Delia Daws (nee Towers), of Kendal, recalls an impromptu trip on Derwentwater in the 1940s. 

IN THE 1940s we lived near Rinkfield in Kendal, from where Stainton’s set off on their coach tours.

My mother fancied going on a tour of the South Lakes, so one summer she booked to take my brother and myself.

As the coach stopped by the lake at Keswick, a steamer was just about to leave.

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My brother and I joined the queue, paid our fare and got on onboard.

My mother was busy talking and never noticed until the boat set sail.

She was on the lake shore, waving frantically so we waved back not realising we would be out on thelake for one and a half hours.

This meant the coach would have to wait for our return.

When we disembarked from our ‘Swallows and Amazons’ adventure we were hustled on to the coachand told to ‘sit down, shut up and not speak again’.

Needless to say we weren’t taken on any more coach trips.

By this time I was at Kendal High School and had made friends with the boarders of my age group.

Some of them had parents living and working abroad, so they had to stay at school in the holidays.

Sometimes I would go to visit them on my bike.

I remember the school looked very empty and six weeks seemed endless.

I think they must have gone away at Christmas, I don’t remember going to see them then.