Big Lottery Award

St. John the Baptist

Our community has just been allocated a Big Lottery Award to rebuild the village hall.

The village hall is an important place in our community.
Over the past 20 years the community has lost a local shop, post office and public house. We have no public transport service and the nearest town is Appleby-in-Westmorland, four miles away. The Church and the village hall are the only places to meet people socially. The photo shows the Church; the village hall is across the road and up a bit to the right of the picture, out of sight. I will get photo's before they begin the rebuilding.

I heard the news at the monthly 'Coffee & Craic' on Saturday.

Coffee & Craic is one of a number of events held at the village hall. We also have film nights and other one-off events such as Pot Luck suppers and quizzes. With a new, bigger, and better designed hall, many more events can be hosted and ideas are already piling up.

The Coffee & Craic is an important part of our rural life. As newcomers we met people from our new community. Going forward it is a chance to socialise with the people we only wave to in passing, or yell "Good Morning!" to as we spy them whilst out walking.

We have seen the plans and, if all goes well, it will be a bobby dazzler of a village hall.

Appleby Horse Fair

From the first Thursday in June until the following Wednesday, Appleby-in-Westmorland hosts the Appleby Horse Fair by right of a Royal Charter granted in the 17th Century.

This traditional Gypsy Fair is the largest in Europe and attracts gypsies and travellers in their thousands. The numbers swell even more when thousands of tourists and visitors arrive over the weekend to take in the sights and, maybe, buy a horse or two.

Horses are washed in the River Eden before being taken through the streets to Fair Hill where are put through their paces on the 'Flash' in the hopes of attracting buyers.

We have never been. We arrived in Cumbria after the event last year and it is looking as if we shall be hard pushed to get there this year. However, I am hopeful that we shall make it. From the photographs I have seen it certainly looks like something not to be missed, and I quite fancy having my fortune read.

The event sounds very exciting but local opinion is mixed. Some embrace the event, others stock up and lock up, not their daughters, but things like Quad Bikes. The local roads are a nightmare. Horse drawn, bow top caravans may be very romantic but they are also very slow and often travel a in motorised convoy matching the horses pace.

We have seen little of it all in our village. However, police cars are patrolling and we see several a day go 'round the loop'. The villagers tell us that we are unlikely to have any 'stopovers' - we don't have a village pub for one thing.

Here's hoping that the sun shines and the event is a happy and uneventful one - and we get to see the horses in the river!

Link: Appleby Horse Fair

A Room With A View

One of the reasons we wanted to move was that at our previous house all we could see around us was other houses.

My family had not sold off their long garden but the properties either side had and, like most of the land in what was once a small farming village, had been built on.

All of the rooms in our new house have a view; the bungalow sits in the middle of the garden.

Our most imposing view is of Murton Pike which stands at 1,949ft.

I have to confess that we have not climbed it yet but we plan to soon. I want a photograph from the top looking back at our house.

We do see hang gliders launching themselves off it with varying degrees of success.

I had a plan to take this photograph on the first day of each month with the idea of creating a calendar. The plan fell by the wayside and, really why do we need a calendar showing something that we can see every day?