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Coniston Water |
Coniston Water is famous for the grainy black and white footage of Donald Campbell’s Bluebird K7, lifting from the water on January 4th 1967. Although his final run never made the record books, the grainy footage of Bluebird’s dramatic end remain in people’s mind with abiding memories Britain’s last hero.
Sir Malcolm Campbell first used Coniston Water for record attempts when he brought Bluebird K4 to Coniston in 1939, where he broke the World Water Speed Record of 141.74 mph. After the war Sir Malcolm converted Bluebird K4 to jet power, and after many unsuccessful trials K4 was sent back for further modification, sadly Sir Malcolm died in 1948 and he never tested the revised craft.
Sir Malcolm’s son, Donald Campbell bought K4 and had her converted back to her 1939 configuration, and after trials in 1949 - 1951, he was unsuccessful. In 1951 Bluebird K4 hit a submerged log and the boat was broken up at the lakeside. By 1951 the World Water Speed Record was held by Stanley Sayers at 160.32 mph.
After Donald Campbell’s successful runs at Ullswater and Lake Mead in 1955, Bluebird K7 was brought to Coniston in 1956 and he broke the World Water Speed Record with a speed of 225.63 mph, in 1957 he achieved 239.07 mph, 1958 Donald set a speed of 248.62 mph, and in 1959 his last record on Coniston Water he achieved 260.35 mph.
In 1966, after the boat had been modified with a Bristol Siddeley Orpheus jet engine and a new tail fin had been added, Donald brought K7 to Coniston Water for his final attempt. Bluebird K7 arrived at Pier Cottage on November 2nd and the lorry, which Bluebird K7 was carried on, got stuck in the mud as the driver took a short cut. This led to bad publicity for Donald. He did not expect to see the headlines ‘Bluebird stuck in mud’, and during the later 60’s Campbell’s popularity had declined. People were more interested in the space race, and not his small operation in breaking 300 mph.
After much bad luck, his engine was destroyed within the first week; the boat would not plane, and had to be resolved by adding sand bags to Bluebird’s stern. The weather-prevented runs as the team had to endure horrific rain, for many weeks and this led to added pressure for Donald.
When conditions were perfect, the boat would not be ready and vice versa, after several runs things looked promising. Donald took out Bluebird K7 on Christmas day without the timekeepers present and he unofficially broke his own record.
On 4th January 1967, the lake had a glass like surface, and Donald felt this was the day. The previous night he had been playing Patience and turned over the ace of spades and queen of spades. Being a superstitious man, Donald recalled that Mary Queen of Scots had drawn these cards the night before she was be-headed. Donald took this as a bad omen, and the press liked to gloat on this.
Donald made a run starting at 8.42 am and on the run northwards he achieved a speed of 297 mph, Donald needed to achieve 303 mph on his return run to break the 300 mph barrier, or he could return at a slower speed and break his own record of 276.33 mph.
Without re-fuelling, he swung Bluebird round and made a return run. Without speaking to Leo Villa or waiting for the wash of his first run to die in, Donald put his foot down and began to get in trouble. The boat was tramping badly and disaster finally struck. The sponsons were raised out of thaw water and Bluebird’s nose rose by over 6 degrees, and she finally lifted out of the water and turned a full somersault. Donald was still doing his commentary right to the end. A brave ands heroic man died that day, and the Campbell legend was created.
Divers found the boat in 140 feet of water, and found that she had split in two halves. His widow Tonia Burn-Campbell wished that the ‘skipper stays with his boat, and the boat stays with the skipper’, and the body of Donald and Bluebird remained in Coniston Water until March 2001.
A team of divers led by Bill Smith raised Bluebird K7 in March 2001, and the K7 was brought back to the media’s interest. In May 2001, Donald’s body was finally recovered, and a post mortem was carried out.
On September 12th 2001, Donald was finally laid to rest in St Andrew’s new churchyard in Coniston, which is situated behind the Crown Hotel.
Coniston Village, which is about a mile away, has many Campbell items to see. The Black Bull pub has many photographs of Sir Malcolm and Donald hung on its walls, along with photo of Anthony Hopkins who played Donald in the BBC play ‘Across The Lake’ in 1988, and also serves superb pints of Bluebird Bitter and Old Man ale which are brewed on premises next to the pub. The Sun Hotel also features photographs, and this is where Donald stayed in his final attempt in 1966. The Ruskin Museum on Yewdale Road has a good Campbell display, and is worth a visit also. Walking along the main street at Coniston you also come across the Tourist Information centre, which outside is a memorial to Donald Campbell and Leo Villa, which the villagers erected in 1968.
The new graveyard, which is situated behind the Crown Hotel, features Donald’s grave, and can be seen. The headstone is painted black and has a bluebird on, which is a nice touch and quite fitting. Near by are the graves of Donald’s dear friend Connie Robinson and her husband.
Walking towards the lakeside is the Bluebird café, which sells Campbell memorabilia, and by the jetty is Donald’s original headstone, which was put on his grave in September 2001. His daughter Gina moved it in March 2002, as this was only temporary. So Coniston is an excellent place to visit, for Campbell enthusiasts and for people who want to pay their respects to two of Britain’s Record Breaking heroes.
‘Campbell On Coniston’ boat trips are run on this lake, and a commentary is done for about 90 minutes, showing all the famous landmarks used by Malcolm and Donald, but mainly refers to Donald’s 1966/67 attempt.
Around the lake, you can still see things, which were used in their record-breaking runs. Along the B5285 road you can see the Waterhead hotel where Sir Malcolm stayed on his record runs, and the famous Pier Cottage where Donald started all his runs. Along the shoreline you can still see one of the timing posts used to mark the Kilometre, which Donald used in his 1966/67 runs. Unfortunately, one has been vandalised but the other is still there.
Although mainly the Campbell’s used Coniston Water for their record -breaking runs, people such as Tony Fahey have since used Coniston Water. Fahey brought his unlimited boat ‘British Persuit’ for an attack at the Water Speed Record in 1982. After three week of trials, he was met by setbacks of gale-force winds, hail, rain and snow, and the boat could not reach high speeds. Nigel McKnight intends to use Coniston Water when his boat ‘Quicksilver’ is built, and will hopefully break Ken Warby’s record, and bring the Water Speed Record back to England.