More cooked breakfasts at
Ye Old Fighting Cocks.
The weather has
deteriorated, it was wetter and colder than yesterday as we set off to see what
Grange Over Sands had to offer. Not a lot, it turned out! We decided to take a
walk along the Victorian promenade constructed in conjunction with the railway on the
foreshore of Morecambe Bay in the 1850s. We learned that Grange was a popular
resort with the Victorians and there were many bathing machines in use. The strange thing about Grange is that it doesn't have a beach, a salt marsh fronts the promenade, perhaps the bay has changed since Victorian days? Either way, the
Victorians must have been a hardy lot, Morecambe Bay is not the most inviting
of places. Dotted along the promenade were shelters typical of a lot of British
seaside resorts that used to be occupied by visitors sheltering from the
weather while waiting to be allowed back into their digs (seaside landladies
were notorious for not allowing guests indoors during the day). No-one seemed
to be locked out today.
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| Grange Over Sands |
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| Grange Promenade (Note Lack Of Sea) |
There were gardens by the side of the promenade, well looked after by volunteers. We met an 8 year old black Lab walking to heel with its lead in its mouth. We learnt the walker wasn’t its owner, she was just helping out. We have obviously gone badly wrong with Ziggy’s training, there is no way she would do that for anyone.
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| Promenade Gardens |
It was cold even with our
puffer jackets on. Then it started to rain and it went from cold to miserable.
We decided to abandon the walk and headed to the town’s information centre for
inspiration. That resulted in us setting a course for Barrow in Furness to
visit the Dock Museum having learnt recently that Stephen’s Uncle Jeffery was
the P&O rep with Vickers for the building of at least one of their
Strathxxxx liners.
I don’t imagine Barrow
looks attractive on the best of days, but it was bleak when we arrived in the
cold overcast. We visited the museum after eating rolls bought at a local
bakery in the museum’s car
park. The museum structure was interesting, it has been constructed in a dry
dock and the two floors above the base of the dock hang from the roof
structure. The museum concentrated on the social history of Barrow which Jane
really enjoyed, I found it interesting, but had hoped to learn more about the
ships built in Barrow. I did discover, however, that following the
discovery of large deposits of high quality iron ore in the area enterprising entrepreneurs established ship building utilising steel
produced from the iron. It seems that Barrow’s ship building days are largely
over with nuclear submarines constructed under cover in an enormous building
being all that is left.
We picked up a map at the museum that showed beaches on
the Isle of Walney, a long narrow strip of land that forms one side of Barrow’s
docks and harbours. We drove over to take a look, it wasn’t a pretty sight on a
cold grey afternoon and I doubt that it would be a lot better in the middle
of summer. The barren foreshore gave way to a steep beach of boulders and the
grey Irish Sea. The view out to sea wasn’t exciting either with a skyline filled with
wind turbines.
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| Walney Beach |
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| Wind Farm Off Walney Beach |
We drove to the southern
end of the island from where across the inlet we could see the lifeboat
station on Roa Island with Piel Castle on Piel Island offshore from Roa Island.
We descided to drive around the harbour to take a closer look at the two
islands. On the way we passed depressing housing on the outskirts of Barrow in what I think is called
Vickers Town.
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| Piel Island From Walney Island |
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| Vickers Town With Covered Shipyard In Background |
Roa Island turned out to
be a peninsular with a dry causeway linking it to the mainland. Just offshore
and accessible by ferries (which didn’t appear to be operating) was Piel
Island. The island was presented to the people of Barrow in 1920 by the Duke of
Buccleuch as a memorial to those who died in World War I. A sign invited us to
visit the Ship Inn on the Island and meet the King and Queen who apparently own
the pub. We didn’t take up the invitation.
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| Piel Island From Roa Island |
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| Derelict Trawler By Causeway To Roa Island |
We then took the coast
road to Ulverston where we wanted to visit the Laurel and Hardy Museum (Stan
Laurel was born in the town in 1890). There was a “Closed” sign on the door
which listed the opening hours indicating it should have been open.
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| Jane, Hardie and Laurel |
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| Stan Laurel |
Back at Arnside we ate at
Ye Old Fighting Cocks. Jane was happy with her fish and chips, my steak and
kidney pie was overcooked. Definitely time to move on.
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