St Bees - 23 April

It has been a day of travelling to get to St Bees for the start of our three hundred and twenty kilometre walk across England. Ron, Henk and I caught a taxi from Ron and Remy’s home at Timperley, Outer Manchester to Piccadilly Station, Manchester for the eleven fifteen train to St Bees. It took us about three and a half hours to arrive at St Bees quickly changing trains at Barrow on Furness along the way.

We had good views over the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man as we drew closer to St Bees and finally the St Bees headland came into view. This is the westernmost point of England outside of the southwest peninsula. Neil and Chris were waiting for us on the very small platform. They had introduced themselves after realising they may be waiting for the same people. Neil had travelled down by train from Glasgow after arriving from Australia last Saturday and Chris, Ron’s walking friend from Cambridge had been spending a few days in the Lakes District before meeting us. Neil and Chris had already checked in to their accommodation. Neil is staying in the main street of St Bees whilst Chris and Ron are staying just around the corner from us near the beachfront from where we will start our walk tomorrow. Our room has very good views over the headland and Isle of Man. After checking-in to our B&Bs we met at a teahouse overlooking the beach. We were all needing a large cuppa after the train journey. The weather was chilly on arrival but thankfully the sun came out and it was a lovely afternoon and evening. Looking at the BBC weather forecast it looks like we could be in some patches of wet and cold weather over the next few days. When we returned to our B&Bs Ron and Henk individually decided to walk around St Bees and met up along the way.

They visited the Priory Church which has a stunning Norman west doorway which is still largely intact. They also visited the famous local Grammar School which goes back over four centuries. We quizzed Ron and Chris’s B&B lady as to where the best place was to eat and after dismissing quite a number of places she came up with two pub options on the main street. We met Neil at seven thirty at his B&B and his B&B lady confirmed that “The Queens” was the best option. I had stayed there with my friend Carol when we walked the Coast to Coast in 2000. We had a lovely first evening together getting to know each other. Neil chose the most English dish on the menu, “Cumberland Sausage Toad in the Hole”. It was enormous but he bravely finished every mouthful!

Henk and I have repacked our bags for the Sherpa van. One of our bags will be taken directly by Sherpa to Robin Hood’s Bay, our final destination. Our other bag will be taken to the next B&B on our walk and will be waiting for us on our arrival.

Photos: St Bees Headland; Priory Church with Norman doorway; The group - Henk, Neil, Chris, Ron and me; Neil’s dinner!