Continuing my series about my holiday in the Lake District with a look at Grasmere.
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my holiday in the Lake District. After Brockhole the regular mode of transport changed from boat to bus and the focus of our explorations shifted away from the immediate vicinity of Windermere. There is a very comprehensive bus service in this part of the world, and my parents car remained parked in Ambleside from our arrival on the Saturday until the Thursday morning when I was given a lift to Oxenholme The Lake District station. If I find myself staying in Ambleside again I will book to Windermere and catch a bus into Ambleside, avoiding car use altogether.
THE TOPE CONNECTION
One of the books in Rebecca Tope’s Lake District series is called “The Grasmere Grudge”, so I was interested to see the place for myself. There are more places connected with this series of books to come.
THE BUS JOURNEY
We had long wait for the bus due to epic quantities of car traffic using the road (I reckon a lot of people had had the ‘cunning’ idea of delaying travelling to the Lake District until the Tuesday after the bank holiday and that is why it was so hugely busy on that occasion – we saw fairly heavy traffic on other occasions but nothing quite like this), and the first bus was too full to admit us. The second which arrived very shortly after was very sparsely populated and we got seats in the open topped section, which made for a very enjoyable journey through a very scenic area.
GRASMERE
Grasmere is where the poet Wordsworth along with many relations was buried, and there is some good riverside walking (the river in question being the Rydal) there as well. The church at Grasmere is at least the third to have stood on that site, there having been churches there since the seventh century.
The first in what will be a series of posts about my long weekend away doing family related things – setting the scene and telling the story of the first day..
I have been away for a few days, mostly without internet connection, doing various family related things. This post is the first of several I shall be doing about the events of those few days (Saturday 14 to Tuesday 17 August inclusive). Before getting into the meat of today’s post I will set out the most noteworthy events of the days in question so that you can orient yourselves.
THE ITINERARY IN BRIEF
I had a fixed return date of the Tuesday as I had an NAS West Norfolk related commitment that evening (I could only have stayed one further night anyway, as I have recently returned to work on a one day per week basis, that day being Thursday). The events between Saturday morning and Tuesday evening were as follows:
Saturday morning: travel from King’s Lynn to Kegworth in the east midlands for a barbecue at a cousin’s house.
Saturday afternoon: barbecue, followed by a visit to the cave of St Hardulph and a church that claims a connection to that story.
Saturday evening/night: Holiday Inn, South Normanton, with a supper at the Brewers Fayre.
Sunday morning/ early afternoon: South Wingfield for a thanksgiving service in honour of Ivy Helen Joy Handforth, daughter of a cousin of mine.
Sunday afternoon/early evening: travel from South Wingfield to Akeld Manor near Wooler, Northumberland.
Monday: Holy Island (Lindisfarne) and Bamburgh (Bebbanburg in Bernard Cornwell’s Uhtred series).
Tuesday morning: Brief exploration of Berwick Upon Tweed before catching a train from that town.
Tuesday late morning/ afternoon/ early evening: train journey in four parts: Berwick – York, York – Peterborugh, Peterborough – Ely, Ely – King’s Lynn.
Tuesday late evening: Steak Night at The Globe on King Street, King’s Lynn
I cover the important bits of Saturday in this post. Sunday may take two posts, Monday definitely will, likewise Tuesday.
KEGWORTH
My sister picked me up for the journey to Kegworth. We were a little late setting out, but arrived there at 1:00PM. Before the barbecue we took Covid-19 tests in preparation for the following day. The barbecue itself was excellent, and there were various relations present who I had met either rarely or in one case never before. We were among the last guests to leave, at which point we headed for…
ST HARDULPH’S CAVE
St Hardulph is generally reckoned to have previously been King Eardwulf of Northumbria. He spent his last years living reclusively in a cave in what is now Derbyshire (it is not far from Repton, which numbers CB Fry and Roald Dahl among its alumni).
There is one clearly sculpted column in the cave that looks very ecclesiastic – it may have originally been formed in the usual manner of cave columns by the meeting of stalactite and stalagmite but that is definitely not the whole story.
