Parkrun is coming to Windermere

Parkun is coming to Windermere. The popular weekly 5k run event is launching at Fell Foot Park on Saturday October 18.

Parkruns happen every Saturday at 9am in parks throughout the world. They are free to enter and open to all runners, of all ages and abilities. (An adult must run with children under 11).

The Windermere event has been organised by local volunteers with the help of the National Trust. Nationally, they attract newcomers and top athletes, with some popular events regularly hosting hundreds of runners.

To take part it’s necessary to register online at www.parkrun.org and print a barcode which has to be brought to the event.

 

 

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Help for farmers facing payment chaos

Farmers facing major changes to the way that subsidies are paid by the government are being offered specialist advice to make sure that they are properly prepared for the new scheme which comes into place on the 1 January next year.

The changes include a new payment scheme for which application must be made online.

Expert staff at a leading northern land agents are now providing advice, helping to simplify the complex process and even making the online claims on behalf of farmers.

David Hill, the rural property specialist and land agent which acts for farmers in all agricultural matters, is aiming to ease the transition and make sure that individual applicants make the switch to the new scheme successfully.

“Our daily involvement with the scheme on behalf of clients means that we are up-to-date and able to ensure that everything runs smoothly,” said rural surveyor Emma Bancroft.

The current Single Payment Scheme (SPS) will be replaced on January 1 next year by the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).  This includes new ‘greening’ rules that claimants must follow in order to claim the full payment available and recording extra information such as the claimant’s National Insurance number. The minimum claim size is also being increased from 1 hectare to 5 hectares.

An earlier deadline of October 21, next month, has to be met if farmers want to transfer their SPS entitlements under the existing scheme using an RLE1 form. “We appreciate how confusing this is proving to be for many farmers, and we can help them on a one to one basis to make sure that they don’t lose out,” said Miss Bancroft.

The company can also advise on the new greening conditions.  Failure to comply will result in the loss of part or all of the greening payment.  Conditions include crop diversification where farmers may be required to grow a minimum number of different crops on their arable land annually, Ecological Focus Areas and maintaining permanent pasture.

The BPS also has a new ‘active farmer’ test and details of this will be available next month. Some of the existing Cross Compliance rules have changed and new rules have been added, in particular with regard to soil management.

“As well as the new scheme and the new rules, many farmers are concerned about applying online as this is now the only way that they can get their money,” said Miss Bancroft.  “We can offer advice as to how the new scheme applies to them individually, discuss the new rules and make the online claim on their behalf via the new CAP Information Service”.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will shortly be writing to existing claimants with details of how to register with the CAP Information Service in order to claim BPS. The RPA will also be writing to those claimants with less than five hectares. “We can offer advice on the options available to these claimants,” said Miss Bancroft.

Farmers who want help are asked to contact Emma Bancroft on 01756 795621.

www.david-hill.co.uk

The art of climbing: new Lakes exhibition coming soon

An exhibition based around William Heaton Cooper’s exquisite drawings of Lakeland crags used in the definitive climbing guides to the area will open in Grasmere in November.

Lines of Ascent will feature the work William produced for the Fell and Rock Climbing Club guides for 50 years from 1930s onwards. The books were bibles for the climbing community, showing new routes as they developed, drawn on site and working closely with the climbers at the crag face.

Alongside these drawings, guides and journals will be climbing photographs from the 1930s and 1940s from Heaton Cooper’s private album, as well as some of his paintings that reference the mid-twentieth century climbing scene, including some not seen before.

There is also an Alpine sketch-book full of vivid drawings and  sketches of the Grandes Jorasses from above the original Couvercle Hut, and crowded interiors of the old hut in the 1950s.

The Alpine theme at the exhibition will be extended with Julian Cooper’s huge oil painting  Eiger Face, shown alongside images of the famous 1938 first ascent and subsequent routes up the North Face of the Eiger.

The exhibition will be curated by Julian Cooper, William’s son, and Becky Heaton Cooper, William’s grand-daughter and Julian’s niece.

Becky Heaton Cooper is a director and general manager of the business established by the landscape painter Alfred Heaton Cooper in 1905. His son William built the present gallery in Grasmere in 1938. For generations their paintings and books have influenced the way the landscape of the Lake District has been viewed.

Julian Cooper said:  “Lines of Ascent will explore the area between the dynamics of searching for and climbing new routes and the aesthetics of looking at, drawing, and painting mountains and rock, and finding common links.”

The exhibition will open on Wednesday November 19 in association with the 2014 Kendal Mountain Film Festival.

 

• The Heaton Cooper Studio in Grasmere was opened by William Heaton Cooper in 1938.    It is a hugely popular tourist attraction, with more than 90,000 visitors last year. It features work by the Heaton Cooper family and guest artists, with the Lakeland landscape at the heart of the gallery’s displays.

 

• The Heaton Cooper family tree is a pictorial essay on the development of art in the Lake District and beyond. There are 10 artists represented, including the sculptor Ophelia Gordon Bell, (herself the daughter of the animal painter Winifred Gordon Bell) and Julian Cooper, the internationally renowned painter whose recent work has been concerned with finding a relevant contemporary language for painting mountains and rock all over the world. The most well known works are by Alfred and William, each distinctively capturing the magnificence and beauty of rock and fell, stream and lake.

 

• Julian Cooper, the son of William Heaton Cooper and the sculptor Ophelia Gordon Bell, is an internationally known painter, represented by Art Space Gallery, London. He is a member of the Alpine Club, and has climbed throughout Britain and the Alps.