A former Maryport man makes a yearly pilgrimage to West Cumbria to revisit his roots. 

Howard Pattinson is now 95 and lives in Manchester, but has made the day trip for more than 40 years to the place he will always regard as home. 

He was born in Dearham and moved to Maryport when he was three years old. 

He was brought up 93 John Street.

He joined the railway at 16 and worked right down the west coast, from Wigton to Ulverston. 

Howard said he had seen a lot of funny things while working on the line, especially the day when a pigeon became a cow. 

During the war, many railway personnel joined up and civilians took over the running of stations with more enthusiasm than knowledge.

Howard said: “In those days a lot of pigeon fanciers would send their pigeons to Carlisle by train.

“A man came to Flimby with his solitary pigeon. The acting statio master looked up the book which listed what could be sent by train and at what cost.

“He told the fancier that it would cost 19/6. The fancier who was expecting it to cost no more than a shilling asked why.

"The station master replied that he could not find any mention of pigeons in his list so he was sending the bird as a cow!”

In 1942, he was finally released from what was considered essential work and joined the RAF. 

He said: “I was sent to South Africa for training as a pilot but ended up in a crash that left me in hospital for months.

“I met my wife Caroline there. She was in administration in the South Africa Army and was working out of the hospital I was in.”

The couple returned to Maryport where they achieved two records.

“We were told that our son, Rod, was the longest baby to have been born at Maryport hospital and that our daughter, Norma, was the shortest."

Promotion within the railway means Howard has now been out of Maryport for as long as he lived here.

But he always returns, because it will always be home.

He also comes because he wants to catch up with his cousin, Irene Maxwell and her husband Robert, who live in Dearham.

The other reason, he says, are the Cumberland sausages at the Captain Nelson pub he eats for his annual pilgrimage lunch.