Historian and media personaility David Starkey was stomping his home ground this week lending his considerable gravitas to two Kendal campaigns.

In the run up to his Brewery Arts Centre lecture on Monday (May 12), Dr Starkey gave two talks in aid of South Lakeland Hydrotherapy Trust and The Castle Street Centre Association, reports Beth Broomby.

Both venues have links to his Kendalian past.

The Castle Street Centre, formerly the site of Dr Starkey's primary school, has launched a Westmorland Gazette-backed campaign to raise £175,000 to keep the building in community use.

Meanwhile, The South Lakeland Hydrotherapy Trust is raising funds to take over Sandgate Pool, on Sandylands, just round the corner from Dr Starkey's boyhood home on Sandylands' Broad Ing.

For his grand home-coming, the characteristic hawkish frown and razor sharp intellect were cast aside to reveal the softer side of the man who brought history to the masses.

"I came today simply because I was asked," he said, perched among the tea and cakes at Kendal Town Hall.

"I have a degree of loyalty to the town. I have connections with both places the pool is on Sandylands where I was brought up and I went to primary school at Castle Street. So really I'm a sentimental old thing under this ferocious faade."

Despite claims that he couldn't wait to escape the confines of the Old Grey Town, Dr Starkey said the truth was less clear-cut.

"I have very mixed memories of the place," he said. "My father loved it, he was a great fell walker but my mother loathed it. She came from the fringes of Manchester and regarded Kendal as being in the sticks. I tended to identify with her so it was to my great delight that I disappeared off to Cambridge (University).

"In those days Kendal was a different place, it was very introverted. It has altered immensely."

Meanwhile, it was at Castle Street Primary that Dr Starkey received his first real academic encouragement.

"My memories of the place were in many ways rather idyllic. The head teacher Elsie Cliburn was a wonderful, generous, kind woman and I owe an immense amount to her. She encouraged me hugely and was one of the first people to spot my ability."

Castle Street Centre Association secretary David Boxford said Dr Starkey's appearance had gone down well with the audience, which included pupils and staff from Castle Street Primary School.

Dr Starkey regaled the group with tales of his schooldays and also lent support to the idea of a 130 years of schooling' celebration planned for the future at Castle Street.

Other fund-raising events are gathering pace. Budding performers still have time to enroll for the association's Variety Concert on May 31. Contact 01539-734532. Castle Street also now has its own telephone line 10539-739154.

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May 16, 2003 10:00