Walking into town from Devil’s Bridge there’s a festive feel about Kirkby Lonsdale. Lights and holly wreaths hang on many of the doors of the impressive Georgian houses on Market Street which guides visitors into town.
This weekend, on Saturday in particular, shoppers returned a week after the fire which closed off one of the main thoroughfares.
“We’d read about the fire and heard how shops had reopened and wanted to support them,” a couple from Berkshire said, who had been enjoying a pre-Christmas break in Harrogate.
The area’s MP Lizzi Collinge was in town on Saturday too and took to social media to encourage people to support the businesses affected by the incident.
By the Market Square, where a Christmas market was due to be held on the weekend of the fire, the road itself is closed but the shops beyond are very much open.
“90% of businesses are back open,” Gareth Candlin, assistant director for inclusion and green growth with Westmorland and Furness Council told me as we walked through the narrow alleyway that links the town’s library with Market Street.
A former resident of Kirkby Lonsdale he told me how he’d once lived in one of the flats destroyed by the fire and knew many of the businesses affected well.
“A number of residents were able to find their own temporary accommodation but some have been housed by the council in Kendal and Ulverston. I am confident they will be back in their own homes in time for Christmas.”
As we approach the area that remains cordoned off, he tells me how the cordon has gradually shrunk as gas and electricity supplied have been checked out for safety.
Contractors have been working 13-hour days to make inroads and as we talk I can see the area that had to be demolished.
“We’ve had a few busy days – it’s what happens after Christmas in January that’s focusing our minds now,” Valerie Laycock of The Book and Jigsaw Lounge said.
The independent bookshop has been part of the town’s shopping landscape since 2018.
The town’s chamber of trade is due to meet tonight to discuss ideas to try and boost prosperity in the post-Christmas season.
One business watching anxiously what happens over the coming weeks and months is one of the town’s newest.
Brockholes, Blacknoses and Friends sells the kind of presents and stocking fillers Cumbria is known for. Among the bird themed cards and giant gingerbread men I speak to Paula Mason, one of the team who were aiming to open just as the fire broke out.
“We were all set to come to the town and open up for the first time when we heard about the fire and were told not to come,” Paula said.
Apart from a splintered front door caused when emergency services broke in to check the shop which is doors away from the site of the fire, no other damage was caused and trading began a week later than planned.
She added: “Our first day of trading was last Friday lunchtime. We joined the WhatsApp group and there has been lots of lovely information on that. It’s been helpful to have this. We’ve had a steady stream of people come from outside of the area and word is getting around that Kirkby Lonsdale is open for business.”
Memories of the fire will fade but the sense of community that exists here will live on and it’s a tribute to those who have traded here both for years or a just a matter of weeks that a strong sense of resilience can be clearly felt too.
No one has forgotten Ben Taylor, who lost his life in the blaze. Tributes are continuing to be paid to Mr Taylor, whose family’s shop, GR and RD Taylor general store and army supplies on Market Street, was one of the premises damaged by the fire.
