When we were in Cockermouth earlier this year we were in an antique/junk shop where a radio was playing.
I was wandering round looking at items for sale vaguely listening, though the sound was quite muffled. On came the song below. I knew the correct words but for some reason when it came to the, “I’ll be home,” line I heard the next one as, “I’ll be your xylophone, waiting for you.”
It does make a weird kind of sense, though; as most misheard lyrics do.
The Foundations: Build Me Up Buttercup
This is a not very good visual quality live version:-
You could be forgiven for thinking I had gone to the Lake District and not visited any lakes, but of course I did.
En route to Cockermouth we passed Bassenthwaite Lake which is large but flat looking if you know what I mean.
We passed Thirlmere, a pretty enough lake but nothing spectacular, in order to visit Grasmere, lake and village, where we sampled the “famous Grasmere gingerbread.”
We also climbed up to Allan Bank, a house which William Wordsworth once rented.
From the left hand side of the house as seen above I took three photos of the lake and village, stitched into the one below.
The lake itself is little more than a puddle but the village is a delightful wee place.
Then onwards, up and over from the A591 to the A592 a very steep ascent giving me the opportunity to photograph Lake Windermere. Again a stitch (of two this time.)
We then kept on up the A592 travelling almost the full length of Ullswater – which is impressive, if not quite as magnificent as most Scottish fresh-water lochs. Particularly appealing were the tourist pleasure boats plying the lake, reminding me of the Loch Lomond of my youth and a trip to Loch Katrine about 12 years ago. It was raining by that time though and we didn’t stop. Perhaps next time.
Cockermouth’s most famous son is the poet William Wordsworth.
There is a huge statue of a Lord Mayo on Main Street, though. From the inscription it sounds like Mayo was a bit of an imperial adventurer. He became Viceroy of India and was assassinated in the Andaman Islands!
Anyway, below is Wordsworth’s boyhood home on the junction of Main Street (right) and Crown Street (left.)
Quite imposing. And difficult to photograph without a car in the shot!
We viewed the house and garden – both overseen by the National Trust. We got there just as it was opening at eleven a.m. and there was a queue. Apparently at the height of the tourist season it’s mobbed.
Here’s a view of the garden from the house. It’s a bit sparse looking after the coldest early spring in Britain for 50 years. The River Derwent is a footpath or so beyond the wall at the back. It was from the terrace there I photographed the bridge over the Derwent I featured a couple of posts ago.
There is a small bust of Wordsworth on a pedestal on Gallowbarro – the bar of the “T” to Main Street and Crown Street.
Just to the right of where I took the above photo is a memorial fountain to both William and his sister Dorothy. This was taken at more or less a right angle to where I photographed their childhood home.
I hadn’t really expected to see any Art Deco in Cockermouth. There was however this lampshade in the entrance corridor to an antique centre.
On Main Street there was this shop front which must have been added on in the 30s, with its typical banded windows at the top and angled entrance.
And on Lorton Street we have a stepped roof line.
Some of the buildings had flood level signs for the flood of November 2009. The water reached diffeent heights on the buildings depending how far along Main Street they were.
Edited to add:- The chicken and black pudding stack we both ate at the Kingfisher on Crown Street was delicious – especially the garnish of mustard sauce. The only possible criticism could be the chicken was perhaps a touch too browned on the outside but for me that didn’t detract from it at all.
On our trip last week we were based in Cockermouth, at the edge of the Lake District in Cumbria. It has an elegant bridge over the River Derwent.
Not to mention this rather Grand Theatre on Station Road. The lower windows prefigure Art Deco but the building as a whole looks older.
And of course there’s a War Memorial, which is further up Station Road from the town. (I’m not too keen on these ones with an angel on top.)
The names of the fallen are on the reverse side (which it is difficult to photograph while at the same time avoiding getting the petrol station in th eframe.)
