A week in the Lakes (3)

On Sunday the weather looked promising for a good long walk, so we went down to Sedbergh, firstly for a look around. We'd been told that this is a "book town", but we came to the conclusion that that means that some of the residents read. Apart from those in the "Book Shelter" (an old bus shelter with a few shelves of books for people to borrow) all of the other books are those to be found in shops that would be selling books wherever they were located. I wonder of they know about Hay-on-Wye!

I'm glad we didn't miss this!

Our walk further afield (and a lot of fields were involved, with cows, sheep and acres of buttercups) was guided by a map from the local Information Office but adapted by us to make it longer and more rural. Our first stop was St Andrew's Church, but morning worship was in progress, so we couldn't look around inside.

Our path passed the extensive grounds of Sedbergh School, apparently quite famous.

 

There came a point when our intended route was rudely interrupted by a farm gate bearing dire warnings to anyone who dared venture any further. We were in the tiny hamlet of Brigflatts, a settlement created by Quakers around 1652. Next to us stood Friends' Meeting House, and a number of people were leaving after their Sunday morning worship, among them the lady Warden. When we explained our plight, she said the farmer had indeed forbidden anyone to walk along what used to be a public footpath through his farm. However, she was able to point us to an easy alternative path along a disused railway embankment, and we gladly set off.

Then down to the river, which we followed back into Sedbergh. In our final mile the heavens opened. We were too wet to have the pub lunch we'd planned, so we drove back to the cottage to dry off and change our clothes.

The rain persisted for some hours after that, but was finally driven away by the return of the gale-force wind. We stayed where we were!