 As a child growing up, I was always proud to be Lancastrian. On one of my earliest trips to Lakeland I remember stopping at the summit of Wrynose Pass in my friend's Volkswagon camper. I guess the year must've been about 1979, but it was the monolith of limestone near the summit of the motor road that caught my interest. Seeing LANCASHIRE emblazened across it was obvious to a child, but it was the L, W and R embedded in the grass that had me intrigued. "They stand for Lancashire, Cumberland and Westmorland", I was told by my friend's father. With hindsight, it's the first recollection I have of taking note of that word. I'd been to Kendal and of course driven through the old county of Westmorland on many an occasion, but this piece of limestone at the summit of the infamous pass has become somewhat of a pilgrimage point for me - a kind of qiblah whilst I'm exiled in London! |
