Holmrook
| Holmrook | |
| Cumberland | |
|---|---|
 Cottages by the A595 at Holmrook | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SD077995 |
| Location: | 54°22’59"N, 3°25’12"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Holmrook |
| Postcode: | CA19 |
| Dialling code: | 019467 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Cumberland |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Copeland |
Holmrook is a linear village in Cumberland, stretched along the A595 road on the west bank of the River Irt. The B5344 road connects it to Drigg, with its railway station less than two miles to the west.
Two miles north-east along the Irt valley is Irton Hall, a large mostly 19th-century house which incorporates a 14th-century pele tower][1]
Holmrook Hall
Holmrook Hall was a Victorian country house, at one time owned by the Reverend Charles Skeffington Lutwidge. His relative Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as the author, mathematician and photographer Lewis Carroll, used to come and stay occasionally.[2]
During Second World War, Holmrook Hall was requisitioned by the Admiralty on behalf of the Royal Navy, with locals told that it was a rest home for shipwrecked and distressed sailors. In actually fact, strategically located between two Royal Ordnance Factories, ROF Drigg and ROF Sellafield, it was the Royal Navy bomb and munitions training school between 1943 and 1946, under the title HMS Volcano. Defined as a Top Secret site, it trained both Royal Navy personnel, the Special Boat Service and Norwegian expatriates in the war time use of explosives and demolition. Among the graduates of HMS Volcano were:[3]
- Noel Cashford MBE
- Lionel "Buster" Crabb OBE
After the War, the hall fell into disrepair, and was demolished. Only the stable block remains, converted to housing.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Holmrook) |
References
- ↑ Historic England. "Monument No. 9279". PastScape. http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=9279. Retrieved 2 June 2011
- ↑ "Holmrook Hall". Shelia Cartwright. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~rwbarnes/defence/volcano.htm. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
- ↑ "Holmrook Hall". wartimememories.co.uk. http://www.wartimememories.co.uk/secret/volcano.html. Retrieved 2011-01-01.