[Intro.. Continued]

The general location of the meeting is the northwest of England, but more specifically, Cumbria. The town, Grange-over-Sands, grew as a ‘select’ seaside resort in the nineteenth century as a direct result of the construction of the railway in 1857. This particular part of Cumbria was, prior to the Local Government reorganisation (1974) part of Lancashire (Across the Sands). This region has a distinctly different culture to that of, for example, London, and lends emphasis to the main focus of the workshop, that of identifying local issues in the valuation and transactions of real estate property.

Ian and Brigitte, at Cornerbeech Hotel, have offered to prepare meals that have a distinctly local ‘flavour’ using locally-grown ingredients and produce. Hopefully, you will enjoy meals that you would not otherwise experience in other parts of the UK. To emphasise the regional issues, we have invited Cedric Robinson (The Queen’s Guide to the Sands) to give a talk about Morecambe Bay. Historically, this region was effectively cut-off from the remainder of northwest England by Morecambe Bay, and the only viable link was across the Bay at low tide. Because of the difficult nature of the changing deepwater channels, and the presence of moving patches of quicksand, a guide was appointed by the Court, and Cedric is the current appointee. On Friday, we will also have a talk by a representative of the Morecambe Bay Partnership who will be able to describe the current, local issues of the area.

Listed below is the final, ‘provisional’ agenda for the workshop. Please let me know as soon as possible if I have the wrong title to your paper so that it can be corrected. I am still waiting for the documentation to arrive from COST but have not heard anything to assume that it will not. Once it arrives, I will forward it to you. 

Arrival

If you have not already done so, could you let Ian Wright (Cornerbeech) have the details of your arrival and departure. If we have those, we can arrange for you to be met at the railway station. The hotel is only a short distance (10 minutes) from the station but it is up a hill and, if it is raining, 10 minutes can be a long time. 

In case of any uncertainties, please contact Ian. I will be travelling up to Grange on Wednesday (arriving mid-afternoon) and Ian will be able to relay any messages to me far easier than it might be for you to contact me on my mobile. The contact details are on the website Ian has set up for the meeting: www.cost.beechware.co.uk

If you have any uncertainties regarding rail connections, check in the first place the links to the journey planner on the website. However, do contact me if there are any problems, either with arrival or departure.

Departure

Similarly, if we know your departure time we arrange to take you to the station.

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The provisional programme is as follows:

Wednesday, 16^th March, evening: Dinner at Cornerbeech

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Itinerary:

·         Grange to Cartmel, with a stop at Cartmel for about 30 minutes to look at the priory. Cartmel was the administrative centre for this region.

·         Cartmel to Ambleside, with a short stop of about 30 minutes.

·         Ambleside towards Townhead to view the watershed and implications of general boundaries on a mountain landscape.

·         Townhead to Dungeon Ghyll, Greater Langdale: Here we will go for a short walk to look at how the general boundary has evolved through the past 500 years (or more) in this region.

·         Finally, to Brantwood and our evening meal.