St.Bridget’s old church

Beckermet

Possibly, 'stream meeting', in the sense of a junction. Perhaps, more likely, is 'hermit stream'.
Elements and their meanings
bekkr (Old Norse) A stream, a beck.
ermite (Middle English) A hermit.
mót (Old Norse) A meeting, an encounter: used of an assembly of people, or a river-confluence.

I blame freespiral. My interpretation of ‘local’ has stretched although it is hardly clear what it is supposed to mean now but it was a beautiful day and I longed to see the sea. In ‘The Man who Gave his Horse to a Beggar’ I’d been reading about St.Aidan and this church is mentioned as being on the site of an older monastery. It has some Anglo-Saxon/Viking crosses (left of blip) and the whole area feels very ancient (as long as you keep your back to Sellafield). Nearby is the ruin of Calder Abbey. Tantalisingly there’s a holy well referred to but it seems to be lost. I’m hoping freespiral won’t mind it being tagged. I had a good rummage around and then cycled back to where I’d parked up further along the coast.

Extras - After a beach wander and a bit of pebble play, I headed back over Cold Fell stopping to walk down to the Monk’s Bridge which was just as lovely as I remembered from my last visit about 25 years ago (how did that happen?).

I had downloaded the Good Friday Meditation to listen to again and this poem of R.S.Thomas’s was referenced and goes well with the Easter weekend and all this holy stuff ...

The Kingdom

It’s a long way off but inside it
There are quite different things going on:
Festivals at which the poor man
Is king and the consumptive is
Healed; mirrors in which the blind look
At themelves and love looks at them
Back; and industry is for mending
The bent bones and the minds fractured
By life. It’s a long way off, but to get
There takes no time and admission
Is free, if you will purge yourself
Of desire, and present yourself with
Your need only and the simple offering
Of your faith, green as a leaf.