Saturday April 20th 2019 Part 2 - Ambling round Allonby

Just less than five miles north of Maryport was Allonby, a little village strung out along the coast road. Most of the cottages were on one side of the road while on the other was a long wide green with a tarmac cycle path running through it and the beach on the far side. Having previously checked out Allonby on Google maps street view I knew there was no shortage of places to park so I pulled off the road and onto a nice grassy parking area about halfway through the village. Street view had also shown me a place called Jack's Surf Bar set back off the road, and outside was a board advertising takeaway pie, peas and gravy for £2.99; now that's not the sort of thing I would normally eat but for once I liked the idea of having that for my lunch while sitting in the van and enjoying the view over towards Scotland. 

The image on street view was a few years old however so I didn't expect to still get pie, peas and gravy for that price, but when I went across to Jacks Surf Bar there was no board outside and I found that it seemed to be more of a proper cafe/restaurant rather than somewhere doing takeaways. A quick look at a menu showed me that what I wanted didn't feature on it at all so I did a quick about turn and went off in search of somewhere else. Jayne had recommended The Codfather fish and chip shop so I tried there and was happy to find there was steak pie on the menu board - so pie, peas, gravy and a takeaway coffee were ordered and back to the van I went.

Now under normal circumstances steak pie from a fish and chip shop would be a commercially produced individual one, which is what I expected, but when I opened the carton I was surprised to find a slice of home made steak pie - and the slice was so big it almost filled the carton it was in. No way could I eat all that at once so I cut it in half and saved the rest for my evening meal back at the camp site.

With lunch over, which I really enjoyed, I clipped the leads on Sophie and Poppie and set off along the green to the start of the village at the south end then walked back along the road. The first thing I came to was Christ Church, followed by the entrance to a small static caravan site then West Winds coffee shop and tea room, in a building which looked like it may once have been the church vicarage. Past a row of modern detached houses I came to Twentyman's ice cream shop, and judging by the queue outside it was a very popular place. Next door was the Baywatch Hotel and Jack's Surf Bar then a row of white painted cottages set back off the road with a pretty little green in front of them.

Past the cottages was Pig in the Bath antique/second hand shop - rather a strange name for a shop but on the small forecourt outside there was indeed a large painted wooden pig in a large wooden bathtub. It was difficult to get a decent photo of it though as there was all sorts of 'junk' around it so I had to make do with a shot of the sign above the door and a model pig in the upstairs window. The building itself seemed to contain a mish-mash of all sorts of stuff but I didn't go in.

On a bend near the antique shop a stone bridge took the road over Allonby Beck which flowed from somewhere inland and ran alongside the road for some distance before flowing out across the beach and into the sea. Close to the bridge on the seaward side was The Codfather and a large childrens' play area, then back across the road was the attractive-looking Ship Hotel. Past the play area was a short row of cottages fronted by a gravel parking area with small wooden footbridges leading across the beck to the roadside pavement. Further along still was the village hall and across from it a large red brick building which was actually a house but had obviously been something else at some time.

Next came what had once been a little chapel but is now a private house, and with no more cottages on the seaward side of the road there was a great view across the green and the Solway Firth to the hills of south Scotland - or there would have been if there hadn't been a heat haze obliterating everything in the distance. After the chapel was another private cottage which had once been a Quaker meeting house - it had an attractive name plaque and quite an unusual door knocker, and going off the antlers I assumed it was a stag but looking at the face it seemed more like a cow.

Past the Quaker house was what seemed to be a small site of holiday chalets then North Lodge, a long single storey property with a 2-storey section at each end and in the centre.That's where the village ended and any semblance of a pavement also came to an end; about fifty yards further on the national speed limit came into force so not wanting the three of us to be in danger of getting squashed by something travelling at speed I went onto the green and walked along through the dunes until I came to where Allonby Beck flowed into the sea. 

My turn around point was a simple wooden bench set among the dunes and with a sweet little memorial under one end. Heading back towards the van I stopped a couple of times to photograph some very colourful flowers in planters and it was while I was snapping the last shot I got chatting to a guy mowing the grass outside his cottage. He had some connection to a local history group and gave me a brochure about the history of Allonby but I only had a quick glance at it and didn't look at it properly until I got back to the van.

Sitting in the van and reading the brochure I'd just been given I realised there was far more to this lovely little place than I could ever have realised and I now had a dilemma. Did I drive back south to the other places I wanted to visit or did I abandon my plan, stay in Allonby, and look for the many interesting things shown in the brochure? Checking the time I realised that I'd spent longer in Allonby than I'd intended so I wouldn't have time to go south anyway and do justice to the two places I wanted to see, but staying in Allonby may scupper any chance I had of actually going elsewhere. So Plan C came into force - Allonby would be there to revisit another time so instead of going south I went north and headed off into yet more unknown territory.