Wigton, Cumbria

There were only two reasons why we visited Wigton: it wasn't far from Carlisle; and it had charity shops.  Otherwise we hadn't a clue what to expect from this place other than Melvyn Bragg and Anna Ford come from here..

We parked up behind the Original Factory Shop as it had free parking and most of the street parking was disc permit only for residents.

Wigton is quite an unassuming market town with lots of buildings dating back at least a couple of centuries.  The streets were quite narrow too and this made it a little dicey to negotiate in the car.  At the town centre they had a rather bling looking monument with a gold cross at the top and a well tended flower bed.  Clearly the locals take pride in their town.

 

We had a quick trot around the charity shops.  One shop had already closed for the day, so we just went in the Oxfam and Cerebral Palsy shop. The lady in the Cerebral Palsy shop was very chatty.  I don't think she had many customers in that day.  Weirdly there was a bloke walking down the other side of the street who randomly popped a balloon outside a shop.  The woman was rather taken aback by his actions.  I thought he was particularly mean spirited soul.  I mean who walks down a street and pops balloons?  A miserable sod in my books.  Anyways that was the most exciting thing that happened in Wigton.

The local Greggs had a little seated section in the shop.  I'd never seen this before, although it was a little sad to see a little lad with his parents, tucking into a sausage roll for his tea.  I always associate Greggs sausage rolls with Wythenshawe as most mornings I would see kids in prams stuffing their faces with them for breakfast.  The locals used to call them 'Wythenshawe Dummies'.  For me it's always said to see kids eating them as whilst they are cheap and filling, they are devoid of real nutritional value.

 

There isn't much to see in Wigton really.  Essentially it's a nice middle class suburb of Carlisle where you bring up your kids.  As it was half three in the afternoon there was a rush of kids leaving school for the day.  They seemed to be well behaved and they were darting in and out of the shops, no doubt buying sweets with their pocket money.  There was a bit of school-pick-up rush hour too on the roads with parents picking up their kids to take them to their after school activities.  I'd be seriously bored if I were a teenager in this town.  Although I'm sure many escape to university only to come back in their 30s to bring up their own kids here.

Wigton has quite a few independent shops which are nice to see.  There is a regular market day on Tuesday, which we managed to miss by a day.  In future I do need to check out in advance when market day is as I keep missing them.  The local health shop was rather helpful and they did recommend some organic skin cream for my on-going scalp problem. 

 

It was time to depart from Wigton as it really doesn't take long to explore this little heritage market town.  I felt guilty parking in the Original Factory Shop car park without buying anything, so I picked up some sweets to justify using the car park.  I can't imagine I'll be back here again any time soon, except if we're passing through, then we might stop to check out the charity shops.