With this being the driest September for half a century we headed for Haweswater and the lost village of Mardale Green. In 1919 parliament passed an act that allowed them to flood the village without planning permission; flooding the valley and the village of Mardale Green that had stood here for centuries.
One hundred miles away Manchester needed a new reservoir so in 1935 when the last person was gone the army blew up most of Mardale Green - the 19th century vicarage, the stone chapel, the tiny school and the famous Dunn Bull Inn.
We traipsed across the muddy flats with the skeletal walls all around in quiet reverence, countless other surrounding us doing exactly the same. The poignancy and sadness of this lost village was almost palpable and made you think if this could have happened today - I don't think so.
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