ENGLISH Tourism Week is underway – so let’s hear it for some of those places that make our part of the country such a fantastic destination.
I recently welcomed senior directors from VisitEngland to our beautiful corner of the world ahead of the launch of their latest marketing campaign.
This organisation is the English national tourist board and it has agreed to fund a £1m pilot campaign – All On England’s North West Coast – which will promote the Cumbrian coast as a destination for tourists.
It will highlight attractions, experiences and accommodation providers in our area and I’m delighted that Barrow, Walney, Silecroft, Ravenglass and Muncaster Castle are being highlighted in the campaign and will be used to benefit tourism along the coast.
We have plenty of other attractions to shout about and among them is Piel Island and its 14th century castle which played a key role in English history.
It was off Piel Island in June, 1487, that a group of German and Irish mercenaries anchored their ships before marching south to topple King Henry VII, who had a precarious claim to the English throne, and replace him with pretender Lambert Simnel.
They were defeated in the midlands, but if they had achieved their goal we wouldn’t have heard of Henry VIII or Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada would never have set sail.
Our constituency contains Scafell Pike – at 978 metres (3,209 ft) the highest point in England and just one of the mountains that attract fell-walkers and rock-climbers from near and far with loads of magnificent scenery all around.
Millom is undergoing a huge revival thanks to an incredible £29.3m investment to deliver four major projects that will help to bolster the town’s capacity for tourism.
These include the Old Bank Transformation which has a special significance for me, because I often worked in the building when it was a NatWest bank.
Broughton will always get my vote, it’s a mighty atom of a town which obtained its royal charter to hold fairs in 1575, and I’ll continue to beat the drum for this must-visit part of Cumbria.
Silecroft beach, hidden gem treasured by locals, and Muncaster Castle are superb places to visit and there’s nothing to top La’al Ratty, the little train that carries passengers through some terrific countryside as it makes its way from Ravenglass to Dalegarth.
I would be in big trouble if my brief list of attractions didn’t include my “festival” home town of Ulverston, which boasts (among many things) the Sir John Barrow Monument, which stands on the summit of Hoad Hill and is named after one of the town’s most famous sons.
Sir John became a leading figure in the Admiralty and was a key figure in commissioning the expeditions of the mid-Victorian era which sought to find a Northwest Passage through the polar ice, but which ended in ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror disappearing into the Arctic.
So let the word go out during English Tourism Week – Barrow and Furness is well worth a visit.
We will make you welcome and you’ll have great memories of what we have to offer.