Garstang

In late 1989, my then girlfriend moved from London to the Lake District: specifically, a small village north of Kendal. On Friday afternoons, I'd leave work dead on quarter to four and head up the motorway to visit her. The M40 wasn't complete back then, so I'd go 'round the M25, up the M1 and then onto the M6.

There was one stretch of motorway that became familiar to me quite quickly: a long straight stretch of road just north of Preston and, at the far end, there was a church spire just to the left of the motorway. I still go along that stretch of motorway frequently and I often notice the spire but I've never been to look at the actual church.

Today, though, I had a few things today but, unusually, nothing urgent or that had to be done by a specific time, so I decided to amble up the A6 from Manchester back north. I love the A6. I have an as yet unrealised plan to hire a camper van and then drive its entire length from top to bottom. Or bottom to top. I haven't made up my mind yet. Anyway, back to today. I decided to drive up the A6, which runs roughly parallel to the M6, and also see if I could find the church.

I had a rough idea of where it was, about six or seven miles north of junction 32, so once I'd crossed over the M55, I kept an eye on the... the thing that counts the miles. It was lovely and sunny up here today, which added to the pleasure of heading home at roughly half my usual speed. The stretch of road I was on was gorgeous and I wished someone else was driving so that I could just look out the window.

After a few miles, I judged I must be somewhere near the church so I kept looking east until I saw something that looked like a spire through the trees. I turned off and found myself driving through a quaint town that was clearly designed before anybody had to worry about two vehicles travelling down the same road in opposite directions at the same time. Eventually, I ended up here, in a car park, with this beautiful view along the river Wyre.

I didn't find the church in the end but that's OK. Even as I was looking for it, I was thinking that maybe this is one of those little mysteries that is more fun as an unknown, something to save for another day.