Day 17 - Carlisle to Manchester

Located in the far North of England, Carlisle is just a few miles from the Scottish border. This city has had a very turbulent history. The Romans built a wall through it, Vikings invaded it and the Scots and English fought over it for many years.

Carlisle also has a cathedral which is a must see. Does one ever get tired of visiting "churches"? Not me, but some members of our party confessed to be "churched out"!!!

The Cathedral, founded in 1122 and battered by centuries of warfare, was built for the glory of God, and services have been said and sung daily in it for nearly 900 years. It is mainly built with local redstone but there are some white stones incorporated that were taken from Hadrian's Wall.

The following plaque is speaking to the recent car crash on May 25, 2010 in which a local girl was killed on her 16th birthday. It also references the ever more recent June 2, 2010 Whitehaven shootings. This was also part of the speech given by the minister at the Whitehaven memorial on June 6. Today is June 7.

  

Outside the cathedral I found this lovely bench.

Some photos of the town itself.

Time to head to Manchester in the rain. The Lake District is very beautiful and I wish we had dedicated more time to the area. Next trip.

Our plan was to stop in Whitehaven on the coast for lunch. Just outside the town we came upon this which dictated a stop.

Moresby Hall - check out the photos and especially the aerial shot! It is one of the oldest residences in Cumbria.

Since August 1999 the Hall has has been owned by Jane and David Saxon, who now offer accomodations to visitors at the Hall - both bed and breakfast and self catering, with dinner provided if required. Cooking classes are also given and you can even have your wedding here. I wish I'd researched this more carefully as it looks like a wonderful place to spend a night or two.

Behind this magnificent house I met a man coming out of here. He stopped to tell me that he had lived around here all his life. These buildings were originally part of the working farm but were now being turned into vacation rentals.

Across the road was St Bridget's Church

At the end of the church graveyard is part of the old Roman wall. When the "new" church was built in 1822 many old Roman coins were found while digging.

On a clear day you can see the Isle of Man - still on my bucket list.

And we have to have the requisite lamb

Whitehaven - this website has some amazing photos of the town taken from the air. This is a very pretty town which has just gone throough an horrendous event making it one of the top news stories of the week.

St. Nicholas's Church

The taxi xtand with the floral memorials still in place. We came upon this accidently while looking for somewhere to eat.

Manchester next.