Wednesday June 19th 2019 - The Lookout, Workington

I woke to a nice sunny morning and the promise of a lovely day so when I took Sophie and Poppie for their first walk round the site I took the camera too. With blue sky, sunshine, birdsong and lovely views it was a perfect morning, the sort of morning which should be preserved to be brought out again on dull rainy days.

With the previous day having been quite busy I decided that this time I would spend the morning relaxing with my book and only go to one place later on. That place was Workington, and although I'd never really wanted to go there as it's very much an industrial town my '111 Places' book listed a very unusual clock which might be worth seeing.

Driving into Workington I followed the signs for 'town centre', found a space in a small short-stay car park on the edge of the pedestrianised shopping area and went in search of the clock, which turned out to be not very far away. The Lookout is a mechanical sculpture designed by Andy Plant (whoever he is) and commissioned by the local council as part of a regeneration project; it was switched on in July 2006 and provides more than just the time.

Based on the design and workings of a camera obscura the clock's beam-like minute hand is basically a long periscope which rises into the air every hour and a camera on the end of the beam transfers images of the Workington skyline with the Lake District fells in the background. These images can be viewed through small portholes dotted at different heights around the spherical body of the clock; if the beam is in the horizontal position viewers see images of the street with people going about their daily business. To tell the time on the clock you need to look both up and down; the hour is shown on a ring round the top of the sphere while the minutes are shown on a large circle set in the ground around the sphere.

The clock also has a special 'chime' composed of the voices of local people set to music and the tune plays on the hour and half hour; speakers and lights are built into the surrounding benches to enhance the experience. Now I'm not sure if I'd gone at the wrong time or if maybe the clock wasn't working properly but nothing at all happened while I was there and with a couple of shots of it I didn't bother waiting around to see if anything did.

As I headed back to the van I came across the Theatre Royal on the main road running past the town centre. Built in 1866 the theatre has undergone several upgrades and refurbishments since 1913; after the 1976 purchase of two adjoining properties at the rear of the building a major extension and alteration programme was undertaken during 1977/78, then in 1999 the place was completely re-roofed. In 2015 the theatre company won a grant of over £364,000 from the Lottery Fund, enabling the theatre to be further refurbished and modernised to bring it well and truly into the 21st century, although the front façade has never been altered and remains the same as when it was first built. With the theatre's striking deep pink and cream external paintwork it was certainly worth taking a photo. 

 Back at the van I decided to go in search of a subject which always interests me - boats and water - so driving out of town I followed the signs for 'port', however this was one quest where I failed miserably. Driving down one particular road I suddenly came to a dead end - my way was blocked by the gates and barriers to an industrial site (which I found out later is a windfarm) and I could go no further. I knew the sea couldn't be far away though and there was a wide unmade track on the right so I decided to drive along and see what was there.

The track took me along through heathland with three or four unofficial parking areas and several paths leading through the heath to the sea. Wind turbines were dotted here and there and half a dozen caravans were parked around the edge of a secluded parking area away from the track. With no obvious 'mess' of any sort and no feral dogs and kids running around I wondered if maybe the caravans belonged to windfarm workers rather than travellers.

The path through the heath took me to a small rocky beach with clear views across the Solway Firth to Scotland, and though I wouldn't have wanted to spend much time there it wasn't unpleasant and I got a handful of decent photos, then giving up on looking for boats I returned to the van and set off back to the camp site. The rest of the afternoon and early evening were spent in chill out mode, though I couldn't resist taking a wander down the camping field and taking a couple of shots looking over the on-site lake with Skiddaw and other fells in the distance.

It was when I was coming back from taking the dogs for their bedtime walk that I noticed that the van's rear lights were on - strange, it had been a bright sunny day and I'd had no reason to put the lights on. The front lights weren't on, in fact the key wasn't even in the ignition, however by process of elimination I worked out that it was the brake lights which had somehow become stuck on. There was nothing I could do about it though so I just had to leave them like that until I could get the problem dealt with the following day - and I just knew that when I got up in the morning I would be faced with a flat battery.