Heather Mills and Sir Paul slept here..

It was where Paul McCartney wooed Heather Mills before the world got a whiff of their romance.

Now word is out that Hollywood's golden couple Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston could be heading up the steep rock track to Consion cottages once used as a mine sawmill.

There is nothing pretentious about the row of four slate houses, marked by piles of firewood stacked up outside and relics from a bygone age when Coniston Coppermines were some of the most productive in Europe.

This is about as far removed from Beverly Hills as you can get. Beautiful, yes, basic, very!

"On a lovely day there is nowhere quite like Coppermines Valley on earth," ventures holiday cottages' owner Philip Johnston. "On a bad day, it can look horrible."

This is a bad one. Slate grey laden skies have again saturated the mountain montage and the week's current guests 20 Dutch Range Rover owners have not all ventured out to play.

Hence, Philip cannot show me where the McCartneys took their mid-week break. Besides, he is uncomfortable with all this celebrity talk. Discretion is, after all, the greater part of valour. Obviously he is not keen to kill the golden goose.

He says his lips are sealed when pressed about rumours of an impending Pitt visit, or that the valley could be used in Warner Brother's forthcoming blockbuster Troy, starring heart throb Brad as Greek warrior Achilles.

American production press officer Rob Harris, speaking from Shepperton Studios, where filming is currently taking place, said the action was about to move to Malta, then Mexico and dismissed suggestions of Coniston.

"Sadly, we will not be in the Lake District for this one. A touch on the wet side," he explained.

He could not comment on whether the star would be heading northwards.

Philip coyly confirms a string of Coronation Street actors have used the remote mountainside retreat and household names regularly appear as guests. They usually don't book using their real names and come in parties.

"It's only when you bump into the likes of Mrs Clive Anderson that you realise who you have got."

He says Coppermines Cottages have "a novelty value". A mid-week break would have cost Sir Paul and heather Mills £150 or £250, depending on when they stayed.

"Not a fortune," says Philip.

According to the Sunday Times' rich list, Sir Paul is the wealthiest musician in Britain, with a personal fortune of £713 million.

The long, seriously potholed slate track from the village is enough to rive off sump oil tanks and exhausts. Jaguar XK8s fair better than Porches, explains Philip.

Big celebs though rarely turn up in pretentious cars.

"They don't draw attention to themselves. We sometimes only hear they have stayed here afterwards. People see them in the village. I didn't see Paul McCartney and Heather Mills, but knew they were staying. It was before anyone else knew about them being together."

Sensational scenery apart, Philip said the novelty value and uniqueness of the location were the big pulls.

At its height, Coniston Coppermines - started in 1597 - employed around 600, including women and children. Most of the copper produced was used for sheathing wooden hulls of sailing ships in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In 1856 alone 3,659 tons of ore was raised, valued at £27,861.

Cheshire born Philip worked in estate management architectural salvage before falling for a seven-acre slice of industrial heritage, including a few derelict buildings and series of spoil heaps.

He bought the coppermines plot from the le Fleming family of Rydal (whose connections with the mines spanned three centuries) hoping to breathe new life into an important historic site.

"I saw it as something that needed sorting out. A challenge," he says. "I wanted to preserve the area and find an economic use for it.

"I knew I was buying problems with buildings in a remote Lake District valley and a national park authority with very tight controls."

Philip was to go through years of wrangles and battles culminating in a High Court case.

Advised to apply for educational use for the old sawmill ruin, the project was turned down by planners, but won on appeal.

The next scheme, to split it into separate units, was also thrown out by the national park, and lost on appeal

"Because the appeal inspector had not given full and proper reasons why the building could not be used for different groups, we went to the High Court, which ruled the matter be resolved by the Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment," explained Philip.

"We got permission eventually in the 1990s, but had already been letting them for four years by then."

Philip says they are just the sort of cottages you would expect to find half way up a mountain. Certainly nothing plush, his collections of old mining memorabilia have been drafted in to add atmosphere and most of the woodwork has been salvaged from other buildings.

Philip grins as he explains one lot came from an old convent in Liverpool's Strawberry Fields, somewhere around Penny Lane.

"I'm told The Beatles used to sing in the choir there, when they were kids. I don't suppose Paul McCartney spotted it."

May 8, 2003 16:00