On 14th June we were back at Ickenthwaite Forest, in Cumbria, to film the sequence when the Swallows visit the Charcoal Burners.
‘He doesn’t look much like a son.’ The real Young Billy was almost indistinguishable from the actor. He seemed to take a wry interest in the filming but what he thought of us, of the crew, I dread to think. We were aliens on his planet. Terribly bossy ones.
Our polystyrene coffee cups look so out of place. They were. How much had changed in the art of producing charcoal between 1973 and 1929 when Arthur Ransome set our story?
Jack Woolgar looks as old as the hills. He’d been born in 1913, so must have only been sixty years old, younger than I am now. He’s appeared in ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Emmerdale Farm’ and ‘Coronation Street’. After ‘Swallows and Amazons’ he played Carney in forty-eight episodes of ‘Crossroads’. We knew him as the professor in ‘The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe’.
The Call Sheet for the day scheduled Scene 110 with the adder, but I recorded in my diary that we had completed that the previous day. I must have meant my part in it. The director, Claude Whatham, was probably using the time to pick-up the shots of Young Billy working with his dampened fire.
Much later, when I asked Claude what made a good director he said, ‘You need to use your time well.’ This probably makes you an employable director, but I think Claude had other assets. We all adored him for one thing, and would do anything he asked without question. We knew that he wanted us to keep going, no matter what happened. Susan really did leave her basket behind at the Charcoal Burners’. When Old Billy called her, she was truly taken aback and sweetly ran to collect it. It’s something that rings true, a natural quality that Claude brought to the film.
The interior of the hut must have been tricky to light. I think we had a real fire burning in the stone grate and Claude was keen for the scene to be atmospherically smoky. The wood smoke itself was fine but the crew were working with smoke guns, since they were more directional and considered more controllable. The acrid fumes produced by their oil canisters choked me but Jack Woolgar was absolutely stoic and kept our attention. I loved drawing with the charcoal. I wish I had drawn him. Apart from the amount of smoke it was lovely inside the mossy wigwam. I could have stayed there quite happily. It was nice and warm.
Albert Clarke, our Stills Photographer, later gave us his unwanted contact sheets to stick in the scrap-books we kept of the filming. Amongst them are these photos he took of the Producer Richard Pilbrow with the charcoal burners of Ickenthwaite Forest.
Audrey Steeley told me that the older charcoal burner is Jack Allonby who lived at Spark Bridge, a well known local character. Norman Allonby lived at Bandrake Head.
Bill Norris, was another authority on charcoal burning also from Spark Bridge.
As the Call Sheet decreed, we were scheduled to to move to Bank Ground Farm after lunch to film the receiving of ‘despatches’, a scene I look forward to describing in the next post.
You can see photos and read more in ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons(1974)’, available online here
I’ve written more about charcoal burning in Cumbria here
Brian Crawley kindly sent me this shot of what the location looks like today. You can just fee the remains of the fireplace to the right:
One of Brian’s friends remembers watching our Routemaster double-decker buses climbing the twisting track up to the site.
There is evidence of charcoal burnering near Hill Top where Arthur Ransome lived long after he wrote ‘Swallows and Amazons’. You can find the photos on this site here
Sophie Neville 
The chacoal burners look like Jack Allonby and (possibly) Bill Norris to me.
Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know. Can I add this to the post?
Hoping you are enjoying the filmography, Sophie
Yes, add it please
Would Jack Allonby be the younger of the two – in the poloneck jersey?
No, Jack is the old guy, he lived at Spark bridge, and was very well known to people in this area. My family knew him well as they were oak-spale basket makers and had been involved in coppicing for years. I’m not certain the younger man is Bill Norris actually. Also from Spark bridge, I know that Bill was an authority on charcoal burning, and had been at burns when I’ve attended, and was also filmed on many occasions. It’s possible it’s him, but the pictures don’t actually look that much like him.
Thanks so much for writing. I wonder if anyone else remembers them – or can ask others who would have known them…
Some traditional charcoal burning was still being carried out in the Lake District when we recorded ‘On the Trail of Swallows and Amazons’ in 2000. We met a pair who said that they were the last, and the children interviewed them. Sadly the scene was cut from the broadcast.
Do they still have charcoal burns at Brantwood, John Ruskin’s house? I am sure I saw a flyer for a demonstation in the woods there.
I visited one of their demonstration burns some years ago — lots of smoke and steam just like your film! — but I don’t know if they are still held, I’m afraid.
I’m sure it is not Bill Norris. I have spoken to his daughter who doesn’t think he was at that burn with Jack Allonby although he did help him at another burn of which I have a DVD. Another friend of mine, who watched the filming of the charcoal burn as a child, thinks it could be Jack Allonby’s brother Norman who was there. I have sent the link to my friend and he will probably send in a comment soon. He showed me where the burn had taken place when I was searching for it a few years ago. I still do the traditional charcoal earthburns mainly in the south lake district.
Thanks so much for writing in.
