Settle / Dent / + Barnard's Farm, Essex!

Settle
Settle is a pleasant market town in Yorkshire in a splendid setting. Possibly best know as one end of the Settle to Carlisle railway line (which actually starts in Leeds), the town rewards the casual visitor with the eccentric (a phone box art gallery - one of the 'K6' red phone boxes, of course, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1935), historic (the Museum of North Craven Life in the fine building called The Folly), nostalgic (the restored railway station) and the picturesque (the whole surrounding landscape: rivers, mountains, caves and dales). All these images date from spring 2010.

Two small lanes trickle down from the Market Place and halfway down one is this delightful survivor:
'Licensed Dealer in Tea & Coffee'
above a cottage door (similar to the 'Dealer in Coffee & Teas' seen further up the Settle-Carlisle line in Appleby-in-Westmoreland). This emphasises the importance of a dealer in these luxury items in past centuries.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Settle 1

The market place itself has several tea shops, but the most striking is:
'Ye
Olde
Naked Man Cafe'
which also boasts a bakery. The huge 'Olde Englishe' lettering over the bakery entrance door draws the attention away from the pierced ironwork naked man halfway down which is lit by its own top light. The figure picked out in black against the dazzling white stucco holds what seems to be an early version of pair of 'Y' fronts to conceal his nether regions which are painted white with the black characters:
'1663
IC'
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Settle 2

On the other side of the Market Place can be found two lettering examples.
'BANK
BUILDINGS'
stands in relief in its own raised cartouche, although painted in light grey against the white background and vying with a large tradesman's advertisement board mean that it is not obvious. We don't think that a bank still exists in this block.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Settle 3
Nearby is the cast iron 'CHEAPSIDE' street sign opposite the old Town Hall (now a Tourist Information Centre, but with a fine lettered frosted glass door, which we didn't capture). The sign is satisfyingly battered and chipped with its decorative border, on its local stone wall, sheltering below an oriel-type window.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Settle 4

See also our page on Filey/Scarborough/Pickering/Glaisdale, Yorkshire.

Dent
A trip up the Settle-Carlisle line, over the famous Ribble Head viaduct, and the train flies over more vertiginous viaducts to reach Dent Station. The highest main line station in Britain, they say. It's fair walk to the village of Dent which although in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park is actually in Cumbria. Through the cobbled main street, we find The George & Dragon Hotel which doubles as the Dent Brewery Tap proudly displaying a cast iron Cyclists Touring Club 'CTC' sign. Shown to the left of the front door in the image below, the close-up shows that it is reasonable condition. Cyclists in this mountainous landscape need to be made of stern stuff.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Dent 'CTC' sign

Barnards Farm, Essex
See also the CTC sign in Upper Brook Street in Ipswich and (below) another one discovered in 2010 at Barnards Farm in Essex which was bought at an auction in Buxton by the owner and now sits proudly - and in very good nick - above a reconsruction of a period bicycle/engineering shop. The word accross the top of the circle: 'QUARTERS' indicates that cyclists could be accomodated overnight. We have passed both of these on to the CTC site, see Links.
Ipswich Historic Lettering: Barnards Farm CTC sign


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