25/08/10 Work will begin on the water treatment works at shap in the next few weeks,the work is expected to take 40 weeks to complete,some ground work has already begun.
23/08/10 Shap flower show next weekend.
24/07/10 For anyone who is interested in auctions ,dickinsons real deal is filming at 1818 auction in kendal on tuesday 27th july,pop along and you might pick up a bargain and appear on tv .
23/07/10 next weekend sees the the return of kendal calling music festival to the area ,this will mean an increase in traffic through the village from thursday onwards with several thousand people heading to the sold out festival at lowther.
19/07/10 Two cars were involved in a collision just out of the village at the weekend ,neither driver is thought to be seriously hurt following the collision at skew bridge.
09/07/10 As the rain pours down today it is hard to believe that this is the first day of a hosepipe ban in the area !! according to united utilities the water levels in haweswater are at such a low level that this ban had to be implemented ,to see for yourself how low the levels are  go to the page on haweswater - http://www.shapcumbria.info/haweswater--mardale.html  where you will find some photos taken yesterday which back up most local people's claims that it is not as low as is made out.
08/07/10 Many people will be wondering what all the tents were at wet sleddale last weekend ,to find out visit -
http://www.slmm.org.uk/
07/07/10 Several pages have been updated and new photos added
02/07/10 By popular demand another tale of woe from fred and bill on the laal bit crack fra westmorland page,it needs a laal bit of punctuation yet so don't be too hard with the criticism!! . And thanks for the comments good (or not so good) that keep coming in ,i read them all and take all suggestions on board,
and i will try and come up with another bill and fred tale as soon as possible so keep watching this space (or the laal bit crack page).
29/06/10 The co-op store in the village is to begin opening on sundays 10.00- 16.00 from next month .
20/06/10 The annual three rings of shap long distance walking challenge took place yesterday and again was well supported ,the participants were blessed with good walking weather and i think they have just about all finished ! more details of the event and past events can be found on - http://www.ldwa.org.uk/lgt/web_page.php?c=7&p=26
19/06/10 The recycling centre in the village seems to have become a dumping ground for all manner of household items,eden district council have been informed and will take action against anyone who is found to be flytipping. For those people who recycle responsibly the following link will show you what happens to the recycled items - http://www.recyclenow.com/how_is_it_recycled/index.html
12/06/10 Back by popular demand ,more from bill and fred on the laal bit crack page,just a short one on the world cup ,more coming soon!.
06/06/10 Dont forget it's shap silly sports day next weekend  sunday 13th june.
01/06/10 A campaign to save shap sports hall is underway ,the county council plans to demolish the hall and sell the land for housing, more details soon
24/05/10 Shap swiming pool opens this weekend, lets hope the weather holds up

07/05/10 The penrith and borders constituency has a new m.p ,he is conservative Rory stewart  more information on him can be found on www.rorystewart.co.uk  full results for the election can be found at - http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/election2010/results/constituency/d51.stm
28/04/10 The line up for this years kendal calling music festival held at lowther park gets better by the day the bands playing include -  The Doves, see them on you tube  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZgBKVBduQg   )  Stereo mcs .  The Coral  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VurVN7tKqfg   ) ,Badly drawn boy.  King blues.  British sea power,( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2n-7K0Ef6Y  )Calvin harris . go to  www.kendalcalling.com  for more details
27/04/10  A steam locomotive will be making its first ascent of shap on 24th june this year ,the tornado was built and is operated by the a1 steam locomotive trust,for more info on the june trip - http://www.a1steam.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=148
23/04/2010 . New page added to the website , google street view -check it out
18/04/2010 . Sorry for the lack of updates lately ,a few gremlins in the works,all sorted now i hope. Shap made the national news again last week as once again it was the coldest place in the country !
01/04/10 The cash machine in the village is no more,it was removed this week due to the recent burglary  and previous robberies .
16/03/10 Yet another burglary in shap,the post office was broken into in the early hours of this morning. The post office is closed until further notice ,(maybe if the police did a bit more policing in cumbria rather than getting awards for what they did in manchester more criminals would be caught,just a thought?)

