Cockersand Abbey

The red sandstone remains of Cockersand Abbey sit on a windswept, coastal site overlooking Cockerham Sands. I hadn’t visited the tiny, resilient chapel for many years but a year ago, I re-discovered it on a stormy day as part of my desire to celebrate beautiful and interesting places close to home. Being in the area again on Saturday, I returned. It’s bleak place, even on a sunny day, but the ruins retain a haunting charm and it isn’t difficult to hear whispers of plainsong on the wind, a lasting legacy of the monks offering their devotions over 900 years ago.

Cockersand Abbey

If wishes were horses, we’d win the lottery and spend  our lives travelling to places that we’ve always dreamt of visiting or returning to those that hold a special place in our hearts.  But even though our chances of winning the lottery are nil, we’ve decided it’s possible to fulfil some of those dreams, especially if places are close to home. So yesterday, returning home from a meeting, I made a second pilgrimage to the historic, Cockersand Abbey. A small, windswept, chapterhouse  on the exposed Lancashire coast near Thurnham, it remains a lasting legacy of the faith of our forebears