A person who for 56 years guided walkers throughout the treacherous sands of Morecambe Bay, has died, aged 88.
Cedric Robinson was the longest-serving Queen’s Information to the Sands, a job created in 1548 throughout the dissolution of the monasteries, when the reigning monarch inherited an obligation to nominate guides for travellers over the sands of the bay.
For a wage of £15 a yr, he steered a whole lot of 1000’s of individuals away from the quicksands and fast-filling channels of the ever-changing bay, together with Prince Phillip and Victoria Wooden.
In a tribute, the Information over Sands Belief mentioned “now Cedric, it’s time to relaxation your sandy toes”.
Born right into a cockle fishing household within the village of Flookburgh, close to Grange-over-Sands, Robinson knew the sands like no different. He would lead big teams of walkers throughout the bay in naked toes, his denims and shirt sleeves rolled up and a workers in his hand, ensuring his friends crossed safely, often from Arnside to Kents Financial institution.
He was compelled right into a reluctant retirement in 2019 after struggling to get well from two hernia operations, guiding walkers in his tractor in his later years. “I believed I might go on for ever. My dad lived till he was 103,” Robinson advised the Guardian then, clearly not fairly at peace with the concept of hanging up the whistle he used to cease walkers going off target. “I at all times thought the day I retire can be the worst day of my life.”
In 1963 Robinson and his spouse, Olive, moved into Guides Farm, a ramshackle cottage proper on the coast in Kents Financial institution which comes with the job. Within the early years they’d no electrical energy or working water and even lately an open fireplace was their predominant supply of heating. They have been allowed to remain after his retirement, and Olive died there in August, aged 96.
Robinson liked the movie star side of the job and by no means bored with regaling guests along with his extra uncommon crossings. Most traversed the bay on foot – although Prince Philip used a horse-drawn carriage.
His voice would drop when he talked of the Bay’s darkest hour, when 23 Chinese language cockle pickers died in 2004.
If somebody proposed an concept that tickled Robinson, he often gave it a go. As soon as he crossed with 27 geese as a fundraising stunt for an arthritis sufferer. On one other event he hid within the bay from Anneka Rice for an episode of Treasure Hunt (“I used to be questioning if the helicopter and crew have been ever going to search out us, however ultimately they did,” he recalled in one of many many volumes of his memoirs). As soon as he took Rick Stein out fishing for flounder. The TV chef mentioned the flounder have been “equally nearly as good as contemporary halibut”, Robinson remembered proudly in 2019.
Earlier this yr he joined his successor, Michael Wilson, guiding a gaggle of naturists throughout the bay. “Once we requested if he was getting out of his tractor he merely replied, ‘no, I’ve the most effective view from up right here!’” remembered Wilson on Saturday.
A household spokesman mentioned: “He pioneered fundraising cross-bay walks and was chargeable for main 6,000 charity walkers a yr, avoiding the treacherous quicksands and harmful areas.”
In a press release, Wilson and different marshals from the Information Over Sands Belief mentioned: “It’s with nice unhappiness that we write this publish. Final night time on the grand age of 88 our beloved Cedric Robinson closed his eyes for the final time, Cedric is now at peace and is along with his spouse Olive who he missed a lot.
“Cedric had an enormous following and we all know that this information will make the group shed a tear upon studying this.
“Cedric joined us this yr out on the sand – despite the fact that he had retired he saved going all he might. Now Cedric it’s time to relaxation your sandy toes and control us from up there.”