SKIPTON. Market Day Wanderings.

Sat sitting, eating and watching the world go by. A good market is as much a chance to catch up with folk as it is to do some shopping.

It’s funny how some days turn out. I’d planned a day in Lancaster with a trip out to Morecambe for the evening. Get some sea air and more importantly some fish and chips. Well the getting to Lancaster bit worked out well no problems travelling up on the train, not something you can say that often at the moment, it was when I was looking at the departure board checking the times of the trains out to Morecambe that a train came up for Leeds, travelling by Skipton in North Yorkshire. No I hadn’t been to Skipton for quiet a while, a few years in fact, plus it was Saturday so that meant that the market would be on.

Cheese and cake and jams and, and, and. Oh and conversation as well.

It’s a street market so the North Yorkshire town on the edge of the Dales would be buzzing. Change of plans. I had time to get a coffee and a toasted teacake ( this has been blogged ) and headed off to Yorkshire.

The rail journey heads north up the main line and branches off at Carnforth, the station made famous by the film “Brief Encounter” and there are displays etc in the station buildings celebrating the fact. The route than heads across country, it was once part of a network of lines serving the area which alas bit by bit were chopped away by the axe of Beeching. A sad loss as the areas are popular tourist haunts as the car traffic proves. Just shy of Skipton the line joins the famous Settle Carlisle route and after an hour or so from leaving Lancaster the train rolls into Skipton’s flower basket hung station.

Sitting by the cool waters of the Leeds – Liverpool Canal.

You don’t mess with the pub food in Skipton.

It’s only a short walk from the station to the town centre and the wide main street and it’s market stalls and yes it was busy. The weather was being kind and the canal boat trips on the Leeds Liverpool Canal were booked up for the day.

Food was the first order of the day and with that sorted it was time for a wander around, see what’s stayed the same and what’s changed. Before heading back to Lancaster to finish my day.