Sense of Place

Papcastle is a community situated on a hill on the outskirts of Cockermouth, that outwardly has not changed much in the last 100 years, although, it has seen many people coming and going, each with their own story to tell. 

Papcastle consists mostly of old houses, but in the late 1960's about 50 houses were built on reclaimed land, which substantially increased the village population by about a third. There had been a mansion called The Mount on the hill where these houses were built. However, many of these houses are inhabited by people who only stay for a few years then move on, so the level of entire community participation in events varies as residents come and go.

Mike Apperley

Mike Apperley is at the forefront of keeping the community spirit alive and promoting the use of the village hall.

Papcastle Village Hall has nearly closed on several occasions. It's usage was reduced to only 3 events a year at one point, although there have been on-going small amounts of renovation through the years such as window replacements, parts of the floor replaced etc. However, through Mike Apperley organising more extensive use of the hall it is now well used in the community and will undergo further improvements as a result.

At Mike's request, the BBC bus team visited Papcastle to help the community record their personal stories and create some cd's from the audio for future generations to enjoy. We gathered stories from 12 people - here are just a few. To listen to the full recorded versions on CD, contact Mike Apperley at Papcastle.

The Residents

Dorothy Proven and Max

Dorothy Proven

Dorothy and her husband, Jack, moved to Papcastle in 1969. She is well known in the village for never being seen without her dog Max- who spends his entire time walking around in small circles!

She is a well travelled lady, and has been from birth, having lived in California, Malaysia, Switzerland and the UK. She spent much of her childhood apart from her parents - often separated by continents! When Dorothy's parents eventually came back to the UK to collect her from boarding school, she was worried whether she would recognise them when she met them as she hadn't seen them for so long.

Dorothy and Jack decided they had better get married when war was about to break out. During the war, Jack served in the intelligence core. He was a Japanese code-breaker.

They created a trust called the Proven Family Trust with an amount of money they had. They receive applications from various bodies for funding and restrict it to causes in Merseyside & Cumbria. Funds are awarded mostly for the disabled or for children.

Vera and Fred Robinson

Fred and Vera Robinson

Fred and Vera have lived in Papcastle since 1989.

Vera was born in Aspatria, then moved to Yorkshire with her family as her dad was a miner. Then she moved to Worcester for a while before returning to Aspatria to be with her grandma. Her first job was working in the office at the bottle quarry, then she worked on the war rag in a few locations in North Cumbria. During the war Vera used to go round the villages in the evenings singing. The money she would make from it was used to buy wool to knit socks for the soldiers.

Fred was born at Broughton. His father was also a miner. Then Fred started a farming job just before the war with horses & ploughs. According to Fred, farming has altered tremendously as they didn't have the machinery that farms do now.

Fred and Vera married at Lumden Church. They initially lived with Fred's parents at Bridekirk, then they bought their own farm at Appleton Hall.

They would often go to the main market at Cockermouth, then enjoy a social gathering at the pub afterwards. However, that has all changed now. There used to be a big horse sale each October at Cockermouth which Fred also attended regularly. The farming kept him out of the war, although he was in the home guard. He did target practice with them in a local quarry.

Fred and Vera travelled around the UK to bull shows. If they ever wanted any material things but didn't have the money, they couldn't have it - unless it was a bull of course!!

After many years of dedicating their lives to farming, Fred and Vera moved to Papcastle for their retirement. But being a farmer through and through, Fred still goes to the auction now and again.

Jim Dickinson

Jim Dickinson

Jim was born in Leigh, Lancashire. Much to the amusement of some of his friends, he was born in a pub, then spent a few years growing up in another pub in the centre of Leigh.

He left school in 1936 and worked on the railway near Manchester until he was called up. He spent some of his service in India. It was very hot! He felt he was very lucky as he didn't have Malaria or any other nasty disease, although some of his colleagues did. After the war Jim returned to the railway.

Jim has a claim to fame as he met Fred Dibnah in Cockermouth - a car pulled up asking where Jennings Brewery was - and Fred was the one in the car enquiring! He had come to repair a chimney on that occasion, but did come back another time to knock down another chimney, although it wouldn't come down for him. Jim & his wife had been observing the planned demolition, but as it was getting quite cold, they headed back up to Papcastle. Each time they turned round to look, the chimney was still up. But they missed it actually coming down.

He has also played his part in community life, having been treasurer of Papcastle village hall & general handy man for 21 years. 

Jim had a penpal during his schooldays but lost contact with him when the war was brewing. Years later, he gave one of his friends his Penpal's name to see if he could find him in Hamburg when he was heading out to Europe. His friend amazingly managed to find him & sent Jim his address & phone number, so he & his penpal rekindled their correspondence and have met up a few times since 1980.