One of our excursions on the Sunday was to see the “Another Place” installation by Antony Gormley on Crosby beach. According to the artist, it “harnesses the ebb and flow of the tide to explore man’s relationship with nature”. Hmmm. At first, you see what looks like a man standing at the edge of the sea up to his knees in sand but as you get closer, you realise that it is a life-size cast iron statue. Then, as you look along the beach you see more of them. Many more, in fact: 100 of them stretching about three km along the beach and variously up to one km out to sea (the sea is very shallow at this point). Very interesting to see up close and altogether an impressive, large scale work of art, with each statue weighing 650kg.
On Monday, after leaving Port Sunlight we travelled on to the village of Thornton Hough, an ancient town mentioned as “Torintone” in the Domesday Book. It was rebuilt as a model village in the mid-1800s by a local industrialist and then taken over by William Lever, son of Lord Lever of Port Sunlight fame.
The smallish parish church is full of impressive stained glass, including a superb World War 1 memorial window entitled “St Michael and all the angels in victorious conflict over the Dragon”.
Then off to a late lunch at a rustic, thatched-roof pub whose name I cannot at the moment recall accompanied by a locally brewed beer, the name of which also I cannot at the moment recall and before you make any comments I had only the one pint.
Then it was back home for a bit of a rest before we sampled Ruth’s amazing slow-cooked pulled pork before we headed out to catch the late flight back to Dublin. Many thanks, Ruth and John, for a most enjoyable and action-packed weekend.
