I made my first trip down to western Cumbria a few weeks ago, accepting the kind invitation of Steve Wharton to present at the first edition of the Moorforge Bookflood book festival. The invitation itself came in the following form;
How could I possibly refuse? 🙂
I hopped on the train and made my way down. From Edinburgh, the western coast of Cumbria is far easier to reach than I realised; it took me only two hours on the train to get to the village of Aspatria. This is something I’ll bear in mind for the future; a train ride to western Cumbria makes for easy access to the western fells, and opens up the possibility of some mountain traverses across to Keswick. Plenty of food for thought, and an excuse to look out some maps!
At Aspatria I was picked up by David Watson, the founder of the Moorforge complex. Originally an industrial blacksmith by trade, he became interested in traditional smithying techniques and, developing a parallel interest in the viking history of the Cumbrian coast, eventually set up a reconstructed viking settlement centred around an old-style forge. For many years they got by offering courses in traditional smithying skills through EU educational programmes. Brexit put paid to that funding source, however, and David is now looking for new ways to keep the place going – hence the book festival, and a folk music festival coming up next summer.
From the initial forge, David’s settlement has grown steadily. The present longhouse is being supplemented by another, far grander, suitable for accomodating a large crowd. This is where next summer’s festival will be conducted. It will be well worth a visit, if you’re in the area.
At Moorforge, I met Steve for the first time, and he showed me around the festival set-up. He’d gathered a fair old selection of writers from and connected to Cumbria; there was quite a variety of literature on display.
Over the course of the next couple of days, I met quite a few interesting authors; including
@amyrobina, @ThatTomAshton, @PoetCaroline, @kimmoorepoet & Karen Babayan. There is clearly a flourishing literary scene in Cumbria. I learned a lot, and I look forward to seeing them again before too long.
On Saturday evening, I spent the night in the longhouse. Though the benches are wooden, there are plenty of furs laid over them – it was very comfortable indeed, and very nice in the warmth of the fire. I’m not sure if David accepts paying guests, but if you get the chance, I do recommend it!
In the end, to my surprise my book finished as the top seller of the event – a book on Dark Age mythology in Cumbria and surrounding regions was always likely to appeal to people who go out of their way to visit a book festival in a viking longhouse, and I am exceedingly grateful to Steve and David for inviting me! I will certainly stay in touch – and I wish all the team from that weekend plenty of success in the future. It was a wonderful little weekend, and I enjoyed it very much.
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