Back Lane

When I first moved to Overtown, which is a couple of miles outside Kirkby Lonsdale, in 1991, I used to have this occasional dream in which there was a secret street behind the main street in Kirkby. It had a medieval style market, and was full of noise and bustle. It was always a very happy dream and I used to wake feeling a bit deflated that it didn't actually exist.

Many years later, when I did some leafletting and then canvassing for Tim Farron (and, later, myself), I visited all the houses in the town and discovered a few little places that I didn't know existed previously, although there were no secret markets to be found, sadly.

This lane is pretty well-known though. It runs from Back Lane, where I live, down to Devil's Bridge. On a Sunday it's mostly populated by middle-aged gentlemen wearing motorcycling leathers. This lane forms the first leg of a few of my runs and I never think it's that long but, of late, I've been parking the girls' car down at the bridge. As they aren't using it at the moment, I use their car a few times a week, mainly for popping down to see the Minx. Consequently, I've been trekking up and down the lane with my various bags and, yes, it's a lot longer than I thought.