Maryport is a lovely name for a town and it’s where the River Ellen debouches into the Irish Sea.

There’s always something aesthetically pleasing about a place where waters meet. The river in Maryport is nice enough as it curves under a bridge and into the sea but it isn’t exceptional. It helped too that the tide was in and there was as a result no unsightly muddy banks when I saw it.

The town itself has seen better times I would say and looked pretty down at heel even if the Christmas Lights were still suspended over Senhouse Street.

It did have some Art Deco, though. I spotted this on Crosby Street on the way back up from the river. The metal surrounds of the glass on the upper parts of the shop windows here are particularly striking. The higher up windows have been “poked out” though.

On Senshouse Street itself is what used to be a Woolworths and is now an Original Factory Shop. Nice roofline but again poked out eyes for the upper windows.

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.)