 09/03/10 The co-op store finally re-opened this morning 

This was the scene that greeted shoppers at the co-op store on saturday ,police tape ,a boarded up door and notice saying closed until further notice , the shop is expected to re-open on monday afternoon . ( if there is ever a cash machine in shap again is another matter)

 
06/03/10 More information on incidents involving the police and fire service can be accessed via links on the contacts page.
06/03/10 In the early hours of this morning burglars once again targeted the shap co-op store ,  ,police and the fire service attended after the culprits smashed in the doors and for reasons best known to themselves then attempted to set fire to the cash machine. the fire service attended at 02.14 The fire was extinguished using two sets of breathing apparatus and one dry powder extinguisher. The appliance returned to station at 0346 hours .  The store is closed until further notice,  of all burglars caught for commiting crimes in the shap area almost all get a pathetic amount of community service as punishment so is it any wonder that the village is targeted again and again, only last week three men in court for a burglary at the corus quarry in the village were each given community service but no fines as  they had children to support! .Maybe if the local magistrates took a tougher stance it would act as a deterrent instead of shap being seen as a soft touch. The police must be getting sick of bothering to go to the trouble of catching the culprits (most of whom have previous records for similar offences) only to see magistrates let them off with a slap on the wrist .
17/02/10 Fire crews,ambulance  and police were called to a serious accident on the A6 south of shap this afternoon ,the accident near the pink quarry involved two vehicles which were in a head on collision,the extent of injuries to the occupants of the vehicles is not known at this time.
15/02/10 Thank you to all the people who are contacting the website with comments (some good ,some not so good) and suggestions .All your emails do get read but due to lack of time it is not always possible to reply, with regards to the people who have commented on spelin mitsakes and grammatical errors i apologise  and can only say it is mainly down to my typing skills (or lack of them !!)  because this website doesn't receive funding i can't afford to get it proof read before publishing and due to the lack of time  i have to update this site ,mistakes do happen and i will put them right when time allows. I have tried to concentrate on the content of the website getting interesting facts & figures/pictures  etc and will continue to try and find more ,i am sure the amount of material more than makes up for the mistakes and as someone commented it adds to the quirkiness !!.
27/01/10 Have you got anything you are thinking of throwing away that might be of use to someone else ? remember one mans rubbish is another mans treasure, check out freegle the new recycling craze sweeping eden district. Give stuff away or pick up stuff for nowt!! more details on   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PenrithEdenFreegle/   also see whats on page for upcoming freegle event.
25/01/10 Work begins today on the revamp of the zebra crossing in the centre of the village,the pavement will be widened and railngs installed in an attempt to make the crossing safer for pedestrians. Work will take up to 2 weeks and disruption can be expected with traffic signals in operation.
22/01/10 Bus passengers in shap have been inconvenienced for some time now because of inconsiderate drivers parking at bus stops thus preventing the buses from picking up passengers where they should with buses often having to go hundreds of yards down the road which is not ideal for all passengers but especially the more elderly among them. The response of cumbria county council to this problem is to deny it exsists because stagecoach (one of the bus companies on the route ) have not replied to them regarding this ,they also say they are not prepared to mark out bus bays on the road because this would mean cars having to park elsewhere !! Now i'm not a qualified highway engineer like the people who came up with this excuse but surely the point of having marked areas for buses is to make cars park elsewhere !! Another example of the lack of sense of the people who spend your council tax money. Anyone wishing to contact cumbria county council can do so using the links on the contacts page  (but don't expect an immediate response ,it has taken them 5 months to respond to this problem!!)
08/01/2010 . 1pm - Low temperature in last 24 hours of  a quite chilly  -15.8 

04/01/2010  .6pm -This mornings rant at cumbria county council seemed to have some effect as council workmen arrived in shap this afternoon and started throwing salt around. Maybe i'm being cynical but it didn't happen to have anything to do with a local news crew filming in shap did it ?? The salt bins are still mostly empty though .
The need for salt is underlined by last night and todays temperatures in the shap area  -it fell to -11.3c at 8am this morning and rising to a tropical - 3.4c by 2pm this afternoon !! details of latest weather can be found on  - http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/nw/shap_latest_weather.html      04/01/2010  Anyone using the pavements in shap this week should take great care as most of them remain unsalted,this is due to the total neglect of country areas by cumbria county council who only fill the salt bins in the village occasionally ,and when they do it's not salt but an inferior substitute which is used.
04/01/2010 The kings arms at shap was broken into yesterday (sunday) in the early hours,thieves broke in and ransacked the bar and gaming machines stealing drink ,money and chocolate. Anyone with any information should contact the police (see contacts page for details) , a list of last years crime stats for shap can be seen by viewing this link - http://maps.police.uk/view/?ll=54.5268597914023,-2.6780891418457075&z=12

 03/01/2010  Message on the cumbria police website - We are consulting with our Community, priorites will be set on 19 January 2010 at Shap Memorial Hall at 7.30 Please come along and have your say. 

A wintry start to the new year in shap