Exploring the Cumbria coast - Silloth , a walk around the town and I find some stitching (eventually)

 We had booked ourselves into a holiday park for three nights at Silloth, yep the full works, cafe, swimming pool, bar, entertainment etc although the only part that we really used was the cafe. The touring section was quiet and to be honest the facilities were a little dated but very clean. The confusing thing was that in the ladies section there were just two showers ( one with the light not working ), a disabled wet room then five bathrooms with baths !! We've seen the occasional family room with a bath on new campsites but this was an interesting set up given that most people would ( I assume ) opt for a shower these days.

The touring section, fortunately, wasn't busy so we didn't have to queue for a shower.

All the facilities in the entertainment block were modern and clean, the staff were amazingly friendly and we would go back again if we were in the area. It was just the bathrooms haha, reminded us of a campsite in Scotland where the sinks etc seemed to be from the 50's

As ever, campsite location is the important thing for us and on this trip there were eight campsite and seven of them were within an easy walk of the nearest town. The other was a walk in but a bus back which isn't so bad.

Silloth was developed from the 1850,s when the new docks and railway were built.  The Port of Silloth's main cargoes are wheat, fertiliser, molasses and general cargo so the air has a different fragrance as you walk by depending on which cargo is being unloaded.

The large building by the dockside is a Victorian flour mill built in 1887, Carr's flour mill supplies flour to many bakeries and confectioners including United Biscuits and Warburtons.

You can just see part of the original mill building now surrounded by more recent additions.

The town still retains the cobble streets (we could hear the HGV's heading to and from the port from our van) and buildings.

this was formerly the Majestic Cinema

There are a few cafes, the one in the Post office buildings was very good and this one pictured below was quirky, you had to ring a small 'fairy bell' at your table to order.

On the green at the sea front there was a solitary amusement arcade where we took time to waste a few small coins and watch the storm clouds gather over Scotland  which is on the other side of the estuary.

Also on the green were the millennium mosaic, fascinating to try and spot local buildings and businesses.

A sculpture of a Lockheed Hudson bomber stands on the green as a memorial to a number of these planes had sadly crashed into the bay during WW11 giving the bay the local name of Hudson Bay. The sculpture was erected in 2018 to celebrate the 100t birthday of the RAF and to remember the towns former airfield that was used for the training of air crews and the maintenance and repair of aircraft during the war.

Meanwhile, back in town, doorway mosaics catch my eye and the church appears to be open.

As I approached the church I realised that a service had just finished and was about to leave when the vicar spotted me and insisted that I join the congregation for coffee !

Finding it hard to hard to resist and I'm so glad that I did as the inside of the building was different to most of the churches that I pop into on my travels.

It almost reminds me of a railway station and I found stitching in the form of hassocks and cross stitch or tapestry.

I do recognise the style of some of these designs but many have been designed to show local buildings etc.

I also apologise for the poor quality of the photos due to reflections.

many thanks to the parishioners of Christ Church Silloth for making me feel so welcome.

 

Exploring the Cumbria coast - Silloth motorcycle museum

 Even though I don't have much to do with bikes these days I still love them so the chance to visit Silloth Motorcycle Museum was a bonus.

Owned by  racer Jim Snaith it contains his collection of race bikes, memorabilia and history of the local racetrack. Our visit was a very pleasent way to spend the morning, unfortunately I've forgotten the name of the person looking after the museum when we arrived but the conversation was bike, bikes, bikes from our era 70s onwards. Jim also popped in for a chat so the quick visit became a few hours.

The Museum is small but crammed full of interest and my photos don't really do it justice.

I couldn't get all the trophies in the same shot, so many ! if you read the photo above, they had been left unopened in the UK by an Austalian racer Casey Stoner in 2001

Exploring the Cumbria coast - Maryport street art

 

Exploring the Cumbria coast - Maryport

 Maryport, an eighteenth centaury town with a Roman fort and that is really all we knew about it. We try and choose places that are not so much on the beaten track for part of our tours and since neither of us had really ever heard of Maryport other than in connection with Hadrian's wall we thought that we would give it a shot.

The first intriguing thing was the location of the campsite, this is the first time that we have stayed on a harbour complete with grass, electric, water, toilet block and even washing machine and dryer.

As you can probably imagine, inspite of the blue skies it was cold and windy most of the time, In fact we didn't really warm up until the late May bank holiday when suddenly the temperature rose into the 30's but more about that later, At this point I was still wearing jumpers and gloves.

The view from the campsite, that is Scotland in the distance.

For a small town I found a good choice of coffee shops/cafes within 10 minutes walk or so from the site . Hiding in one of these from time to time gave me chance to warm up although I suspect the real reason for feeling cold is more to do with my recent weight loss than anything else.

The walk to town took us through the harbour ( we had the commercial harbour on one side and the marina on the other) past the aquarium and up the hill. I would have stopped at the Maritime museum but it was closed, We visited the Roman museum but failed to take any photos.

Past the monument to lives lost on the Aquilia, piles of nets, statues and mosaics

and onwards up into town where the old cinema is being converted into an arts centre (looking very good)

    An abandoned hotel appears to be growing its own garden

 There's always something that reminds me of my former life, I suspect this one is more decorative that practical these days.

at night we settled down to the sound of the boats swaying in the wind