The North Westerly

Blackpool on the 21st November 2022, a damp Monday enabling reflections from the lights.

Sizergh Castle near Kendal is looked after by the National Trust although the Strickland family live there, as they have for some 700 years.

The castle has a strong and square tower with a more recent slate roof living section and large chimneys.

On arrival park in the Car Park which has a ticket machine, free for National Trust members. The Visitor Centre is a long wooden building with a cafe, outside seating, toilets and a shop.

Choose to visit the house and garden or just the garden. Alternatively take a walk along the well marked paths.

The cafe is a pleasant environment although the food gives the impression it was cooked by an ex-farmer. They do try though with some vegetarian choices. It’s the pies, heavy looking with thick pastry that don’t look very stylish.

The gardens have a large range of planting. A UK National Collection of ferns, flower borders, a large rock garden wit a lot of big planting, acers etc. A vegetable garden and large orchard. Bees and hens. There’s also a small lake and a large barn with some old items and a second hand book sale. In autumn they sell the apples with lots of varieties.

The house has several sections with an old baronial style dining room and family rooms. Some interesting panelled rooms and a large library.

For the walks you can head for St John’s at Helsingham, a tiny church on top of the valley with views over the Lake District and the wide and flat Lyth Valley. Then decide whether to head back or down the big hill road to Brigsteer and carry on round a circle to the castle. You can head from the castle to the woodland in the valley. You can also head towards Sedgwick and the old northern dry section of the Preston to Lancaster, Kendal Canal. There’s also a walk to Levens Village and Levens Hall.

None of these walks are strenuous although there are some hills on the St John’s walk.

A visit to Levens Hall near Kendal in Cumbria. Famous for its topiary. Through the narrow gates up the drive into the decent sized free car park. Levens Hall also takes coach tours.

You can either go to the cafe first or buy tickets to the garden and the house, or just the garden.

We’ve been round the house a couple of times and it is interesting. Today we just took a guided garden tour and then wandered ourselves. The two lady guides were excellent, with good nature and being gardeners knew all the plants. In summer the gardens are wonderful. The topiary and flower beds divided into ‘rooms’ by high hedges. There is a magnificent border of shrub roses if you catch it in full flush just through a ‘gate’ in the high hedge. A red rose of Lancashire is also grown in a nearby bed and was coming to its end during this visit.

The topiary is always exquisite each with their own nickname. At the back next to the Gardeners Cottage are pots of honey from the local hive, to buy.

First though we went into the cafe. It’s an attractive cafe with a nice outdoor seating area although we find it’s not exactly our taste. You can also buy ice cream and drinks from a stall near the cafe entrance.

After the garden walk the exit is through the shop which has some interesting local items including it’s own bottled beer.

Outside the premises and across the main road is the old entrance drive which is a long straight tree lined drive with deer, following the River Kent. This can lead on to other walks.

The River Kent is known for its tidal bore and long railway viaduct at Arnside. Nearby is the village of Levens and further west the River Leven drains Lake Windermere into Morecambe Bay.

A visit to the Lakeland Motor Museum coupled with a walk to the nearby Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway.

First stop is the neighbouring cafe, quite a decent one with riverside seating. Then entry to the museum which contains cars, motorcycles, bicycles and memorabilia. Plus the Donald Campbell display in a separate building. There are some fabulous cars here and you need to snake around the building.

Then a walk to Haverthwaite Station where small locos haul carriages to Lakeside where a ferry boat waits bound for Bowness or Ambleside on Lake Windermere. Haverthwaite also has a small engine shed containing a few locos, some dismantled.

A visit to the BCVM in Leyland. Just a few minutes off the motorway and a free car park or a fairly cheap one across the road.

The museum has several different manufacturers on display but there are a couple of descriptive boards and some vehicles covering the story of Foden and ERF which is interesting. The original company was called Foden but two brothers wanted to go in different ways so one split off and formed ERF or ER Foden both based in Sandbach, Cheshire.

A visit to the East Lancs Railway in September 2022. City of Wells, 34092 made an early start, loco D345 appeared on an enthusiast special. D9531 also operated.

At Bury we visited the Art Gallery which has some good exhibits. There is also a gallery about Victoria Wood and across the road is her lifesize, or perhaps larger, statue. Across from the Art Gallery is the Fusilier Museum about the Lancashire Fusiliers, another good museum with a charge for entry. Bury is well supported by musuems as there is a transport museum across from Bolton Street Station. All these places are very close to the ELR station.

