Whitehaven revisited

As a young child, I regularly visited Whitehaven to see my grandparents, I remember walking down a hill into the town from Loop Road South where they lived, lots of crows nesting in the trees above the road, and walking along the pier. My first gardening memories are of being in the front garden planting Auriculas and in the back garden picking blackcurrants with my grandfather. I don't think I visited after the age of 5 because they both sadly died after then.
Whitehaven I discover is one of the Gem Towns, along with Cockermouth, in the Lake District, built on shipping and mining. There are some fabulous buildings, there's still the facade of the old swimming baths and bus station, but it was the views of the pier and the site of the blackcurrant picking I was most interested in.
It's a beautiful place with such a rich history

Above a relic from the mining era, and below the lighthouse at the end of the pier looked majestic in the bright sunshine

 and in the distance from across the beach

I remember there was coal on the beach when I visited as a child

This is the other lighthouse, it's really a very big harbour, once Whitehaven was the most important port in the country after London

 Here's a view from the front at Whitehaven

 and a photo of some of the sculpture knots along the front, they are called knot bollards, and among the many different sculptures to be seen around the town

 When we got back to the cottage, I walked along a footpath from the back of the cottage towards Mosser and took another photo of a new born lamb

 and the glorious view