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28th – 30th May 2021
With lockdown easing, Granny wanted to get back to Barrow-in-Furness to catch up with friends and relatives so we came along too. We were heading up for the Bank Holiday Weekend so whilst the roads would be really busy on Friday night once Callum had finished school, we would take the hit so we have a full day on Saturday and Sunday.
Recalling childhood memories of trips back up North, we were armed with a tin of fruit drops, the ones that were coated in icing sugar! A fav of my Nan and Grandad!
We left home about 4pm and arrived at the Premier Inn in Barrow just before midnight. It took 5 hours to reach Junction 15 of the M6 (the half way point of the drive). As we approached Lancaster, Sat Nav also told us Barrow was a mere 10 miles away as the crow flies … yet we still have 47 miles to go!
Saturday morning, we met up with mum’s cousin for breakfast before heading into Ulverston. Stop-off at Lindow’s Jewellers as Mum wanted to get her watch fixed and catch up with Ken. There may have been a necklace that caught my eye too!
Afterwards, we started the Ulverston Treasure Trail and saw some of the sights in the town of Ulverston. Mum hadn’t seen the Laurel & Hardy Statues and we were taken down some lanes that I hadn’t been down previously.
We also came across several replica Furness Railway benches dotted around the town. We bought Dad a set of bench ends for his 60th Birthday and it took pride of place in his garden – a piece of home at home. However, Dad had painted the bench green rather than the blue. Mum (with David’s help) had just got the ends shot-blasted and repainted locally so it once again has pride of place in their garden.
We noticed the trail was going to take us out of town, and we had booked a slot to visit Furness Abbey in the afternoon. We would try and get back out to complete this trail tomorrow.
In the meantime, we needed to head across to Furness Abbey via Cumbrian Cow Ice Cream to keep us going! Aunty Kath had recommended here to Mum several times and Ken had said how good it was.
With COVID, they had set themselves up as a Drive Through and they had opened up a field you could park up in. It’s not every day you follow a Ferrari into a place for Ice Cream! Ice cream was really good though.
The weather was good and a perfect day to visit the Abbey. The last time we had visited was thirteen years ago in 2008; Mum hadn’t been since she was at school!
Some repair work was taking place as the walls were starting to separate and needed to stop the walls falling down. There was only one other family visiting at this time so the place was remarkably quiet.
After the Abbey, we headed back to the hotel and grabbed a drink at the pub attached to the hotel. We remembered just how refreshing a glass of Lemonade and Lime was!
That evening, we met up with Dad’s brother, sister and sister-in-law for dinner at The Village Inn in Newton – where Dad grew up and was lovely to catch up with them.
Next morning, we had breakfast and dropped Mum off at Ann’s for a catch up whilst we headed back to Ulverston to complete the Treasure Trail we started yesterday. We know headed out of the town along a quiet lane to bottom of the hill with The Hoad on. When travelling to Barrow, the sight of The Hoad meant we were nearly at Nan and Grandads! We didn’t climb to the top of the Hoad this trip but carried on down the lane and through the park, back into town.
All perfectly timed and we were back at Ann’s for lunch at 1pm. Homemade pizza and salad.
After lunch we headed back to the hotel via the Cemetery – located on the hillside overlooking the Irish Sea, out to the wind farm and the Isle of Man.
Dinner that evening would be at Julie & Bob’s with Ann for another catch-up.
The next morning we had breakfast and went to pick Ann up. She was coming back with us to stay with Mum for a couple of days. We headed out on the Coast Road. The bungalow Nan and Grandads built on the Coast Road was up for sale (the bungalow had undergone an amazing transformation from looking at photos on the estate agents website) and Mum wanted a nosey!
