Tatham Bridge Inn

The Tatham Bridge Inn in Lancashire’s Lune Valley has often aroused my curiosity. The datestone set above its door records the year 1642. This was the start of the civil war, when the nations of the British Isles fought each other, and within themselves. Counties villages and even families found themselves on opposing sides. Yet someone in Tatham thought it was as good a time as any to build a cottage. Rather than bury his silver in the ground, or exchange it for a musket, ‘CN’, whose initials are also on the datestone, decided that a solid home in which to settle down was a better priority. I do not know if CN was a godly man, but his house-building in the year of our Lord 1642 reminds me of Psalm 46:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

Though the earth be all a turmoil, the oceans raging, the mountains shaking- the man who trusts in his God will be at home, in peace.