MORE than five million packs of the award-winning Lake District Cheese Company cheddar have now been sold across Britain.

Sales of the award-winning cheddar are close to doubling since June and the brand is set to enjoy even greater success, having moved to national availability across ASDA stores this week.

The range of Lake District Cheese Company cheddars is now available nationally in both Morrisons and ASDA, along with northern listings in Tesco, Somerfield, Waitrose and Booths, as well as strong availability in independent stores and farm shops throughout Cumbria.

Creamery manager, Andrew Pearson said that his team was delighted at hitting the five million pack target, but were hungry for more.

“Moving our Lake District Cheese Company brand nationwide into Morrisons and ASDA gives us a platform to promote our cheddar-making excellence to the nation,” he said.

“Each of our 81 employees and 350 Cumbrian producers who supply the creamery have played their part in all of our triumphs this summer and the strong team spirit between farmers and the creamery will help us grow even further.”

The Lake District Cheese Company is owned by dairy farmer co-operative First Milk.

A conservation project to reverse the decline in the number of breeding wading birds in Cumbria is celebrating its first success.

A joint initiative between the RSPB, Lake District National Park Authority and Natural England, the Lake District Breeding Wader Project was set up to reverse the decline in these birds in the national park over the past few decades.

It is being run by Catriona Glendinning, who is working with local landowners and farmers in the target areas. She is advising them on how to encourage breeding waders onto their land by restoring areas of wet grassland.

Now one of the participating farms – Brinns Farm owned by United Utilities and run by Alan and John Barnett near Shap – has became home to the curlew, redshank and snipe.

Following Catriona’s advice and accessing agri-environment funding, Alan and John created 15 muddy depressions called scrapes that fill with water on grazing land, providing feeding areas for waders.

Grazing cattle, meanwhile, helped to create the bumpy, varied grassland that the birds favour.

Catriona said: “We are delighted that the new wetland features have already been well used by breeding wading birds. We have been observing the birds feeding around the edges of the new open pools of water and closer inspection reveals a myriad of beak holes, indicating that species such as snipe have been feeding on abundant insects in the soil.”

Phil Taylor, ecologist with the Lake District National Park, said: “We are very pleased with the early results of this project and look forward to working with other farmers to carry out similar management to benefit wading birds elsewhere in the National Park.”

Harry Kay, Natural England adviser, said: “Waders are becoming very scarce in the Lake District and we hope that in this area the breeding numbers can be restored through this Environmentally Sensitive Area Scheme. We are very grateful to our partners for their co-operation.”

Farmers and landowners managing land in one of the three project areas – Wet Sleddale near Shap, Bassenthwaite and the Kirkby Pool area of the Duddon valley – who are interested in finding out more about breeding wading birds should contact Catriona Glendinning.

From the Cumbrian News

For well over a century, monsters of sea, lake and mere have captured the imagination of many a traveller.

And while the Lake District is famous for writers of a Romantic imagination, the tale of a mythical leviathan at the bottom of Lake Windermere has refused to disappear without a trace.

Nessie of course is well known in Scotland’s eponymous loch, with more than 3,000 reported “sightings” to date, and is the subject of countless books – one in the 1970s even being by the BBC’s own Nicholas Witchell.

Stories of a supposed Nessie cousin or creature in Lake Windermere have been surfacing on and off with increased regularity in the past few years, and originally date back to the 1950s. This month a group of devotees is due to set off to try to solve the mystery once and for all.

Freelance photo-journalist Linden Adams, now 38 and living in Cheshire, hit the headlines both locally and nationally in 2007 when he shot photos of an object in the lake which he saw moving in a dipping, circling movement, while walking with his wife.

Initially a sceptic, he again spotted the “creature” some months later. And despite an acute awareness that he might be viewed as a being a crank, he says his belief in the possibility of a creature remains strong almost three years later.

“I was on Gummers How early in the morning and after waiting for the mist to clear off the lake, I spotted an object moving along the lake. When I got home, switched on the computer and downloaded the pictures, I realised I had got something.

“The head was roughly the size of an oil barrel and I can best describe it as being akin to something like a komodo dragon. The remarkable thing about that day was that it was one of the quietest times of the year and the lake, as it often can be, was like a mirror

“I set up a website to spread news of my sighting and to keep people up to date with any developments, and I received many hits. Yes, some people did, of course, think I was a crank, but I also received many others emails of support.

While reports of first sightings of Bownessie emerged in the 50s, one of the first people to spark Bownessie-mania was journalist and Huddersfield University media lecturer Steve Burnip, a year before before Adams’s sighting.

“In summer 2006, I was on holiday at the Dower House at Wray Castle. It was the first Sunday of a week-long holiday around lunchtime. I was walking along the lake with my wife and two friends and we’d walked up to Watbarrow Point which juts out into the lake about 40ft above the water.

“Just like Linden said, the lake was very quiet because the speeding ban had come in. The previous year it would have been full of people on jet skis, but then the lake was like glass.

“We were just stood chatting and I literally saw it – similar to the classic three lumps that you get in the Loch Ness pictures; I could see a head with swirling water and then a grey lump, more swirling water, and another grey lump.

“But the most remarkable thing was that it was really moving. My jaw just dropped open and I said: ‘Look at that!’ My wife also saw it but very quickly it moved up the lake.

“I estimated it to be at least 30ft long. I wouldn’t believe anyone else if they told me – but I saw it and I know what I saw.”

Reports of sightings of monsters of the deep have been commonplace throughout the world for centuries. Sea and lake monsters have been the staple of mythology, rumour, or local folklore for years, whose existence has largely lacked scientific support.

However, later this month Alan Mumford, who runs corporate and private charters on the lake hopes to take a film crew out on the water for a documentary which might yet prove the truth or otherwise of Bownessie.

“When out on the lake it’s possible to see all sorts of distortions in the water, from strange current eddys to other odd swirls and wakes,” he says. “I’m intrigued by the whole idea and it certainly captures the imagination of our clients.”

yorkshirepost.co.uk

Families planning to take their young children to the Lake District later this month may be interested to learn that one of TV’s best-loved characters is due to make an appearance there.

Those travelling on the Lake District’s Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway on September 27th and 28th will have the chance to meet Postman Pat and his cat Jess.

During their journey, children can take part in a postcard quiz and win a range of prizes, before meeting Pat and his cat at Dalegarth station.

Youngsters can have their photographs taken with the famous duo and enjoy colouring activities and face painting.

Meanwhile, parents can keep themselves occupied by browsing craft stalls at the station and sampling some of the tasty homemade food on offer.

In related news, those planning to stay in hotels in the Lake District will find plenty of other attractions to explore, including the Lakes Aquarium which is home to otters, marmosets and piranhas, among other things.