That old...Market Square, Ambleside.

      This is the traditional centre of Ambleside, known as Market Square and the stone pillar is the Market Cross. The cross is no longer in this location but was moved to a new site nearby. Fortunately Ambleside was blessed with some great early photographic pioneers, like Moses Bowness, who took these wonderful photographs for posterity.

  

Bridge House.

      Probably Ambleside's most notable landmark, the small and quirky one time dwelling, known as The Bridge House, which straddles the river Stock, in the centre of the town. Originally a part of the 17th century Ambleside Hall, residence of the Braithwaite family.

      Inside there are two tiny rooms, in reality not enough room to swing a cat, but over the years many resourceful people have made use of the confined space to find use of the building, which include, a cobblers, a tearoom, counting house, fruit store, even accommodation, for a sizable family.

        These days it's run by the National Trust and even by it's compact size is probably the best known and most popular attraction in the area.

Time For Bed.

      One of the most prominent, centuries-old houses of South Lakeland is Sizergh Castle, longtime home of the Strickland family, from the 13th Century until 1950.
      The house, now in the hands of the National Trust, is to sell off an old and interesting oak bedstead. This remarkable piece of furniture, was commissioned in 1570 by Alice Strickland, the wife of Sir Walter Strickland, during extensive lavish refurbishment and renovation, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1.

        The bedstead, said to be one of the most important pieces of Elizabethan Oak furniture, still remaining in private hands and considered to be in the top ten, of English oak beds of the Elizabethan period and British Furniture design.
      The piece will be sold by Bonhams, in London at Bonhams Oak Interiors Sale, on 28th September and is expected to raise around £150k.

      We await the final hammer price.

Prince George.

      In the early hours of Sunday morning (UK time) a Royal Canadian Air Force plane arrived in Victoria, British Colombia, flown directly over the Atlantic from the UK.
      Their special passenger, the young Prince George, with his sister Charlotte and their parents in tow, was greeted by Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau.
      With the eyes of the world watching his every step, George easily held everyone's attention as he skipped down the aircraft steps and dazzled in his dashing sky blue sweater and navy shorts, with knee-length socks and a first pair of proper lace-up shoes.
      Then a quick meeting with Premier Trudeau before George gave everyone a warm and beaming smile with a generous wave of his hand. And next George and Charlotte, not forgetting William and Kate, were whisked away to begin their official tour.

Levens Hall, Southern Lakes

      South Lakeland's Levens Hall, home of the world famous Topiary Gardens, has this year a 30 foot specimen, known as the Umbrella Tree, shortlisted by The Woodland Trust, in the running to be crowned "England's Tree of the Year." 

     The tree, planted in the 1690's as part of the original garden layout for a Colonel James Grahme, who came to Levens, after being in service to King James ll with him he brought a young French Gardener; Guillaume Beaumont, a pupil of Notre et Versailles, who planned this fashionable garden.
      Just one of over a hundred individual tree designs, the umbrella tree has been carefully cut and shaped, over the past three hundred years to achieve it's iconic appearance.

      The Umbrella will compete against nine other trees, selected by the Woodland Trust and the winner will receive a grant of £1000, and go forward to the "European Tree of the Year," event.

Apple Mclaren.

      Apple Inc, producer of the IPhone, Smartphones and a host of other cutting edge technology, appears to be embroiled in something of an unofficial battle, if not war, with other leading tech companies, to construct, electric powered cars, self-drive electric vehicles, etc.
      Now there is talk and it is talk, no one appears to be admitting anything, but there is always rumours and these rumours relate to speculation that Apple, have made an approach to Mclaren (cars) with a view to taking over the company. the price should be in the £1-2 billion, bracket.
      Mclaren, producer of the Mclaren F1 is owned by Ron Dennis, Mansour Ojjeh and the Bahrain Sovereign Wealth Fund.
     The F1 sells for £866k and Mclaren also runs the Formula One racing team and is renowned for it's technological expertise, the use of carbon-fibre in Mclaren chassis, and their list of many patents. In which Apple, holds great store and would give their car manufacturing plans a certain advantage over rivals. The company employs around 1300 people and produces about 1500 cars a year.  

An Old Plate.

      A Car-Boot customer couldn't believe his good fortune when he turned up this old plate at a South Lakeland Car Boot Sale. He managed to purchase the plate for the sum of £20, The plate which measures slightly more than 2 feet wide, is in fact a rare 19th century piece from the Leeds Pottery, known as a Burmantoft's Faience Plaque,
      The Plaque was entered at the 1818 Auction House at Crooklands, where at an estimate of £4-600, the item eventually sold to a private collector for the astounding sum of £7000, after a lively bidding session between several telephone bidders.