A Wander Around Kirkby Lonsdale
A day trip to Kirkby Lonsdale was suggested. We always try to go at least one way by the scenic route. I’d seen the sign for the A683 to Kirkby Lonsdale so many times as I’ve passed going in or out of Morecambe, as the turn is at junction 34 on the M6 that we always use. I’d never driven that way, and despite suggestions by my mum to the contrary I’d never been to Kirkby Lonsdale before. And not many people have driven that route whilst there is a demented raver sat next to them waving hands everywhere.
We found a car park close to the town council building and started a wander around. Past the post office, which had queues out of the door and onwards towards the church of St Mary the Virgin (which I cover in more detail below), through Jackson’s Iron Gates.
They date from 1823, and were built by local blacksmith William Jackson, and have an unusual and innovative hinge action. One that has been copied throughout the town.
And after the tour of the church, we headed on to Ruskin’s View (although I’m not sure why it wasn’t called Turner’s view).
The path around the brow is closed for repairs by the town council, even though the plaque would suggest it is the parish council’s responsibility.
The view is over the River Lune as it curves around the landscape across to Kirfit Hall, and the scene had been painted by JMW Turner before Ruskin arrived to describe it.
There does seem to be a general lack of care of the view despite the strong words in the parish plaque, as the one to commemorate Westmorland merging with Cumberland to form Cumbria in 1974 is getting quite overgrown.
It is a very nice town with lots of stone buildings from the Victorian and Edwardian eras in its compact centre. There are lots of nice pubs, hotels, and eateries, although I’m not convinced about some of the menu items as they are trying to disappear up their own arse.
Cultured butter? As my better half Helen put it, has the butter been to the opera?
We walked down to the Swinemarket with Abbot’s Hall behind it (the former courthouse),
down to the Manor House, which was known as the Elizabethan House, despite the fact that some of the building is older than that, and some is more modern, with none of it being from the Elizabethan period.
This lit alley led to where we did end up having lunch. A couple of items on the menu caught my eye.
Salt and Chili Kale. It had me right up until they printed the word Kale. No need at all.
Then “Anyone Got Any Salmon”? A nice reference to the Shamen’s “Ebeneezer Goode,” though I’m not sure how many of their clientele will get the reference though. And I was a tad disappointed that the next item on the menu wasn’t called “Sorted!”
There was this interesting plaque about Salt Pie Lane.
The Snooty Fox in Kirkby Lonsdale certainly looks more salubrious than the one in my hometown of Crawley.
The town is full of very interesting (as opposed to “interesting”) and individual shops, with little sign of corporate chains, with only Fat Face on the Main Street and Booth’s on the edge of town being names I recognised.
The market square has this wonderful building, paid for by one of the vicars of the church in 1905 to serve as a sheltered butter market.
Behind the square is this magnificent building, now a private residence, but it used to be the TSB Bank.
To the side runs Jingling Lane, a wonderful name for a street anywhere, and it leads down to Jingling Barn.
On the other side of the market is the Royal Hotel, an old seventeenth century manor house originally called Jackson Hall.
We carried on, going in most shops, though showing great restraint in purchases, and even eschewing the opportunity to go into the bookshop and jigsaw shops. Although most people would need a second mortgage to buy items from a lot of the individual shops.
It was interesting seeing the effort that had been made for Christmas decorations on a number of doorways, of both businesses and private residences.
After completing the lap of the town and getting back to the car it was time to head back. I chose the motorway route home. There’s less to point out that way and I can see without interference.
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