Arthur Ransome in Arnside

Over the New Year we popped to Arnside. Having grown up in nearby Sandside, I love this small seaside town, so very old fashioned and Edwardian. On a cold January day, without the usual tourists, it's easy to imagine how it might have been in the early years of the Twentieth Century.

Having done our shopping, visited a friend and had a stroll along the promenade, we decided we could do with a hot drink. Arnside has never warranted many coffee shops and restaurants, but recently some have popped up. I was fascinated to see J J Crossfield's - restaurant, coffee shop and pizzeria, on the front. Crossfield is a local family and the building which is now the restaurant, used to be Arnside's Spar! It's now rather smart and sells an interesting array of food and drinks. We enjoyed a coffee and toasted tea cake.

What really fascinated me, however, is the connection between the Crossfield family and Arthur Ransome. Ransome knew Arnside from childhood when his parents to visited on several occasions,and he was familiar with the Crossfield boatyards. Two of Ransome's boats were built at Crossfield's Boat Yard: the Swallow and Coch-y-Bonddu (Red and Black) or Cocky. 

In a letter to Reginald Kaye of Silverdale (the nursery owner) Ransome mentions his old friends, the Crossfields in Arnside: “….. the shed at Arnside where they have built so many good little vessels. I was sailing yesterday on the Thames in a first rate little 13 footer that they built at Arnside in, I think 1934, the kindliest little boat of that size ever known.”