A man with a unique job clearing the back streets and lesser-known stretches of rural south Cumbria has decided to strip back his duties.
Archie Workman has stepped down from his role as lengthsman at Coniston Parish Council and Allithwaite and Cartmel Parish Council.
“I made quite a difference,” said Mr Workman, of Penny Bridge. “Painting the railings and bus shelters, white lines on steps to stop people from tripping.
“A lot of it’s the drains, of course. A lot of the back roads, they don’t get cleared by the county council, they don’t have the resources to do them.
“I met some very nice people in Coniston and a lot of visitors to the town are very interested in seeing somebody restore railings and things like that in the public realm.
“They stop and talk, so it’s quite a sociable job, I like talking to people.
“In the old days, there were lots of lengthsmen. Every village had one, every town, and they would know everything that was going on in town. There’s quite a history to the job – it goes back to the 17th century.”
Mr Workman is still lengthsmen for six other parishes in south Cumbria, and is also a managing director at the Ulverston Business Centre.
He felt the workload when all his roles were combined had become too much – but stressed stepping down from two parishes ‘wasn’t a decision I took lightly’.
He said he had served Coniston for two to three years and Allithwaite and Cartmel slightly longer.
“Also, from Penny Bridge to Coniston is quite a drive,” he said. “So I have sort of relinquished the two furthest away, so I’m just working local now.”
He began working as a lengthsman for Colton Parish Council in 2013.
Mr Workman said: “The parish clerk knocked on my door and said ‘the lengthsman’s hurt his back, so would you stand in for him? And he never came back, so I got it by default.”
He described the work as very therapeutic and said: ‘It’s a great feeling when you have restored something.”
The essence of the job, he says, is highway maintenance. “The back roads, the -roads, the areas which need attention which nobody seems to do,” he said.
