Appleby-in-Westmorland
Appleby-in-Westmorland
lies in a loop of the river Eden
and is overlooked by the Pennine range with the Lake District Fells
showing on the western horizon, just a few miles away. Best accessed by
rail on the Settle to Carlisle line, the walk down the steep hill from
Appleby station gives a taste of the delightful town in the valley
below. Crossing the first leg of the River Eden by- logically
-
Bridge Street, to the left of the bridge is the faint lettering behind
the The Bay Tree:
'GARAGE
CARS
FOR
HIRE
OILS
ETC
STORED'
A few doors
down is a restaurant wine bar with
vernacular lettering painted on the stone recess to the front door:
'GREGSON
FAMILY
GROCER'
The road leads in to Boroughgate, the main thoroughfare
and market
place (with Tourist Information Office, shops and the church) which
leads uphill to the privately owned Appleby Castle. The buildings in
the vicinity run from medieval to Victorian to present day in a mixed
street of delightful business and homes, many in the warm local stone.
High up above the point of a bay window is the curly date monogram:
'1813' in a decorative panel.
Here too is
'CONSERVATIVE CLUB' in
a recessed plaque and next door
'ERECTED A.D. 1912' where
the roof curves over the stone plaque. These last
three examples are all cameo lettering (raised from the surrounding
stone).
Accessed
down a passageway at 32 Boroughgate, the
Courtyard Gallery is housed upstairs in a 17th Century stone granary.
Ascending the outside staircase to the cafe and gallery from the
courtyard within, one espies the dated tablet on the rear wall of the
building: 'N.I.D, 1677'. The building once
served as a school. At present, we haven't been able to find what
'N.I.D.' stands for.
Strolling back down the hill one finds: 'Dealer
in Coffee &
Teas'
painted on the lintel of a handsome front door. See a
similar sign over a door in Settle, Yorks.
'EWS
240'
This
squared off lettering and arrow at the junction of
High Wiend and Boroughgate has the look of a wartime sign. Emergency
Water Supply? - the town centre is enclosed by a U-bend in the river
Eden - but it's not 240 yards (or metres) away, as we were informed by
a local! However, there is a fire station down there in Holme Street,
but has it been there for a long time? Another option might be
Electricity ... Station?
On the wall
of the restaurant Desi Spice in High Wiend,
one can find the preserved date
'1677' on
the original stone facing which has been preserved in a little frame in
the stucco surrounding it. The date is raised (probably carved rather
than appled to the stone) and painted black. Incidentally, don't miss
the road called Doomgate a little further down High Wiend on the left.
Finally,
back in Boroughgate we espied the weathered
lettering: 'GARAGE', one character standing in
barely visible relief on each block of stone on the curving archway to
a rear yard.