Barrow… Once again, we’re taking advantage of a Northern Rail £10 day rover, starting out from Crewe and travelling via Manchester, firstly to Ulverston. I have a package to deliver there, and the station, though currently in a sadly shabby state, is well worth a few photographs – as is the former terminus next door. The two 65-year-old class 20 diesels (we should describe them as English Electric type 1), visually in as-new condition, were an unexpected bonus.

Barrow’s station was severely damaged during WW2. Its replacement is not pretty. We’ll head for the Dock Museum, on the bank of the Walney channel looking across the water to Vickerstown. It’s a 20-minute leg-stretch on this now fine and sunny day. After a light lunch, we can enjoy this very well presented collection.  Its site is a former graving dock – and much of the museum is, uniquely, contained within that dock!

We need to get home again, and rather than staying in Barrow for the next through train to Manchester, we’ll catch an earlier train, which only goes as far as Lancaster. We’ll leave it at Kents Bank, and enjoy the two mile walk, close to the shore of Morecambe Bay, to Grange-over-Sands. There’s time to record Grange’s beautiful station photographically, before boarding our Manchester train. At Piccadilly, we’ll have 8 minutes to get to the Northern ‘stopper’ to Crewe. It’s tight (as was our northbound connection there, some hours earlier), but we’re on time – as were all of today’s trains. About an hour later (just before 8pm) we’re back in Crewe for the drive home, after a most enjoyable day out.

Readers who have got this far may wonder why we didn’t take the more direct route between Preston and Crewe. The answer is in the first sentence – our rover is only valid for Northern Rail services. They don’t run services down the WCML to Crewe. Manchester is the only option.

Dock Museum

Friday 17 April: an evening out. That’s ‘out’  in the sense of ‘fresh air’ – it’s fine and sunny, and the first opportunity this year for a post-6pm stroll. We won’t go far – just a wander past the Boldings pools and back along the lane. The farmer’s been planting potatoes – the fields are deeply furrowed, and as the sun nears the horizon, the red soil glows in the evening light.

View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?X=371155&Y=296878&A=Y&Z=115

Much rain has fallen! With luck there will be no raindrops this morning, but there are plenty of snowdrops beside the Willey lanes. There’s a little watery (appropriately!) sunshine at first: with little or no breeze, it feels like spring could be around the corner (if only!). There are plenty of hints of the oncoming season in the hedgerows.

View on Google Earth https://maps.app.goo.gl/bJ7NwHZ6eFrA4jg46

There’s a really annoying bug in WordPress, which they (WordPress) seem unable or unwilling to fix! I have tried!
If I forget to insert a ‘Read More tag’ (which happened with my previous post), the email that subscribers receive shows large and very blurred versions of my photos (instead of thumbnails) in some, but not all email clients. Most subscribers will know to click the page title, but some will wonder why I’m posting such appalling photos!
If anyone knows a good way around this, please let me know! If you’ve had the same problem with your own blog, please tell WordPress!

There was a lot of rain during the night, rattling at the windows, and the wind was whistling. This afternoon, there’s a good (is that the right word?) chance  of a shower, but it’s bright – and there are patches of blue sky. Let’s go for it! I’ll stay on surfaced ways – there’s no shortage of water running down them, but the fields are sodden. Well worth avoiding!

View on Google Earth https://maps.app.goo.gl/XMrbQLGfnUTXmfPN7

The snowdrops are all standing proud, a little cheer in the hedgerows. The sheep are all lying down – what can it mean? Rain, probably – it’s a dry morning but a wet afternoon is forecast…

View on Google Earth https://maps.app.goo.gl/bJ7NwHZ6eFrA4jg46

Winter sunlight… These lanes are quiet! Other than the very occasional passing car, an enthusiastic blue tit and a bittersweet robin, there’s barely a sound. It’s bright, not too cold and the air is still – what more could one ask at this time of year?

View on Google Earth https://maps.app.goo.gl/EJgVJKr3k9g3Rcq2A

January is moving along steadily, but it’s still cold. A calm and bright afternoon is to be welcomed! So – I’m out for a leg stretch, this time from Benthall Hall, to walk along the quiet lane to Wyke, then down to the Vineyards and up into the Benthall Edge woods. There’s a maze of tracks here, but the one I want to follow is still blocked by trees, which fell in the storm just over a year ago. I can get past the first (sit on the trunk and swing the legs over!) but the second would demand serious limbo dancing skill, so I’ll pick my way through the woodland undergrowth instead. Returning to the Hall, the path is less muddy than I expected – or perhaps it’s just that the sun is in my eyes. It’s low by now – but not as low as it was in mid-December.

We ought to check on the locos… The usual question: where can we go, when it’s so muddy off surfaced lanes and paths? How about Bridgnorth? – always an interesting exploration, and we haven’t visited the station for some time. Not that there’s anything happening just now – the next train departs in just over four weeks… The locomotives are in hibernation!