events / memorial lecture

A discussion about this year's Lecture is currently taking place on the Society forum

Named after Cumbria's Celtic Kingdom, Rheged is Europe's largest grass covered building and a winner of the global
" BA Tourism for Tomorrow Awards"

[2004 lecture]

[2006 lecture]

**STOP PRESS**

Giant wind farm plan thrown out
BBC News 02/03/06
Plans to create England's largest wind farm at Winash in Cumbria have been rejected by the government.

The 2005 Wainwright Memorial Lecture

The third Wainwright Memorial Lecture was given
on Saturday 5th November 2005
at RHEGED by

Wainwright Society Chairman

ERIC ROBSON

Lecture review
by Trevor Earthy- Hayton, Cumbria
Membership No. 462

It was a game of two halves…Eric Robson treated us to twenty minutes of anecdotes from the T.V. series that he made with A.W., interspersed with snippets from Hunter Davies’ books. The audience was relieved that we didn’t have to endure death by powerpoint, yet we were invited to fill the blank screen with images of our own favourite fells. The time passed quickly…then Eric took his glasses off, abandoned his lecture notes, and the real passionate part of the afternoon began…

Winash! Eric reminded us of the plan to build twenty seven wind turbine generators in the triangle between Shap, Tebay, Kendal, the A6, and the M6. They would be 115 metres high ( 377 feet ), which is 75% of the height of the Blackpool Tower. Each blade would be 45m long, which makes the diameter 90m. This would be the largest land turbine development in Europe, and it would stretch for 5miles. The turbines would be visible from a vast number of the 214 ‘Wainwrights’.

A.W. would have been horrified!

It seems that even if the planners turn it down, they will be overruled by the Government Minister as we need hundreds more wind turbines in the future to conform to the Kyoto Protocol!

Eric made it clear that now we are a society of over 600 members we must make our voice heard to stop these turbines being built at Whinash. After all, they wouldn’t be built in the leafy Cotswolds next to Prince Charles’ estate, so why should they ruin the view from the fell tops just because we’re up North!

There was just enough time for a few questions before many of us enjoyed an early supper. Many Thanks to Eric, for giving such a thought provoking lecture, and to Peter Linney and the rest of the committee for organising such a splendid event.

Any comments on this year's Lecture (or this review) can be sent to Peter Linney or John Burland, and may be published at the discretion of the committee.