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About Langdale Heights …

Extract form the 1912 brochure

“Come and visit Langdale heights.
Enjoy the exhilarating ride to the top of Langdale Heights,
then sup tea and cake in the tea room,
while watching the eagles fly.
Panoramic Vistas will be yours to behold.”

Langdale Heights is one of a series of works influenced by such things as Brighton Pier, Blackpool Tower, the Linton and Linmouth Funicular Railway, and other cliff railways found in places like Bournemouth and Aberystwyth. These places were, in their heyday, places that would attract the holidaying attention of the Victorian’s and Edwardians. Part of this work is also influenced by travel posters from the era of the steam railway. They were full of clear skies and unspoken promises.

These places were amazing feats of engineering, whose main purpose was as an attraction. Pier’s to take you out into the sea without getting wet. Lifts to take you to the top so that you could feel the wind in your hair and enjoy the view, cliff railways to save you a walk and give views across the bay.

Put yourself in the picture.

Imagine yourself in one of the cars, on the way up to the top of Langdale Heights. Imagine your feelings as you look over the edge at the spreading countryside hundreds of feet below you. You look to your left and you see the broad shoulders of Langdale Pike shrinking as you ascend higher than it’s peak.

Imagine the smell of clean crisp air. The damp coolness as you pass through a cloud and suddenly the top of the main tower appears. The bump as you go over the catch pulleys.

The smell of cinnamon tea cake that wafts from the tea room. The camaraderie shown by your fellow passengers as you step from the car on to the softly swaying platform.

The way your knuckles tighten on the handrail, as you look down and catch glimpses of fields and forests through the gently flowing cloud.