Tuesday 24th September 2019, Cumbria
This morning we visited the attractive little market town of Brampton just a few miles to the north of where we are camping. We found it to be charming despite the difficulty of parking. It has the most wonderful foodhall selling local produce and it is well worth anybody's making the tortuous journey through the maze of little roads to reach the town.
Brampton. Cumbria.
Brampton. Cumbria.
It also has a fine 18th century bridge while nearby is Lanercoste Priory, founded as an Augustinian foundation in 1169. It had lived through turbulent times in a lawless region. Its main claim to fame was that Edward I, the Hammer of the Scots was there for six months whilst on campaign. He was ill with dysentery so effectively, as he had the privy seal to hand (so to speak), England was ruled from Lanacoste almost on Hardian's Wall in 1306. He died shortly after leaving the Priory, at Burgh sands where there is a monument on the shore of the Solway Firth. We spoke to Cristine Boyce, a local parishoner in the church who had made a stained glass window as a gift to the priory church in 2006 to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the royal visit. She had also worked as a needlewoman on the copy of the badly deteriorated dossal embroidery hung behind the main altar produced by William Morris & Co. in 1887. The dossal was commissioned by George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle, an artist and philanthropist, who also worked with Burne-Jones and William Morris to provide stained glass windows for the priory.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
Lanercost. Cumbria.
We continued to Silloth for lunch at "Mrs Wilson's", a former bank building named after Kathleen Ferrier who had lived there before finding international fame as a contralto singer. The walls were covered with photos and memorabilia of the singer. Silloth was spaciously laid out as a seaside resort on the Solway Firth from the mid 19th century, with a grid pattern of wide streets, some of them cobbled, lined with low houses. A broad green leads down to the sea with views across to the Scottish hills on the far shore. For years the seaside town welcomed holiday makers and day trippers from Liverpool and Manchester as well as the other industrial towns of the north.
Silloth. Cumbria.
Kathleen Ferriers home, Silloth. Cumbria.
Rain reached Silloth as we were on the sea front about two o'clock. We ended up back at Cumwinton after a fruitless search for alternative campsites with hard standing en route. The narrow lanes to the campsite were flooded and unsurprisingly, we are the only people here.
Wednesday 25th September 2019, Cumbria
Today we returned to Bampton for some shopping en route to friends Peter and Jill in Wetherell. We found them surrounded, as ever, by books and piles of reviews. Peter, a lapsed librarian, indexer and friend of Jill's from student days in Manchester, still keeps a keen eye on publications and produces periodic surveys of recent publications of children's books and other literary genres. His wife, confusingly also called Jill, is keen on local history and genealogy and they are a great source of suggestions for books to read and places to visit. These and other matters were discussed over lunch in the village pub and we returned to their home for tea and biscuits. As we prepared to leave them and return to the campsite it was still teeming with rain and water was rising outside the entrance to their drive where a normally dry spring had started flowing copiously! We left during a break in the downpour and returned to our pitch in Cumwinton to learn that just a few miles away in Cumwhitton not a drop had fallen!
Thursday 26th September 2019, Cumbria
The rain had set in this morning as we made our way south towards Kendal. The heavens opened just as we found one of the few free parking spaces in Penrith so we were forced back into Modestine and decided to continue as far as Sedbergh, a little stone town where the main road snaked between the houses leaving little room to manoeuvre. Jill had noticed a craft centre at Farfield Mill a little to the east of Penrith and it proved to be a perfect place to pamper ourselves with hot coffee, warm radiators and a flickering fireplace before browsing the wonderful display of craft and woollen goods. Outside, the rough moorland hill sheep bleated in the rain while they stoically munched their way across the sodden hillside. Come the spring and warmer weather they will be shorn to provide the continuing supply of wool needed for next year's warm scarves and gloves as well as those wonderful hand-produced soft woollen designer jumpers! Secure in the knowledge that we could neither afford, nor accommodate in Modestine any of the wonderful items for sale, we spent a happy couple of hours in the mill admiring the woollen craft work - spinning, weaving, knitting, felting - and a welcome coffee and jacket potato for lunch.
Sedbergh. Cumbria.
Sedbergh. Cumbria.
Farfield Mill near Sedbergh. Cumbria.
We continued south to Kendal, returning through Sedburgh. It was still raining when we reached Kendall and made our way to the converted mill complex with its golf course and crashing moorland river that once produced the energy to run the mill. It's now been converted into luxury flats. One of these is home to Ian's sister - really confusingly also named Jill!
Old Mill stream near Kendal. Cumbria.
Golf Course near Kendal. Cumbria.
Two Jills, Kendal. Cumbria.
Friday 27th September 2019, Cumbria
Today with Jill, we visited the Ruskin and Turner exhibition in Kendal Art Gallery held on the occasion of the bicentenary of Ruskin's birth. The paintings showed a concentration on clouds and weather. Constable, Turner and Ruskin were all influenced by clouds and skyscapes - reflecting the effect of industrialisation on climate. Even then there was an awareness of global warming as they recorded the retreat of glaciers in the Swiss Alps. The main gallery had an excellent collection of portraits and other works by George Romney, a local lad made good.
In the afternoon we sheltered from the perpetual rain in the Arts Centre cinema watching "Downton Abbey".
Kendal Arts Centre, Cumbria.
