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BB2612 : Newton’s
Laws of Motion
Thursday 16th
April 2026
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You probably
remember Isaac Newton as the guy who, allegedly, had some sense knocked into him when
an apple fell on his head. You possibly
remember, or at least have heard of, his resultant Laws of Motion. To remind you, they can be summarised as:
1.
A body remains at rest,
unless it is acted upon by a force.
2.
The second law concerns the
rate at which the body's momentum is changing
with time.
3.
The third law states that if
two bodies exert forces on each other, they
move in opposite directions.
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Today was the ideal
day to test out his theories on the hills named after him. There are two, named conveniently Newton Fell
South and Newton Fell North. They are
often seen but seldom visited alongside the A590 between Lindale and Newby
Bridge. They
also happen to combine to be a WOLF*.
BOOTboys have been there before,
BB1524. On that occasion we did them as one
continuous walk though it was not without considerable difficulty. AW and his updater, Chris Jesty (henceforth to
be known as CJ), both advised visiting them as separate exercises. Consequently that is what we set out to do,
starting with the northern one.
When we arrived I found it
difficult to motivate myself so sat motionless in the car. It was then that Newton’s first law came into
place. One of my companions chastised me
and, grabbing me by my shoulders, told me in no uncertain terms to get out and
start walking. I can report that having
been acted on by such a force, my body ceased to remain at rest.
Once through
the Whitestone caravan site, we climbed the path that was unkindly steep for
such an early part of a walk. Then, when it leveled out, it had such a drop on the
left hand side that if you were acted on by an unexpected force, your body would
certainly move in an unwanted direction then remain at rest many feet
below.
In the distance we
could see a moving plume of smoke that puzzled me.
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It couldn’t be the Haverthwaite Railway as that doesn’t run along
there. In fact, it was a railway engine. I had forgotten that there is a miniaturesteam
railway in a private garden and the engine was being primed for action.
Eventually a more
sensible sort of terrain arrived and we reached the Whitestone viewpoint
without incident. It was certainly true
that our momentum had changed with time, depending on the nature of the
terrain.
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This was not the
Northern top. To reach that, we had to
retrace our steps somewhat. Mindful of
the third law, to avoid moving in opposite directions, we had to ensure that
our bodies did not exert forces on each other.
This was successfully achieved as far as the trig point and the strange
structure alongside the wall.
Here we really
tested the third law. AW & CJ were
both exerting forces on us to return to the north. Robin and Mike were of a mind to head
to the reservoir we could see to the south.
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It needed me to supply the force that determined our direction. With a big heave, off we went. South, of course. Judging by the path that has developed, this
is now quite a well used route. We
dropped down to the tarn.....
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.....
then Belman Beck House and along the old road back to the car.
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To tackle Newton
Fell South, Robin used his influence to enable us to park at the VW garage. Here was another case of the third law. AW & CJ were trying to force us up
through the village for an out and back to Dixon Heights. Mike, who had knowledge of the territory
determined that we should resist and, instead, take the path leading north,
under the dual carriageway. Partly on
and partly off the appropriately named “Back o’ the Fell Road”, we climbed as
far as a field on our right with numerous large ponds at which point we turned
left and up the hill for Tom Tarn which proved to be rather a disappointment.
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Mike and Holly had
no problem bounding up past the fell ponies.
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Robin and I,
being somewhat more senior, found that the force of gravity took rather more
overcoming that we would have liked but, nonetheless, we eventually managed to
reach the summit point, Dixon Heights, a good
place to eat one’s lunch.
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Here are the remains of an old tower, well positioned as a viewing point,
both over the estuary.....
.....
and back to Newton Fell North.
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That was the end of
the climbing. Our route down led us
across the A590 without incident to the old road descending into Lindale where
there were numerous items of interest to be spotted in the village, particularly
concerning John Wilkinson - Ironmaster.
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At the far end, we
collected the car from its resting place and set off to the Hare & Hounds
to apply Newton’s fourth law of motion:
What goes up must go down. In
other words, although the price of beer may have increased, it still needs to
be supped.
Don, Thursday 16th
April 2026
Thanks to TV Mike for some of the photos
*WOLF=
Wainwright OutLying
Fell
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