St Peter’s Church, Heysham

A beautiful little church overlooking Morecambe Bay.
Grade 1 listed, parts of which date back to the8th century.
Despite its age, it is still an active Anglican parish church and one of the oldest continuously used churches in Western Europe.
One of the highlights is the Viking hogback (grave cover) stone from the 10th century. It was discovered in the 19th century buried in the grounds. ( see 1st extra)
The reason for our visit was to find the grave of my great grandfather who was buried here in 1912.
The church has a wonderful view overlooking Morecambe Bay. After a bit of hunting, we found the grave, complete with cross, at the back of the church where the graveyard slopes down to the shore.
A beautiful last resting place. Many of the graves are those of Bradfordians, who like my great grandfather, retired to Morecambe and the surrounding area.
We finished our visit with tea and cakes in the church hall where the volunteer staff were extremely welcoming.

From here our next quest was to find the house where my great grandfather lived.
I thought it had been pulled down, but a few months ago found out it was still up, but had been split into three.
We soon found the house, painted white and high upon the cliff top. Now surrounded by lots of other houses, but when he had it built in the late 1800’s it was on it’s own, and the land went right down to the sea, with magnificent views of the bay, and hills beyond.
As I was taking a photo, I noticed a lady come out to pick some daffodils.
She came over to ask if I needed any help, and I proceeded to tell her the story of how my Great grandfather built the house.
She asked us if we would like to have a look inside, and of course I said Yes.
The 2nd extra is of the house, and 3rd extra is of the floor they found which had been boarded over, in the entrance hall.
Too much to write here, but we discovered they had only recently bought part of the house, and were in the process of restoring it to it’s former glory. She has been trying to find out about the history of the building, so she was thrilled to hear my story, and has invited us back to look round when they have finished.
A great coincidence is that her husband is a carpenter, just as my great grandfather was.
They are from Poland and came over to England 15 years ago.
I know it may sound silly, but I got quite emotional, and it brought tears to my eyes to think that it was now being looked after and cared for by such a nice couple. So we hugged one another.
We are going to keep in touch and I look forward to returning when they have finished.

We are now staying in Silverdale for a couple of nights. The last extra is the view from our bedroom window as the sun was setting.
Such a beautiful place.
Looking forward to exploring tomorrow.

Second to last extra is the waterfall at Clapham, looking absolutely fabulous.
We stopped here for lunch on the way up, and to buy MrC a new cap, as he lost his old one in Cornwall last year.

Have both had a wonderful day.
I know I will sleep well.