Rawtenstall is a small town with an interesting high street, quite a few cafes, although busy on Saturday. There is also a new Bus Statino, quite nicely done.

A visit to the Ribble Steam Railway on Preston Docks. Starting with a coffee and biscuit before taking a photo of the train on the platform. The old L&YR saddle tank on a visit. It looks very small in front of the carriages. I didn’t take the train ride but studied a few of the locos in the museum before putting my name down for a tour of the works. It was a good tour, recommended.

The North West of England has many members of the original football league. Here are the standings of the north west clubs in the top 6 leagues at the beginning of 2021:

Premier League

Liverpool 1st
Manchester United 2nd
Manchester City 5th
Everton 6th
Burnley 16th

Sky Bet Championship

Blackburn Rovers 11th
Preston North End 12th

Sky Bet League One

Accrington Stanley 8th
Crewe Alexander 9th
Fleetwood Town 10th
Blackpool 13th
Rochdale 21st
Wigan Athletic 22nd

Sky Bet League Two

Carlisle United 1st
Morecambe 7th
Salford City 8th
Tranmere 13th
Oldham 14th
Bolton Wanderers 15th
Barrow 21st

National League

Stockport County 4th
Altrincham 7th

National League North

Chester FC 3rd
AFC Fylde 4th
Chorley 10th
Southport 15th

Northern Premier League

Warrington Town 4th
Witton Albion 5th
Atherton Collieries 9th
Lancaster City 12th
FC United of Manchester 13th
Radcliffe FC 14th
Nantwich Town 15th
Hyde United 17th
Stalybridge Celtic 18th
Ashton United 19th
Bamber Bridge 20th

Division One North West

Colne 1st
Ramsbottom United 2nd
Workington 3rd
Clitheroe 4th
Runcorn Linnets 7th
City of Liverpool FC 10th
Kendal 11th
Widnes 12th
Mossley 13th
Trafford 14th
Prescot Cables 15th

A modern building about half a mile from Bowness and beside the lake.

We walked from the centre of Bowness having parked elsewhere. Not too far and on the way back we found a quieter lane for much of the way.

It’s a large metal building like on Grand Designs with a car park that is quite expensive although with all the people looking for space in Bowness it needs to stop casual parking. Our first stop was the cafe, it’s a nice place stylishly designed with a good choice of well presented food. Plus a panoramic window over the lake.

The museum is a big space and the exhibits are well spaced. The boat of Beatrix Potter is fascinating with it’s very unusual style. The Swallows and Amazons boat is also a novel form. The history of performance boats on the lake is an interesting exhibit. Next door is a conservation studio for boats with a few in work which presumably will be displayed in the museum.

There is a steamer trip on the lake.

Overall this is a nicely designed building with good content and a good experience.

Keighley is halfway between east and west coasts so not a bad trip along the A59 or the M65.  There is a heritage railway, The Keighley and Worth, which has 3 museums and a shed.  There is also a Bus Museum and a real museum called The Cliffe.

We visited the Bus Museum and the Railway Museums in September 2018.  Also the Cliffe Museum a couple of years ago.

Keighley Bus Museum is only open on certain special days.   In September it was a Macmillan Cancer Support Coffee Morning.  The museum is contained in what appears to be an old Bus Garage next to a large stone mill.  Quite an attractive mill with a Tower if you like the stone architecture.   Inside is a collection of running buses mainly ex-Leeds Corporation with a couple of ex-Morecambe and Heysham Buses and some ex-East Yorkshire Buses.  There is also the last Leeds Trolley Bus and plenty of old buses awaiting restoration.   It’s a definitely a garage experience but if you like the old buses worth a trip.

The Keighley and Worth Railway is a stretch of track from Keighley to Oxenhope about 7 miles, with a station at Haworth.   Also a station at Ingrow just outside Keighley where there is a Carriage Museum and a Loco Museum.   At Oxenhope is a Carriage and Loco Museum while Haworth has an engine shed that is occasionally open.   Throughout the year there are timetables for services on the line using steam or diesel and often with a theme such as Halloween, Christmas and Beer trips.

The Bus Museum took about 45 minutes while some 4 hours were spent at the Railway including a return journey.