Sedbergh, a small English market town, is just inside the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
This means it’s surrounded by some spectacular scenery, which unfortunately I couldn’t explore on my visit as it was raining.
However, as it’s also England’s official Book Town, and home to a fair number of cafes, it was still a very pleasant place for a potter round.
Only a few miles from the M6 motorway, it feels pretty rural – it’s the only place I’ve gone where I’ve had to drive over cattle grids on the slip lane of the motorway!
There isn’t much on-street parking, but it has has two clearly marked and decent-sized car parks. The one we used is just behind the tourist information, which is in the building pictured below.
This information office had a fair number of leaflets with directions for local walks – for use on a sunnier day!
It’s still an attractive place in the rain though, with a main street and some interesting looking little alleys.
Home to a fair few places to buy books – if that’s your thing I can recommend Clutterbooks which has a good selection and is inexpensive – it also has a Book Shelter where you can swap books.
It’s a good place for a lunch out as well, with a good selection of cafes and pubs to choose from – we went to Smatt’s Duo as we wanted something fairly light, and the food was homemade and tasty.
A little further on we came to St Andrew’s Church, which you go through an attractive wooden gate to reach.
The church was open, in great condition, and is obviously well used by the community, as there was a table of toys and games for children. There is a path all the way round and really well looked after and nicely planted grounds.
Unfortunately the rain was showing no sign of letting up, so we called it a day shortly after.
I’d very much like to return and explore the area, as it looked like there were some really interesting places within easy walking distance of the town centre.
