December 2nd, 2017 | Updated on April 6th, 2024
Joe Cornish, who studied fine art at Reading University, said of this picture: ‘The Lake District is rightly regarded as a picturesque highlight of the British Isles; but what, at first glance, appears a bucolic pastoral paradise is in fact a recovering industrial landscape. The massive quarry at Hodge Close is typical, and here an entire valley has been hacked to pieces by the slate industry. Much has been hauled away but, even so, vast heaps of tailings remain, and these can be seen in the middle distance. There are also huge excavations in evidence. But since the decline of industry, nature has made a striking return, softening the scars. In the distance, the Langdale Pikes stand as a symbol of the enduring and apparently immutable beauty of the fells’
