News Article
Starting to Put Ransome on the Map
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In recent months we’ve been making good progress on our plans for A Ransome Home, our main project to establish and develop a permanent Ransome Centre in the southern Lake District.
Looking at a number of properties, including Lanehead Outdoor Education Centre, has helped to clarify many of the challenges and opportunities we face. It has also confirmed how important it is for the Trust to begin raising funds for A Ransome Home now. Having funds in place, even on a fairly modest scale relative to the total sums we’ll eventually require, will make a very significant difference when suitable properties appear in the future.
We have, therefore, created our own jigsaw version of Arthur Ransome’s fictionalised Lake District maps, to serve as a focus for donations to both A Ransome Home and the Trust’s other work. Our map has 900 pieces, ranging from iconic locations, such as Holly Howe Farm and the Secret Harbour on Wild Cat Island, to stretches of lake, forest and unexplored moors.
Our long-term goal is to put a Ransome Centre on the real Lake District Map; a place where future generations can come to discover and enjoy his life and works, including the Swallows and Amazons books. We’re inviting everybody who would like to support this aim to help, by sponsoring one or more pieces of the jigsaw map.
You can see the map on our new Putting Ransome on the Map page, along with more information about why we need to raise funds now, and how you can sponsor part of the map. The page also explains how we plan to have a copy of the map on display at the Centre, once it opens, as a permanent “thank you” to all those who provide pioneering support for the Trust in its early stages. You can also read more about Lanehead on our A Ransome Home page.
We took the Ransome Jigsaw Map to the recent Arthur Ransome Society AGM weekend in Bowness-on-Windermere, and also to our Pigeon Post display at the Holker Hall Garden Festival. It attracted a lot of interest at both, with a number of pieces being sponsored. Many thanks to all those people who took an interest, and especially to those who became the first to contribute to Putting Ransome on the Map!
