Michael Walmsley: Freelance Web Designer Based in Blackburn, Lancashire – Blog

Gravestone of a Roman cavalryman, depicts him killing a Celt

To describe this as a day out would be a little extreme, it was more a morning out followed by lunch. It was very pleasant though. Too often we travel great distances to go and see some place of interest and neglect the places that are right on our own doorstep. I think we take the places that are near to us for granted.

Ribchester is a village about 6 miles from my house. As the “chester” in the name suggests it is of Roman origin. There was a Roman fort situated on the edge of what is now the modern village and it protected a crossing point of the River Ribble. It was also a crossroads for a road leading from Manchester up to Cumbria and one from Kirkham to Yorkshire.

There are two remains that you can still see, those of the granary and also the bath house. These are free. There is also a museum which contains artefacts from before the Romans, back as far as the Bronze Age through to the Roman occupation of Britain. It is this Roman history that takes up the bulk of the display space.

As well as the artefacts themselves there are accompanying info panels that describe not just what the artefacts are but also give information on who might have used them, how and why they were used. The thing that struck me was how small many of these artefacts are. Things such as buckles, brooches, buttons all appeared tiny against much of what we have today. My thought was that as people were generally smaller in those days the goods that they would have used would have been smaller (Archaeologists among you feel free to giggle at my unfounded hypothesis).

The highlight of the collection is a replica helmet, the original is on display in the British Museum, and it really is an amazing object to see, it is almost perfect.

The museum itself is relatively small and you can easily see everything within it inside of an hour or so. The other thing about the museum building is that it was opened in 1914. Now anybody that knows me well will tell you that I would have loved to have lived in Edwardian England, just because I think it was a time of great hope and optimism for the British. Of course all that changed with World War I so when I see a building such as a museum with a 1914 date over the doorway it always makes me feel slightly odd. This building was put up to help improve the cultural lives of those nearby but within a matter of months the whole of Western Europe would be plunged into a the worlds first truly mechanised war where slaughter was achieved on an industrial scale, maybe some of those that helped to build it were soon to go off to France never to return.

I also paid a visit to St Wilfred’s church. This is a beautiful building, though churches often are and I always find them places of tranquillity. In the graveyard there is a headstone of Frederick Walton who died aged 9 months old in 1892. His headstone is only about 18 inches tall and there didn’t seem to be any other family members buried near by. The stone just has his name and dates, nothing about his family or who how he will be missed. Even now a day later I wonder about this poor child and what the story of his short life was.

I finished off my trip with lunch in the Ribchester Arms. The food was superb and I would heartily recommend it to any weary traveller who finds themselves in this neck of the woods!

You can find pictures of this trip on my Flickr stream.

Know of a place that you think I would enjoy visiting? Why not leave me a comment?