The local civic society has been busy in Grange-over-Sands, putting up lots of blue plaques to explain various bits of the town's history and/or interesting buildings. There's one for the church, another for the municipal clock tower, and also several celebrating more obscure nooks and crannies. One of these announces that a detached, relatively old-looking [...]
After a weekend when both of us had to put in a fair bit of work, we took this morning off and headed for the small "seaside" town of Grange-over-Sands, about twenty miles south. I use seaside in quotes because it's on the shores of Morecambe Bay rather than the actual coast, and also because [...]
A whole year has whizzed by since the last set of Heritage Open Days and suddenly they're on us again. This year it's better than ever since the event lasts for two weekends rather than one, with the same fascinating mix of history and culture to explore. We're whizzing about ourselves at the moment and [...]
For a complete change on Saturday we headed to the east of Cumbria, to a small town we'd never been to before - Appleby, or Appleby-in-Westmorland to give it its full name. Appleby lies on the River Eden not far from the Pennine heights of Cross Fell, Great Dun Fell and the like. It's famous [...]
Last weekend was the Heritage Open Days event, when dozens of otherwise inaccessible (or expensive!) historical properties fling open their doors to the general public. This doesn't just mean stately homes, but all sorts of smaller, less-well-known, or downright unusual venues. In previous years we've visited everything from Unitarian chapels to art installations in barns, [...]
What do you do on a damp September Monday morning, when you've had your latest novel rejected and are feeling a bit down in the dumps? In our case we stuck two fingers up at work and headed into Kendal to do a bit more poking about. And had a surprisingly fun time again. This [...]
Saturday was a day of what's optimistically described as 'intermittent showers', which means it alternates between thick drizzle and bucketing. We didn't fancy kicking our heels round the house all day, so buzzed into Kendal with our brollies to do a bit of poking about. Although the town is only around 10 miles away, and [...]
