Menoshering; Keeping History

I have written about so often parking at New Lanark and not visiting - and on Monday's post, you saw how I changed that when Aitch came to join me to explore that historic village, which is very much still living its history.

Well, it is to be remembered that up the hill a bit, the original settlement of Lanark is still very much present. It is an ancient market town established by King David 1, one of several, and was assigned the status of Royal Burgh by him in 1140. There was a central market area (in what is now the High Street), from which radiated several feus (packets of land akin to crofts). There was a castle, nothing of which remains, the bowling club being sited on the original motte, but is remembered in the names of Castle Gate, Wellgate, West Port and East Port. The feus are remembered through the vennels (narrow lanes) that move between the High Street and the rear of the buildings that line it. These are named, quite often, for establishments/ activities or characters that populated them... the history is kept in memory with some wonderful boards such as these -

We were particularly tickled by Ritchie's Close (Aitch's family name), where the local brewery was, though the Ritchies were known as nail-makers. 

One of the buildings that had always caught my eye (well, to be fair, it is difficult to miss because it is right at the end of the High Street, and one risks losing a wing mirror against its corner when driving out of town), we now discovered it is, in fact, a church. Dedicated to St Nicholas, it was built in 1774, but the bell in its tower was taken from the much older St Kentigern church and is considered to be one of the oldest church bells in the world, dating from 1110 - although it has been re-cast twice, in 1659 and 1983. It is this bell that rings out for the clock and can be heard for quite some distance around.

Now, as there was nothing to contradict this thought, we both considered the statue on the front of the tower to represent St Nicholas. However, research has revealed that it is actually an image of one of the town's most famous residents, Sir William Wallace, an eighteenth-century romanticised version. At one point, we discussed the possibility it might be he, but agreed that didn't make sense and that it was more likely to be the associated saint. It still doesn't make much sense architecturally, but anyway, the statue is 2.45m (8 feet) tall and was sculpted by Robert Forrest from nearby Carluke. It seems that even then, the longer history of the town was to be honoured. 

As Aitch and I turned around from looking at this building, we were hit in the face by another, more modern, feature honouring WW...

This "monument" has quite the atmosphere about it—and right beside it, of course, is the Wallace Gift Shop with all the usual tourist trap ware. (Well, judging by the window display. We were not tempted to enter.) From here, we walked down to look at the info boards about the castle that had once stood there, then back up to the car park to collect The Grey from his charge point and then off to the grocery store for some shopping. 

We had a lovely couple of days getting to know Lanark, both old and new, more deeply, and my fondness grew even stronger. As a town now, other than the clear tourist attraction, it serves as a domicile for commuters to Glasgow, Edinburgh, and "central belt" satellite towns. As such, the property values are higher than one might have expected. It is well-served with supermarkets and general stores and, for once, the main street has only a couple of empty premises, all the others appearing to thrive. 

Anyway, Aitch had to depart on Wednesday, and I remained for only one more night on that stay, as I had an appointment in Ayr the following weekend... more of which next week. Meanwhile, let me leave today's post with the info boards on WW for the history buffs among you to enjoy - and tomorrow, just a bit more about NL. If you would like to read more about Lanark, then read this site. If the royal history grabs you, the wiki page is as good a place to start as any! (Although this is not strictly "a museum" the whole town exudes and honours its history, so am using the museum label for reference.)