Day 5: Richmond to Ingleby Cross

Not much of a day to report other than I rested my legs. Some gap in communications disrupted plans with Jeff from Florida so I executed Plan B on my own and spent the day strolling along the river front in Richmond.  Having seen the Castle and its museum in ‘23, I skipped that stop.  Instead I first attended Mass at St. Francis Xavier parish church where I enjoyed the comfort of old rituals. And I mean OLD.  Mass is celebrated here much as it was at home in the 1970’s fresh on the heals of Vatican II (apologies for the Catholic minutiae).

After Mass I found myself on the shopping street where I had experienced market Saturday in 2023. I even stopped in at the Little Drummer Boy cafe for coffee and gluten free cake. I had been here with Mike and Sally from Juneau for lunch. That had been an especially memorable visit because I chipped a tooth on some foreign object in my salad.  I sustained no injuries today.

After that I wandered down to The Station which is billed as an artists’ mecca inside a decommissioned 19th century railroad station. It was a singularly unsatisfying visit to a building which I assumed would feature at least one railroad exhibit. Other than a dog-eared copy of a 1960’s vintage railway commission report ordering the closure of a few thousand railroad stations which was housed in a glass case next to some sort of a wrench, there was nothing!  The entire place was filled with a pub, a couple of sweets shops and a few craft stores.  Most of the square footage of the building was occupied by movie theaters that were not yet open.

Leaving there I wandered up the hill to the Anglican church of St. Mary the Virgin. This is a wonderful oasis of quiet and repose founded at the time of the Norman conquest in about 1100 A.D. There are several elements of the building dating back to the founding.  It is also the final resting place of Robert Willance, the first mayor of Richmond who died in 1606 but who was buried twice. The initial interment was of the leg he lost when he and his horse fell from a nearby cliff top. The incident has gone down in local legend at Willance’s Leap.  The rest of his body joined his leg some years later when the rest of him died.

I’m now settled in to Ingleby House Farm after an Uber ride and a ridiculously large dinner at the Blue Bell Inn. This B&B is situated exactly on the path of the C2C so tomorrow after breakfast I will head out to the Cleveland Hills, a stretch of the walk that I celebrated as the best of 2022-23.  Looking forward to it!

PS I rejoined Jeff for dinner at the restaurant. My text messages to him went astray because they lacked the correct international prefixes.

My snack in Richmond

St  Mary the Virgin interior

Tonight’s accommodation