote a poem entitled ‘In Praise of Limestone'. He clearly had extensive knowledge of the Pennines and his works make numerous references to remote places that could only be known by exploration by foot. The poem ‘The Watershed' refers to a ‘ramshackle engine at Cashwell raises water' and he must have visited the mine which is in an extremely remote position on the slopes of Cross Fell. He is on record as saying that ‘my great good place is the part of the Pennines bounded on the south by Swaledale, on the north by the Roman Wall and on the west by the Eden Valley'.

At the age of 17 he wrote ‘Alston Moor' which indicated that he revelled in the harsh conditions prevailing on the Moor and instead of seeing them as such, he glories in turning what others might see as negatives into positives and seeing warmth in the cold. His favourite weather was autumnal, high wind and driving rain and he could not understand why anyone could long for the sun, blue sky and the palm trees of the south. From this view point the Pennines must have suited him well! Later in life when writing for American Vogue he referred to his favoured spot and said he ‘wanted all worthy people to appreciate it' and conceded that ‘it is not an area for those who like their landscape cosy'.

Born in York in 1907 and raised in Birmingham it is difficult to identify the cause of his obsession with underground workings and limestone caverns. As a boy he wanted to be a mining engineer and spent his schoolboy days poring over books about mining and catalogues of mining equipment. His Christmas gift from his mother in 1918, when he was 11 years of age, was E. H. Davies's book ‘Machinery for Metalliferous Mines' soon to be followed by ‘Lead and Zinc Ores of Northumberland and Alston Moor'. The works of Thomas Sopwith also featured in his youthful reading. He read anything to do with underground caves including ‘King Solomon's Mines' and ‘Lord of the Rings' – in 1974 he was photographed wearing a t-shirt inscribed ‘Gimli', who was the dwarf who preferred living underground.

The Auden family took a holiday home at Threlkeld and young Wystan finally fulfilled his destiny in 1919 when he first visited Rookhope, where he dropped a stone down an abandoned mine shaft (as did Gimli in Lord of the Rings). He was later to recall this event, which he described as the seminal moment in his life, in ‘The Old Lead-Mine', written in 1924. He clearly spent a lot of time exploring the area and built up a tremendous knowledge of the old mines .Whilst most the mining had stopped his fascination was with the mine workings, plant and machinery rather than the people who had worked them. It seems probable that, in his youth, he was a frequent user of Wright's bus service which, as it does now, travelled the road from Keswick, through Penrith, up Hartside to Alston and across the moors to Hexham.

At the outbreak of WW11 he moved to America but even then he still had the Pennine limestone in his veins. In 1947 he was living in a shack on Fire Island but an Ordnance Survey map of Alston Moor hung on the wall. This map was to follow him to Austria where he died in 1973. In 1954 he wrote an article for American Vogue aimed at American tourists wishing to travel north into Scotland and who had 6 days to spare. He extolled the virtues of the landscape in wholesome fashion, suggesting that north is the good direction towards heroic adventures. He recommended travellers to avoid the train as little of the Pennines can be seen this way. He proceeded to devise a route for motor vehicles from London, avoiding main roads (there were no motorways then), and entering the north via Uttoxeter. Thereafter the trail wends its way in a circuitous manner through the Pennines and his favourite places, mentioning places such as Dufton, Alston, Nenthead, Coalcleugh, Allenheads, Rookhope, Stanhope and Blanchland. He recommends places to stay for overnight accommodation before passing through rural Northumberland to Edinburgh. It is not clear if he ever made this journey himself but probably worked from road maps and his own knowledge.

This is an altogether riveting and fascinating topic which combines local history and literature in a most ingenious manner.

NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the Society will be on Wednesday, the 2 nd April at the Alston Masonic Hall. The AGM (members only) will commence at 6.45, followed by a talk entitled ‘Cottage Interiors' by Richard Young.

View Garrigill/Rotherhope – a scene well known to Auden (from the R Forsythe Collection)