Soed Idee Jubileum week twenty one

 And the final place name for this trip has been added along with the name of the boat that Ian was sailing on at the weekend.

Exploring the Cumbria coast - Messing about on the Railway

 One of the reasons for ending up at Ravenglass was the theRavenglass and Eskdale Railway running between Ravenglass and Boot.

I have a soft spot for these small railways and we have visited several over the last few years. this time it  was just a short walk from the campsite to the railway so the railway cafe became a bit of a base for me whenever I found myself craving a coffee and some alone time with my spinning wheel.

We travelled the line from end to end, explore the mill and the museum and generally got our fix of steam.

One thing I hadn't realised was that the railway is celebrating its 150 years anniversary this year.

The last time I was here was for the 100th Anniversary !! now I'm giving my age away :-)

                                      Retro Filter, Something I rarely use but I think it fits here.

                                     

               I had to stop for lunch, who knew that clotted cream comes in a little glass jar, tasted good.

I was a little surprised to find needlework in the museum  but small cross stitch kits were sold in the 1990's to raise funds for the railway.

Finally we spotted that one of the engines that had been on the railway for the Gala the previous weekend was now making its way home.

Exploring the Cumbria coast - Eskdale Mill

Nestled into the edge of the lake district is Eskdale mill dating back to at least 1578, I arrived by train although that is a whole other post. Any chance to visit a working water mill is grabbed by both hands, I find anything mechanical fascinating regardless of what the end product.

Eskdale Mill is run by Eskdale Mill and Heritage Trust, and I would recommend following this link to their website to find out more about this wonderful place. The volunteers I spoke to were lovely and very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of this wonderful building. With a shop and picnic grounds it proved to be excellent value for money.

                                                                   Drying rack for grain

I find this type of technology fascinating :-)

and I always find an excuse for some weird photos

The wheels are the stars of the show, there are few double wheel mills still in existence, the last one I visited was at Dunster in Somerset.

looking at the floor inside the mill I noticed some interesting recycling going on.

spot the grinding stones

Speaking to the volunteers it appear s that although this mill is recorded as a corn mill and was last used commercially for grinding animal food it is thought that there is a possibility that it was also used as a fulling mill. This is based on the uncovering of a bath along with the space on the shaft to accommodate the equipment needed. There is also a carding mill along the river and the names of adjoining fields also relate to textile production.

I spotted another water mill from the railway which I assume is Muncaster mill

 

Soed Idee Jubileum week twenty

 Week twenty's pattern is the first one that I haven't liked. It was supposed to be cats but to me they just looked like blobs. I have now seen the cutsie cat that they were based on and I can sort of see the resemblance but I chose to do a simple Fair Isle band instead and add on another two locations.

suddenly it seems that this band is getting longer faster and I will have to think about hemming some more material to be able to carry on.

Is this an old sampler ?

 I was flicking through some books in a charity shop in Morecambe and this fell out from between them.

Again its stitched in wool on the same kind of fabric as the last one that I bought in Scotland, Its actually dirtier than in the picture and the colours are a bit faded but very bright on the back.

I know that it was stitched by Lizzie Cragg and some of the spacing is interesting but the Two things that I don't know are her age or the date, I don't think its a reproduction and it looks like a schoolgirl sampler but thats all I can really say about it.

I forgot to mention the price , just £1.00 

Exploring the Cumbria coast - Ravenglass

 Hi,

I'm just going to point out that the next few posts are not in the order that we visited them as I need to do a bit more research on a couple of things. Whilst planning this latest trip we looked for places that looked interesting but were not typically tourist spots as well as a few favourite well known haunts.

Ravenglass on the Cumbrian coast comes just inside the Lake District National Park even though it is on the coast. The main draw of this village is the Railway and the nearby Muncaster Castle which we will return to visit another time. 

We spent time on the railway exploring but also watched the sunset and relaxed a little.

As with many places that we visit, there were Roman remains, this time a bath house although a lot of imagination was needed.

I'll just leave this here

 

Just a fraction of the items washed up at Ravenglass, UK

Soed Idee Jubileum week nineteen

 To be honest, I'm a little surprised that I am keeping up with this SAL :-) but I am actually having a lot of fun with it.

In search of the rock coffins

 I recently had the chance to go to Heysham near Morecombe to look for some medieval coffins that had been carved out of the rocks by an old church, They featured on a Black Sabbath album some years ago so I was keen to see where they were actually located. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_of_Black_Sabbath

The best way for me to get there was to walk along the prom from Morecambe, past the painted house

past the climbing wall

past 'bring me sunshine'

past random facts about Morecambe

admiring the view as I went

until I could see the old town nestled amongst the trees on the promontory.

I was heading for St Peters Church first which was founded in the 7th or 8th century and recorded as an Anglo Saxon church in 1080. The building is partly dating from 1340-1350 although some of the original Anglo Saxon church is incorporated into the structure. various parts were added over the next few centuries.

I was searching for the 10th century Viking hogback stone which is covered with carvings. ( It proved very east to find as it was just inside the door ! )

the lighting was much better from the other side nearer the window

( I hate using flash on photos but sometimes there is no choice)

can you see the little man ?

   If you would like some more detailed info about this stone, there is a very interesting PDF from the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire here.The church itself is very pretty with an assortment of embroidered kneelers using variations on a Celtic knotwork pattern.

I can recommend the Church cafe in the carpark, coffee and cake was very welcome.

Behind the church are the remans of St Patricks chapel dating back to 8th or 9th century where the stone coffins [believed to be from 11 Century can be found.

It is believed that the chapel looked like this with crosses marking the graves.

Today the crosses are long gone.

Mission accomplished !!

I decided that catching the bus was the best option to get back to Morecambe especially as I had to walk back to the campsite from the sea front. Heading back into the town of Heysham I found a couple of interesting bits. I spotted a plaque on a fence which turned out to be a recipe.

                  Please ignore my reflection , I tried to get a pic without my reflection, 

Community garden by the sea front

Spirit of Heysham

and the Heritage Centre,