A grand day out

Chris was supposed to be meeting ex colleagues in Leeds this afternoon till he realised there was a rail strike so it has been postponed till next month.

A good forecast so we decided to have a day out. As it happens it was sunny this morning and has apparently been so all day but to hedge our bets we went west!

Not wanting to hit crowds in the lakes we headed to Heysham which is a lovely village on Morecambe Bay a bit over shadowed by it’s power station to the south but the village itself is a delight. I downloaded a heritage trail to take with us. 

First stop Curiosity Cottage on the corner of Main Street for coffee. They had the most amazing looking cakes but we just shared a piece of banana loaf with blueberries.

Many of the houses in the Main Street date from the 17th century. Nettle Cottage was for sale, it’s name no doubt tribute to the many Nettle Beer establishments that were on this street in years gone by and I can certainly remember seeing signs for Nettle Beer when we came here when I was a child. I’ve never tried it but we’ve bought some Wild Nettle Cordial from the Heritage Centre

At the bottom of the Main Street is St Peter’s Church looking out over Morecambe Bay. It has 8th century origins and retains some Anglo Saxon masonry. We had a very nice chat with a gentleman from the choir who was on duty inside. They get very healthy congregations which is good news.

There is a Hogback Stone on display in the side chapel which used to be out in the church yard. The carvings are from a Viking saga and dates to 950AD. Thought originally to be of pagan origin it is now thought to show a mix of Pagan beliefs and early Anglo Saxon Christianity. It probably indicated an important grave. 
Above the church on Heysham Head are the remains St Patrick's chapel with its famous stone graves which probably held relics and were originally headed by crosses. All the above  in the  Extra. The whole area  is now in the care of the National Trust. 

We completed our village tour and then walked to Half Moon Bay somewhere I loved as a child. I think you paid to go in through an amusements area before getting to the beach back then.
Not as idyllic as I remember with the Power Station in the background but a nice walk back along the headland with wonderful views across to Cumbria.

On then to Morecambe for a drink at the Midland Hotel.
We were going to round off our day with fish and chips but miss timed it as our chippy of choice closed at 2.00 so we had a Midland Platter, a bit like a Poughmans which was very substantial.

A walk along the pier and a quick hello to Eric (Morecambe) on the promenade and then we set off home.  Not too busy on the roads and glorious weather - might have got a touch of sun, after a week of cloud sun cream wasn’t on my agenda  - a real Grand Day out