BBC Cumbria Sport

Cumbria's James Knox (pictured) finished 14th in cycling's Giro d'Italia, as fellow Briton Tao Geoghegan Hart became only the second British man to win the Italian tour.

Image source, Getty Images

Martin Lewes
Reporter

A number of organisations and businesses around Cumbria are offering meals for children who would normally have free school lunches.

Image source, Gatehouse Cafe

Some are cafes, like the Gatehouse in Carlisle (above), where owner Val Armstrong's efforts were backed up by Jojo Scott and Faye Roberts from the Healthy Living Fitness Kitchen, (below), who made up 200 meals.

Image source, Gatehouse Cafe

Other cafes providing meals around Cumbria included Joey's Cafe in Kendal, the Sunnyhill in Whitehaven and Berry's Tearoom in Brampton, where the owner, Lesley Berry, says she shouldn't have to do it, but she is determined to help.

Work is under way to improve passenger and freight journeys over the Ribblehead viaduct.

The landmark structure, just over the border from Cumbria in North Yorkshire, carries the Settle-Carlisle railway.

Image source, Network Rail

The 144-year-old viaduct will have its drainage improved and brickwork restored between now and February 2021, including:

• brickwork repairs
• removal of vegetation and repairing the damage caused by plants and weeds
• upgrades to drainage across the viaduct’s 24 arches
• repainting metal and pipework

Engineers are installing scaffolding to provide a safe platform to carry out repairs to the 400m structure.

No major disruption is expected for passengers using the Settle-Carlisle line during the viaduct's 2020 maintenance.

Image source, Network Rail

BBC Weather Watchers

After a very wet morning in Cumbria, the sun came out behind the showers, and in Flookburgh Louise Farrington saw it create three rainbows.

Image source, Louise Farrington

Louise was kind enough to send the picture to our colleagues at Salford, but you can also email them or tweet them, external directly to us.

Cumbria's charities, councils and health services have put together a new help package, external which they say can put people in touch with problems stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.

A single webpage is intended to put people in touch with help close to their home, whether they need support because they are in quarantine and cannot leave home, feeling mental strain or need help with problems like alcohol.

Image source, Cumbria County Council

Councillor Deborah Earl, Cabinet Member for Public Health and Communities, said people "might feel overwhelmed, scared or find yourself in a position you have never experienced before."

And Carolyn Otley, Chair of Cumbria’s Local Community Resilience Group, said the financial pressures on some people were increasing: “We want people to know there is help available, it’s ok to look for that help and it’s ok to talk to a friend or family member or to someone else about how you are feeling."

• The services and contacts are also available by telephone during office hours on 0800 783 1966.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of people infected with Covid-19 in Carlisle, according to figures analysed by the BBC.

The statistics to last Friday show 244 new cases in the city, compared with 158 the previous week.

The number of new cases in Barrow has dropped slightly, but it still has the highest rate of infection in Cumbria, at 262 per 100,000 population, and both Carlisle and Eden are now above 200 cases per 100,000 population.

BBC Newcastle
BBC Radio Newcastle

A man who has been walking the length of Hadrian's Wall in just a pair of Speedos, walking boots and a Roman helmet has given us an update on his gruelling journey.

John Myatt set off from Wallsend on Friday morning, bound for Cumbria, to raise money for a charity close to his heart - Rugby for Heroes.

The 48-year-old is hoping to finish his challenge today, but says it hasn't been easy, with obstacles including heavy rain and taking a wrong turn which delayed him by two hours on Friday.

More than £40,000 pounds has been given to voluntary groups and charities in Cumbria, to help them to withstand the impact of coronavirus.

The money is from the Police and Crime Commissioner's Covid-19 Community Recovery Fund.

Recipients include organisations such as Appleby Deanery, a youth group in Tebay, and Growing Well, a charity that helps people recovering from mental illness, by getting them involved in growing fruit and vegetables.

The grants awarded in September range from just over £700 to £5,000 and over the past few months, the Recovery Fund has given out a total of more than £186,00.

