South along the coast from Whitehaven and Workington Seascale still has a popular following, partly due to its rail link and fine sandy beach, and a backdrop of splendid accessible mountains.
It is still a lovable little seaside place for many things...for its fine open stretches of sand and for the beauty of the hills and mountains which rise magnificently in the east. Monarch of all the fine array is the wild twin-peaked mountain mass which climbs 12 miles away to the highest point in England, Scafell Pike, 3,210 feet above the sea.
There's been two distinct stages in the town's development over the years.The first would have been the coming of the railway in the 1850's, when it could be said Victorian Seascale really began, complete with bathing machines, ice-creams, deck chairs...even donkey rides.
It was the outbreak of war in 1939 which brought to an end the holiday trade, and from the mid 40's an atomic station was set up at Sellafield close by...(though then it was known as Windscale)
Following the war the holiday trade started up all over again though this time it was the Sellafield workers and their families who were enjoying all that Seascale could offer.
The spacious church stands proudly at a high corner of the village, near a war memorial cross carved with vines and knotwork. Hardly older than the 20th century, the nave has five round bays built in Norman fashion.
An old farmhouse a little way off was built as the manor house in the 17th century, and there is also in the neighbourhood about a mile away, one great stone standing near the golf links, the only stone remaining of a prehistoric Circle of the Stone Age, the others sunk into the ground. Quite near is yet another circle of standing stones, their purpose still remains a mystery however.
Over the years as we all know, Sellafield has expanded enormously, and the visitors these days are the thousands who visit for an exciting tour of the site.
|
