Volunteers' Visit Waberthwaite 27 August

For our 2019 volunteers' field trip we made our first and long overdue visit to the west coast, to the ancient parish of Waberthwaite. Our guide for the day was Alan Clegg, who recently joined as a volunteer researcher and is making great progress on the history of Waberthwaite. We met at the village hall, which lies almost on the southern boundary in the hamlet of Lane End. Close by is the village shop and post office that sells the famous Waberthwaite sausages (and yes, some of us bought some).  Heading north, we stopped to look at the quarry, which was once a major source of employment. Our main target for the day though was St John's Church (once St James'), which is in a beautiful location on the banks of the River Esk. The churchyard contains parts of two pre-Conquest stone crosses, while the interior of the church has hardly been touched since 1807. After lunch we made the short journey to Ravenglass and visited the remains of the Roman bath house.