This day we had a visit to Papcastle, the village on the opposite side of the River from the town of Cockermouth.

The village is an historic one and famous locally for its Roman Fort and archaeological investigations in recent years, including a visit from the Tony Robinson and television's "Time Team".

Stan would extend the walk to include the old railway , Broughton Crags and a Roman Road return.

Close to home this one, as Stan and Frances who organise these Cockermouth Striders walks, actually live in the village of Papcastle.

We met at the Belle Vue Hotel at the top of the hill, close to the main road from Cockermouth which now by-passes the village.

Close by the pub is the Village Information Board, which highlights the many Roman remains that have been found in the area.

The walk starts at the bottom of the map, the diagram representing the view south, down towards the River Derwent.

Our route will walk through the village and pick up the Roman road down to the riverside meadows.

First we divert through the housing estate known as The Mount where Stan introduces us to the history of the village.

He pointed out locations of known sites and even some Roman stonework, examples of which could be found as treasured possessions in several of the gardens.

A neighbour of his, Brian, invited us in to see the view from his garden

which included the course of the Roman Road (now grassed over) that passed the other side of the hedge.

This old photo gives some idea of the village and of the Archaeological activities over the years.

Bill's garden that we had just visited is on the curve to the top right, where a hazy line of darker hint of trees reflects the route of the old roadway outside the modern fence line.

The oldest date on the photo, the 1984 dig, was on the site of what is now Stan and Frances's house itself. No wonder he has such a keen interest on all things Roman.

The old Fort of Derventio, of which there was little to see today, was sited in the field at the top of the village.

We head down to the river on another of the old tracks that has stood the test of time.

In the meadow Stan talked of the more recent excavations, where remains of the Roman Village were found.

One of the buildings must have been an important one as it had an under floor heating system.

Many important finds were found, including, strangely, the skeleton of a man found in the under floor hypocaust.

That light green grass looked to be a significant feature to us, but was just the area of cut grass for the recent school sports day !

The full extent of recent excavations in which both the University and the local village members all took part.

It is thought that some of the missing above-ground stone from the buildings was removed in the 12th century and used to build Cockermouth Castle a few miles away.

Any signs of the dig in this field are now covered over and the area returned to the farmer for his sheep to graze.

There were the foundations of a wooden Roman Bridge found near the excavation site, but this structure is much more modern.

It is the Cockermouth western by-pass, connecting the A66 to Maryport, Wigton and to the villages up and down the West Coast.

Beyond, the footpath encounters a major problem and has been blocked off.

The river bank here and at many other places, was eroded away by the 2009 floods and the path now diverts into the adjacent field.

We continue on alongside the River Derwent, negotiating the usual selections of stiles, gates and fences.

This old bridge crossing a minor stream has seen better days.

Fortunately the stream is so small an alternative crossing has superceded it, making it redundant and not worth repairing.

On these wide flat fields close to the river the farmer is able to grow a good cereal crop,

unlike our fields further up in the Lorton Valley, which just seem to be used for growing grass and feeding animals.

A quick coffee stop by the river allows us to enjoy the display of fast moving Swifts and Martins

that were criss-crossing the river in search of insects. I even managed to catch one of them in this picture of Loes, as it flew past.

Our route now did a zig-zag and climbed up onto a high bank.

This turned out to be an old railway track and was a great opportunity for Stan to take a long distance photo of the rest of the group.

This was the old track of the Brigham / Broughton / Dovenby railway that connected the Workington-to-Cockermouth railway

to the local stone quarries and coal mines before heading north to join the main coastal line heading towards Carlisle.

The river meanders on its way to the coast and the railway used to cross it on what must have been quite a substantial viaduct,

the stone buttress of which can just be seen on the opposite bank.

Stan suggested that the bridge was demolished when the line was closed in 1936.

We walk a short distance further before cross Broughton Beck on a footbridge

and head up alongside it on a much smaller woodland footpath.

At one point the bank becomes so steep that a wooden walkway has been built to get round the problem.

Looking across the meadow at an old bridge that allowed access between fields for the farmer when the railway was first built.

We reached the Broughton to Papcastle road and cross the bridge. We stopped to view the old Papcastle Station, now a private house called Pavlava.

Despite being over a mile away from Papcastle, it was the closest the line got to the village that gave it its name.

We then diverted from the valley path onto a woodland track that gradually climbed up on a substantial, meandering but unmade track to this gateway.

This area we had passed alongside turned out to be the old quarry of Great Broughton, known as Broughton Crags, a name now used by a local hotel.

In the thick woodland there was little to see, but the tracks we used would have been the roadway that took the stone from the quarry down to the railway for transport out of the area.

We were heading more north now and another station comes into view as the old railway track curves away below us.

Stan's route takes us along the road to Priest's Bridge . . . but he couldn't explain the name as there's no ecclesiastical references in the immediate area.

However he has arranged a visit to this old Dovenby Lodge railway station and the private residence it has now become.

This building was originally a private station for the Dovenby Estate and Mansion owned by the industrialist Valentine Dykes and family.

The old Dovenby mansion is now headquarters of the M-Sport Motor Racing Group

The view of the bridge we had just crossed . . . sadly someone had been using the railway cutting as a rubbish dump over recent years,

but it has been partially cleared this year to reveal the old bridge structure.

A big thanks to Jill who lives at the station, for the chance to visit and view the old railway and platform buildings close-up.

- - - o o o - - -

After a stop for lunch we continued on with our walk, up the country road until we came to a footpath sign.

We had reached what was shown on the map as the course of the old Maryport to Papcastle Roman Road.

However there's little sign on the ground of its past existence, apart from the straight nature of the footpath, heading directly back to Papcastle.

The area is all farmland now and the route of the old road is now just a footpath over a field.

Before we enter the village we cross the Papcastle bypass, that we walked underneath down by the river earlier in the walk.

As we enter the village we pass the "Camp Farm", presumably a historic reference to the Roman Camp or Fort in the fields behind.

The villages has a real spread of housing types than span the centuries.

Many like this one have been converted from older properties into modern homes.

" Reading rooms were originally imposed upon the working classes by the upper classes, mainly the church and local landowners.

Their establishment reflected contemporary attitudes to philanthropy, recreation and self-help and confirmed the great class divide.

In the twentieth century, as other diversions appeared and the countryside became more democratised, reading rooms gradually declined.

They were an important part of village life and have left interesting evidence of former lifestyles and attitudes" Ref: Cambridge University Press

"The Village Reading Rooms, erected 1805" is now the more modern Papcastle Village Hall.

The circular walk is complete as we pass The Mount Estate once again.

A short walk up the hill to the top of the village and we're back at the Belle View, just in time for some light refreshment before leaving for home.

Whilst we were in the pub we came across some old articles and Village News magazines that showed some of the activities of the archaeologists and helpers.

They were pictured uncovering the village's history as the centre of Roman life in the area.

A big thanks to Stan and Frances once again for an interesting walk around parts of the countryside we wouldn't normally visit.