'Lost village' memento still in family decades on

An armchair rescued from a village which was deliberately flooded to make a reservoir has remained in the same family for more than eight decades.

Mardale Village in Cumbria disappeared in 1939 when the Haweswater valley was submerged to provide water for the region.

Just last month, as water levels dropped in Haweswater Reservoir during a drought affecting north-west England, remains of the lost village re-emerged, as they occasionally do.

Rachael Heyman was born in nearby Keswick the year before the flooding and a chair rescued from Mardale church has remained in her family ever since.

She said: "Ever since I was born, or can remember, that chair has sat on the half-way landing going up the stairs to our house."

She believes the chair had been rescued by her grandfather, who had worked on the dam project in some capacity, though she did not know exactly how.

"I suppose it was always known in my family that that's what it was," she said.

It is worth between £600 and £800, according to a recent valuation.

A service was hosted at Mardale church before the village was flooded and some windows and stones from the building are known to have been reused in the draw-off tower situated a little way back from the dam wall.

The wooden armchair has an inscription with the date 1684 featuring at the top of the decorative motif.

The 86-year-old, who now lives in Puttenham, near Guilford, said the chair was currently at her son's house near Chichester, but as he was downsizing and she had no room in her home, they may have to part ways with the memento.

"It's followed me around my whole life," she said.

"I'd love it to go back to Cumbria, it doesn't have any reason to be down here - I feel quite strongly about it."

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