Lindale

An Iron Monument and a Bay Village

There is a cast-iron obelisk in the middle of Lindale, and the man it commemorates asked for it himself. John "Iron-Mad" Wilkinson wanted a monument in iron, and after a career spent proving what the material could do, he got one. He is said to have been buried in an iron coffin, which he also made.

Lindale is a small, mostly residential village near the north-eastern shore of Morecambe Bay, a mile off the A590 between Kendal and Barrow. It sits in limestone country, between Grange-over-Sands and Kendal, with Hampsfell rising behind it. Shops are limited, and for a wider choice of food and drink most people head about two miles to Grange-over-Sands, or further round to Newby Bridge.

Hampsfell and the Open Shore

A nearby reason to walk is Hampsfell, about 1.4 miles southwest of Lindale in a straight line; the walking route is longer. The fell reaches 727 feet in elevation, and at the top sits the Hampsfell Hospice, a building put up around 1846. From it you get one of the finest views in the southern Lake District — Morecambe Bay laid out on one side, the higher fells on the other. It is a lot of view for a modest amount of climbing, and the walk up is limestone underfoot most of the way.

At Grange-over-Sands, about two miles from Lindale, the bay opens out into sands and salt marsh. The town promenade offers a separate level walk beside the bay, with most of the nearby amenities there too.

Webster's Church and Wilkinson's Works

St Paul's Church dates from 1828–29 and is Grade II listed. It was designed by George Webster, the Kendal architect responsible for a good deal of south Cumbria, which means the village church shares an author with a scattering of grander buildings across the county.

Back to Wilkinson, because the village can't quite escape him. He lived from 1728 to 1808 and owned the Castle Head estate, now a field study centre. He produced the iron for the world's first iron bridge at Ironbridge in 1779, built the world's first iron boat in 1787, and turned out iron pipes, cylinders for James Watt's steam engines, and those coffins. He was one of the more important figures of the Industrial Revolution, and of everywhere he could have chosen to be remembered — Ironbridge, the works, the wider country his iron reached — his monument now stands beside the B5277 in Lindale, having been moved from his grave at Castle Head in 1863.

Arriving in Lindale

There is no station in Lindale; the nearest is Grange-over-Sands, about two miles away on the Barrow–Lancaster line, with buses running the A590 corridor. Most people arrive by car, turning the mile off the main road to reach it. The obelisk, meanwhile, stays where it is, doing the one thing iron does well, which is not rusting away in any hurry.