Shall I wait for your friend can confirm the identity of the charcoal burners in the photographs? Then I can change the post.
I hope you enjoy some of the other posts
Many thanks again,
Sophie
The man in front of the hut is Jack Allonbys brother Norman. He lived at Bandrake Head
Thank you so much for making the effort to let us know. I will add the information to the text.
I hope that I have altered my text and photo captions correctly. Please let me know if there is anything else in the Post that I should change.
I hope you are enjoying the other days fromthe diary I kept so long ago. Do let me know if you have any questions.
Many thanks
So interesting… my ancestors lived at and owned Ickenthwaite in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s…Nealson/Nelson and Barker who married Dickinson.
Brian Crawley (above) sent me this link as he thought I might be interested. Over 12 months in the 1970s I filmed Jack Allonby and Bill Norris do a charcoal burn on the same site at Ickenthwaite. It had been organised by Mike Davies-Shiel and Bill Norris. It followed the whole process from cutting the wood in the coppices to the burn itself. I can confirm that the figures in the photo are Jack and his brother. The latter came down most day to watch the burn and tell Jack what to do! We have just transferred the film to DVD and is showing its age but is a good record of how it was done. There was no charcoal made in the traditional way at that time but Jack was still bark stripping and providing wood for the Bobbin factory at Spark Bridge.
That is most certainly Norman Allonby – I lived around the corner from him in 1973. He lived in a tiny 1 up, 1 down traditional cottage, walked everywhere and made a lovely cup of tea. He was very interested in my Eng Lit A level course, being a keen reader. I wonder how many people know he knew Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, by heart, and in their entirety and could recite any part, at any time, on request. He would happily talk for hours on the subject, with a twinkle in his eye and his pickle catching front tooth. Lovely, gentle man, living life at the right pace.
Thank you so much for writing in. May I add your comment to the third edition of my book on ‘The Making of Swallows and Amazons’?
I find this blog and the comments most interesting. It enhances an already brilliant and lively scene of the film. I was particularly interested to read about Norman Allonby and his love, and memory, of poetry. I have met this before with members of his generation. My grandfather (born 1899) could recite reams of poetry by heart, most leant in his youth, much of it in school.
They were probably taught by rote, which is frowned on now. Is it such a bad thing? Children seem to enjoy reciting, up to a point.
Well, my grandfather was very proud of his ability to recite loads of Tennyson, Byron, Robert Service, etc.
I’m sure it stood him in good stead and gave him much pleasure.
A beautifully crafted scene. The respect that the children give their elders is so clear, right down to that last reaction from Susan as Old Billy calls her back for her basket. Halcyon days of our youth, wonderfully captured forever!
Susan really did forget her basket. That last bit was improvised by Jack Woolgar and Suzaana reacted accodingly. The Director was thrilled.
*accordingly
I love coincidences, my life has been full of them. I was just thinking of emailing to check the year of filming with the charcoal burners when this email appears confirming 1973 and in fact today 14th June, 50 years ago! Tomorrow I am meeting the authority in the wood to discuss the possibility of carrying out a charcoal earthburn at the same site later this year. I am also in possession of a DVD of a film of a burn by Jack Allonby at the site a year earlier and a book of Lake District photographs including some of Jack Allonby carrying out a charcoal burn at the same site. I gave Sophie a post card of one of the photographs when I met her briefly at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal a few years ago.
Amazing. You should find the remains of the wigwam wall at the site. Please send in photos!
jack alloby was my dad i was present some of the days you were there ,in june 73 i had just finished my degree in chemistry at salford ,must of that summer i worked with dad and uncle norman in the wood.
Wow, is that you in the photo, drinking from the polystyrene cup? Do you still live in Cumbria?
l don,t think so,also do not recognice him
Thanks again for writing in. Let me know of anything you can think of that relates to these two days filming with your dad and uncle. It all happened fifty years ago, but it’s amazing what is coming to light.
yes i still live in cumbria ,but near whithaven have done for 50 years ,dad was 61 in 73,his brother uncle norman was 63,the person drinking from the cup is not bill noris.
I think that maybe the boy with the cup came with Jack Woolgar. He could have been a local driver but wasn’t a member of the film crew.
in the photo you have it as bill allonby talking to jack woooly but it is my dad jack allonby
Thanks so much for writing in. I’ll alter the caption! Please let me know if I have any other errors.
Norman Allonby: Lovely man, a second grand-father to me when I moved to Bandrake Head from down the valley in 1983.
Went everywhere locally all over by foot with Norman. Visited his brother Jack and his wife Frances at Spark Bridge. Jack used to make violins as a hobby. Norman said Jack was the technical advisor for Swallows and Amazons. Norman had some charcoal from years ago, one day he burned it on his fire, generated a substantial amount of heat.
Thanks so much for writing in. You can read about the sites up at Arthur Ransome’s own house here: https://sophieneville.net/2021/01/14/charcoal-burners-at-hill-top-arthur-ransomes-last-home-in-the-lake-district/