BBC Weather

Showers and cloud are likely for a time this afternoon, flowing in with brisk north-westerlies, and the rainfall could be quite heavy.

Drier and brighter conditions are expected to develop later with highest temperatures from 9C to 12C (48F to 54F).

The Met Office has posted a yellow warning of heavy rain, external for later this week, saying up to 80mm (3in) could fall on higher ground between noon on Thursday and the end of Friday.

And you can always find the latest,, hour-by-hour, BBC weather forecast for where you are, by typing in your location or postcode here.

For most of us, changing clocks at this end of the summer means an extra hour in bed.

For people like health professionals and clinicians, who work through the night, it means an extra hour on shift.

A yellow weather warning has been issued by the Met Office, external for Thursday afternoon and all of Friday, saying up to 80mm (3in) of rain could fall on high ground over Cumbria.

Image source, Met Office

A Cumbrian musician who was working as a singer on a cruise ship, has had to returned her Maryport home because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Image source, Chelsea Reynolds

Like nearly all musicians, Chelsea Reynolds depends on live performances for a living, and has found work drying up completely because of the coronavirus pandemic.

She is now working in a supermarket, packing online grocery orders, and says that while venues like theatres have been given money, the performers have had nothing.

The lead singer of one of Cumbria's best-known bands says it has lost major opportunities but found time to make a new album because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Jonny Foster, the lead singer of the band Hardwick Circus, from Carlisle, says the band lost the opportunity to perform at a major music festival in Texas, which would have included meetings with people from the American record industry.

Image source, Hardwicke Circus

Other Cumbrian musicians who've struggled have sometimes had to find other work, and a report suggests the live music industry has lost more than 80% of its revenue, external with the closure of almost all venues, but Jonny Foster believes it will return.

The boardwalk onto Roanhead, a National Trust nature reserve near Barrow, has been damaged after someone tried to burn off used fireworks.

Image source, CFRS

Station manager Roger Exley said on social media that the fire had caused damaged to the access area and walkways to the beach area, along with the disabled access.

One of Cumbria's biggest museums is trying to make its collections reflect more of the lives of people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Tullie House, in Carlisle, wants members of the public to donate paintings and artefacts, to make its displays more diverse.

Image source, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery

Currently one of the few items in the collection is this painting of Fanny Eaton, who was born in Jamaica and painted by a number of top Victorian Pre-Raphaelite artists after she moved to London.

Cumbria's history includes the first recorded Africans in Britain, Roman legionaries who guarded a fort near Burgh by Sands.

The appeal is being highlighted to mark this year's Black History Month celebrations.

• Temperature at 3,000ft (900m): Around 4C to 5C (39F to 41F)
• Winds: Westerly breezes generally 20mph to 30mph gusting 40mph in the morning, later becoming north-westerly with gusts to 50 mph in the afternoon
• Cloud: Bases generally broken around 2,000ft to 2,600ft (600m to 800m)
• Weather: Heavy showers and cloud in the morning, with some possible thunder, easing into the afternoon when some sunny spells are likely, strong breezes throughout the dayand feeling quite chilly
• Visibility: Good or very good in valleys but generally poor above 2,000ft (600m) and in showers
• Freezing level: Above the summits.

The two adult beavers are released into a 27-acre enclosure in Cumbria.

A pair of beavers have been released in a controlled experiment on the huge Lowther estates in Cumbria.

The male and female were brought from Scotland, and there will be no public access to their enclosure, although there will be regular updates here, external.

David Harpley from the Cumbria Wildlife Trust chairs the Cumbria Beaver Group overseeing the trial and says that in other locations their work creating dams and ponds has reduced the flood risk downstream and improved water quality.

He says they will need some time to settle in.

Police in Barrow say the death of a woman whose body was found on Friday is still "unexplained".

The woman, who is said to be in her 50s, was found after officers were called to James Freel Close in the town.

Bringing you the latest news, travel and weather from across Cumbria from Monday 26 October to Friday 30 October, 2020.