Tidied up

A piece in the local paper this morning sent me to this building. It is on the road into Appleby and has been in a dilapidated state for a long, long time. The situation was worsened when, in 2013, a car crashed into the front of the building. We actually saw the car a few days later as it was stuck in the wall.

There has been a lot of concern about the state of the building (look here to see what it was like) and what it says about Appleby to visitors arriving in the town. Apparently the owner has been served with several legal notices to try to persuade them to do something about it – they ‘failed to comply’. So, the Council organised for the work to be done and have billed the owner for the costs. It now looks tidier, but it is still in a bad state, especially round the back where there are several ruined outbuildings.
 
Gordon thought it might have been a pub, so, of course I set to to find out. And he was right. I eventually found it – the Wearisome Inn. Great name for an Inn I think. I have done lots of research and now have a record of the place going back over a hundred years.
 
Briefly – there was an Inn here in 1829, the Fox and Hounds at Wearisome. By 1851 it was the Wearisome Inn and a Joseph Atkinson was the Innkeeper. They also ran a Carrier to Kendal from here, it would have been on the Turnpike Road out of Appleby, so that makes sense. I followed it through from 1861 to 1911 and found that it remained an Inn or Public House throughout this time, although it sometimes changed its name and there was a series of Innkeepers. As most of them were also farmers, I assume that the building belonged to a farm and, when it was no longer needed as pub or house, it was just abandoned. I will find out about its more recent history later.
   
But, research happy, I haven’t quite forgotten about wildflowers on the last day of 30DaysWild. The extra was taken from behind Wearisome – Rosebay Willowherb, a flower I love, for its colour, but more especially for the way it springs up confidently on places that man has abandoned.