GRANGE OVER SANDS. A Wintery Walkabout.

In it’s own modest way Grange O-S station is quite a delightful place.

The days are now getting criminally short and grey, not exactly solar panel friendly. I didn’t fancy being in the house all day, watching the grim weather go by, there’ll be time enough and more for that. So after a bit of thinking I decided on Grange over Sands as a suitable place to spend a couple of hours.

There are few things that can’t be cured with a bacon roll.

I landed up at Lancaster with an hour to spare for the next train, time enough for a bacon roll and coffee to keep things ticking over. The town centre is only a few minutes walk from the station so I walked over and got myself the above bacon roll and coffee from Diggles. There’s something satisfying about a bacon roll on a cold day. Fed and warmed up a bit I headed back up the hill to the railway station ready for my train, Stopping on the way to pick up a couple of small pork pies of the market, just in case. The train I was heading for would be heading out to Barrow and then around the coast and up to Carlisle. That’s a fabulous trip but not on a day like today when you can’t see anything.

Not my train, this was heading up to Glasgow Central, a journey I haven’t done for a while, that will be put right in the new year.

It’s not a long journey around to Grange over Sands, you leave the main line at Carnforth of Close Encounter fame, sadly the heritage centre on the station is facing a troubled future which is a great pity.

The simple but elegant station at Grange is right by Morecambe Bay.

The town is a compact place, clustered down by the Promenade and gardens. I stocked up with a cake from the bakery in row of shops facing the garden and stared my wanderings. A walk up the main street brings you to more shops.

Walking up Main Street, the Chritmas lights doing their best to dispel the day’s gloom.

Fothcoming attractions at the Victoria Hall.

Use them or lose them is the watchword, local business, local lifeline is the attitude.

Higginsons a very fine establishment, good pies but they sell out, hence the emergency purchase in Lancaster.

The day was starting to get colder, the mist drifting like the threads of a worn out shroud from a forgotten tomb. I decided to take a break and get my pies eaten. I headed along from the shops and down to the park on Park Road, logical when you think about it. I found a sheltered bench facing the elegant bandstand amd tucked into my al fresco (and cold) picnic.