I went on a trip out with my father on a lovely warm and sunny Bank Holiday Saturday. Here is a the view of a small market- town in North Cumbria that you will never hear about on BBC1 North West Tonight, and you most definitely won’t hear about it on ITV1 Granada Reports. However, if you can get ITV News Border and their flagship news- programme Lookaround you will hear about it at times. It is a little town called Brampton, just off the A69 some nine miles east of Carlisle. The Scottish Borders and the North Pennines are not far from Brampton. View here:
BRAMPTON, NORTH CUMBRIA ON A FINE WARM AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY SATURDAY
Brampton itself is a lovely place which has retained a character with its independent local shops, and a couple of well- known local pubs- The Howard Arms does good food and the Shoulder of Mutton is good too. This part of Cumbria is not one of the main tourist- destinations- but the surrounding area has some fine countryside. Within 15 minutes’ drive of the town is the lovely Talkin Tarn, in the foothills of the North Pennines and Lanercost Priory, an ancient Medieval Church close to Hadrian’s Wall which passes west- to- east just to the north of Brampton.
My name is Ian Pennell and I am a freelance Book-keeper. I live near Alston in the North Pennines in north-east Cumbria. I used to live and work in Lancaster until 19 years ago and have friends in northern North West England. I have two Websites devoted to campaigning for local, relevant Regional TV, one for Cumbria/ North Lancashire the other for Northumberland/Scottish-Border.............................................................................................................................. A big problem is that the Regional Television Bulletins for the North West covers the southern third of the Region about 90% (plus a part of Derbyshire which is NOT the North West of England), covers the middle third of North West England poorly and covers the northern third of North West England not at all! When I was studying at Lancaster University, I used to watch BBC1 North West Tonight because it covered areas up around where I was brought up- in northern Cumbria as well as more immediately locally around Lancaster. Then I came home one day, turned on BBC1 North West Tonight wondering why they were silent on Cumbria and discovered why: Most of Cumbria had been chopped off the weather-map! ........................................................................
...........................................................................................................................................
In rural and northern Northumberland too, Regional TV, as is received by viewers, tends too often to be Tyneside/ Wearside/ Teesside- focussed with little news locally. Communities in North Northumberland have strong links across the Border into south-east Scotland and towards Edinburgh but none of the Regional TV News- services serving Northumberland today ever goes across the Scottish Border to cover significant happenings of interest to North Northumbrians. The region of Northumberland/ Scottish Borders/ East and Mid Lothian area is vast- but it is largely overlooked by mainstream Regional TV! .................................................................................................................... ................
In two websites, one for northern North West England and the Isle of Man (a country in it's own right that does not have it's own TV service!), and another Website focussing on Northumberland, North Yorkshire and the North Pennines I make the point that Regional TV that informs viewers of important things in their local area is a Public Service that must be funded better, in order that rural areas of northernmost England get good geographic- appropriate local news-coverage.
View more posts
Discover more from NORTHWEST IS NORTHWEST
Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.
