Norman Duerden, FRSA, 1919 - 2013

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about Norman Duerden after discovering some of his photographic books in a Lake District bookshop. He had been my primary school teacher 50 years ago and had been instrumental in encouraging the class to understand and enjoy the natural environment. In the way that the internet works, his family found the blog a couple of months later and made contact. We exchanged several emails and Norman was said to be"genuinely delighted to hear that you had remembered him and valued his input in your life." Norman sent me a note which was very touching:

"Thankyou indeed; golden days, eh? - a mere step from 92 years to wayward cricket balls and leg-breaks over the school roof. Please remember me to the glorious hills at your very back door, won't you? I hope that my little friend the dotterel still rides the June snow-storm on Drumochter."

Later, as he was beginning to have difficulty of recall, he wrote me a poignant note in what he described as 'my terrible scribbles'.
"That peerless Victorian naturalist, Richard Jefferies was never to experience the dubious delight of old age, but he lived long enough to realize the truth - that faces fade like flowers. Neither is there any recall. I listen to music, but can no longer hear the Willow Warbler. Computers are a complete mystery, I can no longer cut my own toe nails, but enjoy fish and chips. I am 92 next month. Thank you so much for remembering me. Norman"

A few weeks ago the family contacted me to say that Norman was in a nursing home and had not long to go. I attended his funeral on 11 January 2013 and reflected that he had made a difference in the way that teachers and others can, not by supervising and controlling children, but by giving them respect and imbuing their charges with a sense of wonder. The funeral was in the Overdale crematorium near Horwich, where he had stayed during his last year to receive care and support from his family. As always with people of his vintage, his peers and friends had mainly passed away but the minister conducted a reflective and reverent service for family and friends. This included moving tributes from two of his stepsons and an old friend.

Norman was indubitably linked with the Ribble Valley. After serving in the RAF as a radio operator and photographer, he played football with Preston North End and became a teacher in that remarkable tranche of post war teachers who were trained after the war and brought real life experiences into the classroom. He lived in Ribbleton in Preston and taught at Ribbleton Hall Primary School, he went on to become vice Principal of Alston Hall College of Education, which sat on a scarp slope overlooking the River Ribble.

He lived out his years further up the Ribble Valley where he was close to the Yorkshire Dales and the Trough of Bowland. He had been celebrated as a photographer for his slide shows that were primarily about bird and wildlife but also captured the geological splendours of the limestone country around Malham and Settle. An area that captivates the spirit and detonates a yearning to return. These are areas he captured in photographs, sketches and sound recordings which became the basis for his lectures, radio broadcasts and books.

His writing had an authentic quality that is reflected in his broadcasts and books. This extract from one of his books on the Dales provides an insight into his deep appreciation as a naturalist of the limestone country of the upper Ribble valley.

'Each of its many manifestations - pavement, scarp, pothole, scree and outcrop - provides a new array of species particularly exciting to the newcomer. Half a century on, one remembers above all the initial impact of its austere beauty and its infinite photographic possibilities. Its high places were more frequented by waders _ golden plover, lapwing, and dunlin _ than by humans. Foxes infrequently seen by day were revealed by an abundance of cat like prints after overnight snow; badgers had frolicked on the fell side..'

He corroborated in the publishing of books about the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the Birds of Scotland. These included publications with Denis Healey and Melvin Bragg as well as other  eminent photographers. Norman was not only a notable photographer but also an artist with a large portfolio of paintings, both oil and water-colour, that are to be shown in a retrospective collection later this year. He visited Scotland frequently and as his note indicates he was inspired by some of Britain's rarer species that breed in the Cairngorm mountains. The photographs below are taken from his published books.

Dotterel at  Drumochter

Peregrine Falcon

Although he was firmly grounded in the delights of the Ribble Valley he had a wider compass and was a regular visitor to Grindelwald in the Swiss Alps, which sits adjacent to the alpine meadows below the Eiger in the Jungfrau region. He also travelled wider to South Africa and the Middle East photographing the fauna and flora.

Norman opened the minds of many of his pupils to the environment around them and was recognised as an authoritative voice and authentic recorder of natural history by his peers. He did this with a modesty and style that showed his passion for the wildlife and natural environment of the Ribble Valley and the Dales. He is survived by his wife Maureen and daughter Pam.