Visitor Pamphlets - Atomfall Database

Welcome to the 1955 Wyndhamere Motor-Boat Grand Prix!

This is the fourth year of the competition after the wartime hiatus, and there is every expectation that it will be as exciting as its predecessors!

The course is the same as that first used in 1953, following the buoy path in the waters from Wyndham Village, out by Midsummer Isle and around clockwise, then out towards the northern shore and then back to the start. First to complete twenty-five laps is the winner!

The history of Casterfell Keep is a fascinating one. Originally built in around 1325 to hold a garrison to fight potential raids from over the Scottish border in response to The Great Raid of 1322, the castle was never tested in war and fell into disrepair.

The ownership of the land in which it stood was disputed and a wood grew up around it while the land was untended. Over many centuries the castle was largely forgotten, though some folk tales speak to the place as possessing an ancient connection to the land, and even being used by secretive groups for their religious worship.

Then, in 1895 the land was bought by Lord Bask and the castle renovated as a folly. After Basks death in 1925, the estate was taken over maintained to this day by the Casterfell Trust.

St Katherines Church was established (as St Katharines) in 1245 and signs of the original Norman architecture are still visible in the Victorian restoration of 1860-62.

Erected on an earlier, pagan site, the church has been the locus of worship for the beautiful village of Wyndham and the surrounding area.

The visitor would be well advised to enjoy the churchyard, the stained glass windows and, by prior arrangement, the crypt, all of which will reward lovers of history and architecture!

Welcome to Hobbs Quarry, an important part of lakeland industrial history and home to some spooky folk tales!

Slate is an important product of the region, but even though a deposit was known to be here from the sixteenth century, it was not worked until 1802, first via mineshafts and cave workings and later as an open quarry.

The workers were glad to work in the open air, the mines being notoriously haunted by the ghosts of dead miners, and the archive contains many accounts of miners going mad! What did they see that scared them out of their wits? Dare you enter the mines during your visit to find out?

When the call sounded for the young men of the kingdom to go to its defence, the village of Wyndham and the surrounding area were not found lacking. An entire generation, the Wyndham Pals, volunteered to fight. Few of them returned.

Their sacrifice is honoured by the village cenotaph. In 1947, the names of those local lads who fought and died in the Second World War were added.

[A pencilled note below the text reads: How about those who died at the hands of the Protocol thugs? Who will remember them?]