BOOTboys

GLW2111 : In Search of Patricks

Monday 15th March 2021

It being St Patrick’s day on Wednesday, anything Irish is the BOOTboys theme for the week. Margaret and I went out to make sure we bagged the local St Patrick things before anyone else. Plus anything else with Patrick in its name.

We parked outside Preston Patrick Memorial Hall and crossed the road at the old School House....

.... and set off for St Patrick’s Church.

There is an olden days feel to walking across the fields to a church standing by itself at the top of the hill. It makes a fine view point, the Lakeland hills having had a fresh dusting of snow overnight.

I had read that there is a Green Man wall carving at the east end of the church.

Very appropriate for St P’s day I thought.

I couldn’t see it so perhaps it is inside.

However there were various other human faces alongside the south facing windows.

There was another person in the churchyard so I asked him about the Green Man. Unfortunately he was not local but was very into church architecture. He didn’t know about this one however he did tell me that most cathedrals have a Green Man. He said had discovered one under a choir seat in Wakefield cathedral.

Margaret now realised that I had left the rucksack in the car and I realised I hadn’t switched on the map tracker. So back to the car I went to remedy both.

Our next Patrick was Preston Patrick Hall, a very old looking building.

A lane leads past it and under the motorway then up a long climb to the next proper road. This took us back across the motorway. The distant views were again superb.

You could just see the trig point on the top of Helm, with Ill Bell and the Kentmere hills beyond.

At Goose Green (sounds more Falklands than Irish) we turned left. We had been looking for somewhere to sit and have a coffee and when we found an old milkchurn stand by the side of the road outside a house with a green, strong man's name, we thought this is it. There we were, quietly enjoying the break, when the owner of the house came up and said he owned the milk stand. Finish your coffee and don’t let me catch you sitting there again.

Well, in 50 odd years of living in the area and never having seen this previously, had he not said anything it is unlikely that we would be passing that way for a long time, if ever. Now, however, we must make it an annual pilgrimage. Margaret spotted that if we were to change one number on the parked car it would sum the guy up. PL10NKA.

Next stop Kaker, the home of the wonderful Olive Clark, a formidable old girl. We didn’t see Olive but we did admire her house with a miniature replica of it in her smart garden that is alongside a mill race.

One more Patrick to go- Preston Patrick Quaker Church. Quaker churchyards are generally very peaceful places but this wasn’t due to works taking place to the building across the small yard.

It was short walk back to the Memorial Hall having completed our Patricks.

Just one thought to finish on. Why is the church called St Patrick’s? It used to be called St Gregory’s, as per the hill and the nearby old folks home. Did they change it to reflect the name of the civil parish- Preston Patrick? As far as I can tell, that Patrick was a very different person. It’s a mystery.

Don, Monday 15th March 2021

Great Little Walks
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