Down Nannypie Lane

Ever been down Nannypie Lane? Well, we hadn’t until the other week, though I’d often seen the name on the map, when we were walking, as we often do, from Sizergh and around Kendal.

Why Nannypie? Nobody seems to know, the only suggestion I’ve found is a connection with the Pie family who might have lived in the vicinity at some point in history, in particular a Katherine Pie or Pye. And that’s pretty dubious, with no evidence whatsoever that I can see.

Nannypie Lane

So what is the attraction of Nannypie Lane? Not much in the first couple of hundred yards, as you can hear the roar of the traffic rushing between the M6 and Windermere. But as you walk further down Nannypie Lane, and this is all a very easy little ramble, you come across a rolling landscape of fields and woods which is rather different from most people’s perception of the fringes of the Lake District – as you descend to this part of the valley of the river Kent, you might almost think yourself amidst the rolling downs of Wiltshire or Berkshire.

Though neither have such swirling waters as the Kent as it rushes and tumbles over its rocky bed.

This is, as the beautiful railings that line some of the fields suggests, country estate territory. And as you cross the Kent and ascend in the general direction of the village of you get a glimpse of the “big house” itself.

Sedgwick House

Sedgwick House it’s called, and it’s now all luxury apartments. It was built in 1868, to a design by the Lancaster architects Paley and Austin, for local gunpowder factory owner William Henry Wakefield. The family lived there until the 1930s, when it was acquired by Lancashire County Council as a school for children with special needs – a use that continued intil 1987. The building looks like one of those houses in a painting by Atkinson Grimshaw.

Driveway to Sedgwick House

The Gatehouse

We had started our walk at Sizergh, walking round to the Sizergh Arms, down Nannypie Lane, over the Kent and following the public footpath up on to Wellheads. It was here that we hit the disused Kendal to Lancaster canal. I say disused – apart from the stretch above Sedgewick village, the canal is non-existent. It baffles me as to why they took such a great deal of effort to fill in the canal, all but this bit?

Not that you can see any water in the bit of canal that survives, though the flora and trees growing up in and around it does slightly compensate for that. Walking along what would have been the towpath, you can admire the way the old canal – looked after by the villagers of Sedgwick – has become a nature reserve.

Canal Bridge

We followed the canal over the viaducts to the fields at the north of Sedgwick, where it completely vanishes – buried again. What a sad loss!

We descended into Sedgwick village, and a very beautiful place it is too – an estate village in its time, hence the conformity of much of the architecture. The gatehouse to Sedgwick House is an absolute stunner, far more attractive than the house itself in my book.

River Kent

We wandered back down the lane out of the village, finding again the footpath leading down to the Kent and back up Nannypie Lane, where we diverted for refreshments at Low Sizergh Barn (well worth the diversion!)

And if you know anything more about how Nannypie Lane got its name please do let me know…