Mungrisdale, in the Northern Fells, is going from being one of the most digitally deprived parishes in the country to one of the best served.
Full gigabit fibre broadband went live at Mungrisdale village hall following a battle of more than a decade to end broadband isolation in this corner of the Lake District.
Half of the parish is open fell, with the boundary running dramatically along Blencathra’s Sharp Edge.
Neighbouring areas have commonly had fibre cabinets in the villages for years, while Mungrisdale has been left to struggle on with yesteryear copper wires running for miles and miles from four telephone exchanges, all of which are outside the parish.
For two years, volunteers led by former BBC News Channel presenter Chris Eakin have been working closely with B4RN, Broadband for the Rural North, based in Lancashire, to bring fibre not only to the parish but directly to each of 150 properties — so called fibre to the premises.
B4RN is active in parts of the Eden Valley, but its network is 15 miles from Mungrisdale so locals pledged a minimum of £200,000 investment to ease the burden of the extra cost of bridging the gap from Penrith.
As a not-for-profit, community organisation, B4RN lays fibre across farmland without paying the landowners. In Mungrisdale, almost all of 50 landowners agreed to sign a wayleave. It is a process run entirely by the volunteers.
“It simply could not happen without the goodwill of the landowners, who are mostly farmers,” said Mr Eakin. “This feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity for Mungrisdale.
“Most people understand that broadband is the latest vital utility. Yet, without B4RN, there was a real danger we would be expected to muddle on with mobile or satellite broadband and all their weaknesses and expense. That risks exacerbating the digital divide.
“A B4RN project is about self-help. We have had 20 volunteers on this. It absorbs colossal time and energy but without that commitment you get left behind.
“Now, our parish has a couple of off-grid houses with no mains electricity, but full gigabit fibre broadband. It is incredible.”
Dairy farmer Steven Hunter, in Berrier, is looking forward to getting maximum benefit from a quarter-of-a-million pounds investment on three robotic milk and feed machines.
They look after 160 Friesian cows, and the remote monitoring will now be more reliable with fast internet.
“This is quite something,” he said. “And I might even use online auctions. I haven’t dared before now because they keep buffering.”
On the day of the official switch-on, village hall trustee and B4RN volunteer Mike Sutton said: “Yesterday we had about half a megabit dribbling in on the old phone line.
“Today, it is 960 megabits. I can’t believe Mungrisdale has gone from bottom to top of the pile!”
The first 35 houses have gone live this week and the whole project should be finished within a few months.