The nearby church is also quite impressive. I opted out of taking a look at Repton Prep School, being by that point very tired.
The journey on to to Holiday Inn South Normanton where we were spending Saturday night was reasonably smooth (one minor confusion involving a wrong exit from a roundabout, but that did not cost us much time). The rooms at the Holiday Inn were fine, and the supper at the Brewers Fayre was of acceptable quality.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
I took a number of shots of the fishpond at Kegworth.
Lavender at Kegworth, alive with bees, as it should be.
The Church, near where we began our expedition to the caves.
The column mentioned in the text (apologies on behalf of the mindless thugs responsible for it for the graffiti that mars the cave).
‘Poor Man’s Orchid’…
…very popular with pollinators.
My father’s choice of drink with supper (two pictures)
My choice of drink with supper (three pics to show all the detail on the glass).
I am treating this as the first of a series of related posts owing to the fact that time restrictions on Wednesday when I took the photographs that are its raison d’etre meant that we (my mother and I) accounted for barely a tithe of the interesting buildings in the village (East Rudham).
We had hoped to start with the Manor House but this was not accessible, although the publicly accessible part of its driveway provided an angle to capture the rear window of The Old Reading Room and also a section of brick and flint wall…
Brick and flint walls are classic for the part of Norfolk.
The rear window of The Reading Room
Having got a shot of the rear window of the building, The Old Reading Room was an obvious next port of call…
The front door of the Old Reading Room
A close up of the name plate.
Just across the road from the Old Reading Room, is the Wesleyan Chapel, these days a private residence rather than a religious building…
The Wesleyan Chapel
A close up of the name and date plate.
After the Wesleyan Chapel came several very quirky specimens of local archiecture at the near end of School Road…
The lines of brickwork show the original shape of this building.
A modern version of a brick and flint gable end.
This outhouse roof section was a real curio.
Another gable end whose history can be read clearly!
Brick and flint is the regular mix in this part of the world, but this building features brick and carr (the dark brown stone)
From the near end of school road, we proceeded round the south side of the village green, starting with a shot of a section of brick and flint wall and continuing with a couple of a large barn behind which lurks a modern house…
Before proceeding to take front on shots of the barn and the cottages that adjoin it, I took a couple of panoramic views from the green…
The line of properties on the main road ends with one that until recently was both an eyesore and a health hazard (years of neglect had left it so run down that even the rats had moved on)
The village pub and the tea room next door to it.
The barn has a very fancy weathercock above it…
Next we come to two cottages painted in pastel colours (one yellow, one blue)…
The yellow cottage
Both cottages in one shot
The blue cottage
These two properties are separated by the width of what I have called “Fox Gate” from the detached cottage called Caradon…
“Fox Gate”
Caradon
The name plate
Between Caradon and the old post office (a very short distance) were a number of other properties to be photographed…
The building that used to be the post office is now much improved from the mouldering wreck it had become before restoration…
From here, via a shot of the side of the pub it was on to the church, the approach to which goes past an old cottage…
I took several shots of the church, was is almost entirely 19th Century, with a few hints of older stuff around…
The entrance ti the building.
I spotted this quirky window on the way out of the churchyard.
Although it involved some mildly unpleasant walking, the churchyard provided a few other good brick and flint shots and a slightly tree obscured shot of the Manor House…
The penultimate phase of this picture gathering expedition involved taking close ups of London House and the adjoining building that had not so long ago been an eyesore and a health hazard – there were loose tiles on the roof, and a not terribly wide pavement between the front of the building and the A148 (and for all that for that part of its length IT IS THE VILLAGE STREET not many motorists take due note of this important fact)…
This is the replacement for the derelict shop which had become an eyesore and a health hazard.
And this is London House
The name plate.
The final picture was this ‘home shot’ – on the right of the shot as you look is Mulberry Coach House and straight ahead is part of Mulberry Barn (this property now forms a right-angle, as two loose boxes have been converted into extra rooms)…
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