Wednesday, 19th April, 2023

Today was another lovely sunny day! Once again, breakfast at "The Woodlands" was delicious. Our first visit today was Fell Foot National Trust Park. This park is located on the shore of Lake Windermere. It is the grounds of a Victorian mansion which was demolished in 1907 in order for its owner to build a larger one. Unfortunately, he died before the new house could be built and nothing ever happened. The National Trust took over the area after WWII and it has been a park ever since. We enjoyed wandering along one of the suggested walking routes.



This is a magpie



A Common Tern



The garden had many trees in blossom and flowers blooming.



One of the restored boat houses.



Mr and Mrs Duck



This was originally the gas works for the now demolished house. It is now the office building for the park.



Can you see the people in the canoes?



This was taken at exactly the same spot as the photo above but this time with the camera's zoom.



This caravan was an exhibit known as the Vintage Caravan.
From the park, we drove to Haverthwaite Station which is part of the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway. We enjoyed watching the steam engine before boarding the train for a leisurely trip to Lakeside, It is quite a short trip, taking about 20 minutes. On arrival at Lakeside, we again watched the locomotive being shunted before boarding the train for the trip back to Haverthwaite.


Haverthwaite Station





There was some lovely scenery to look at as we trundled along.












I was amused by this little bit of graffiti in the toilets.


After we disembarked, the train returned to Lakeside.
We now headed off to Cartmel Priory. Some parts of this church are over 800 years old. The Priory was discontinued by Henry VIII but it was allowed to remain as the Parish Church of Cartmel. Sadly, Cromwell's men destroyed the windows and other decoration. There are just a few fragments of it left, dating to about 1350. We spent about an hour there. Satoshi learned from the gentleman manning the gift shop that the tiny village of Cartmel (population of 4800) has not one but TWO restaurants with a Michelin Star rating, one with one star and the other with three and a half. Apparently, it costs around £300 per head to dine at the three and a half star establishment!




The Annunciation



"Unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour"




"The glorious company of the apostles praise thee, the goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee, the noble army of martyrs praise thee" - a quote from the ancient hymn the "Te Deum"



Another wonderful lectern!




A carved misericord (just one of many in the choir stalls)



The Quire



One of the surviving fragments of glass from around 1350







Some other fragments of ancient stained glass



Cartmel Priory is the only example of a tower placed at a 45° angle.
Only a few minutes' drive away is Holker Hall. Parts of this building are from the 16th century. It is still inhabited by the family who own it so only certain parts of it are open to the public (mainly the wing built in the 19th century). Once again, this was an amazing place filled with art. There was also a very impressive garden. This time, we were allowed to take photos!



There was no shortage of deer as we approached Holker Hall.




















Some incredible topiary!
















This was a chicken club sandwich. Satoshi couldn't believe the size of it!



Look at that blue sky!

We had one last place to visit today - The Lakeland Motor Museum. There was a huge number of cars, motor bikes, bicycles and other modes of transport to view and we only had a bit over 30 minutes to do it!







One of the draw-cards to visit this museum was the promise of seeing "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Disappointingly, I found that I had not read some information properly. It's only a model of the car at this museum! It didn't really matter - the model was great!






This is one of the two cars in the museum made in 1960 (a very good year!). It's a Messerschmitt KR200 Kabin Roller with three wheels and three seats.



This is the other car from 1960, a MGA Roadster which was built to Police specifications.







The two photos above show a child's pedal car. I would have loved a car like that when I was a boy!!



The museum had a separate section dedicated to memorabilia of the Campbell family's attempts at both the land and water speed records. One of the bluebird cars was used for a land speed record attempt at Lake Eyre in Australia in 1964.
We decided that we would visit a supermarket on the way home and get some food for dinner. While there, we discovered that they stocked...

... Vegemite!
It was good to get back earlier to our accommodation. It meant that I could catch up on journal writing. This was achieved at 12:38am!


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