Dorothy C. Maguire (nee Coles), of Arnside, former Head of Underbarrow School, recalls memories of Chapel Beck at Underbarrow

DURING recent months when torrential rain has caused our Cumbrian streams and rivers to become raging torrents I have been reminiscing to myself about the Chapel Beck adjoining Underbarrow School.

I remember it first as an idyllic, shallow beck flowing just below our outside toilets.

After 12 months as Head of Underbarrow School, in the late 1950s, I realised the dangers the beck could pose after heavy rain, so, because of my concerns, the Westmorland Education Authority had a fence built along its bank.

Even in those days the beck could overflow and be yards from the toilets. I dread to think how menacing the beck would have been with the last deluge in December.

But, on the whole, the Chapel Beck has only pleasant memories for me. I remember the time Kenneth caught me a salmon, only for it to escape before home-time.

It was picturesque, wild daffodils grew along its bank.

Then on sunny, summer afternoons I would walk 100 yards down the road and into a field with the children, where, armed with jam jars, an hour would be spent collecting specimens.

Bare-footed children enjoyed these exciting, practical nature lessons analysing what they had caught.

Recently, when looking at my I-pad, I saw pictures of the Old School and the converted bungalow it has now become.

It still looks the same from the outside. The yard is still there, but the fence has now gone.

In the picture the Chapel Beck looked peacefully idyllic. But I still wonder how it coped with the recent, torrential rain?