Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), the inventor of dynamite, was a chemist, engineer, businessman and, most memorably, philanthropist; he was also a scholar, fluent in Russian, French, English and German. Above all, he loved poetry.
After decades of living in the slow lane of dial-up, DSL and rickety satellite connections, Egremont now has more than one company vying for the right to slake the town's thirst for the modern age.