We also have a traffic free cycle route pretty much from outside our door to the town/Station but how am I supposed to carry say a saucepan set home? What about when it rains?
There's lots of great ways to transport stuff on a bike.
For day to day use (including trips to the supermarket), I have a set of Ortlieb panniers. They're fantastic - tardis-like, waterproof and so durable - I bought them second hand when I was a student ten years ago and they've still got plenty of life left in them.
Anyone who uses their bike for day to day life (i.e. not just sport!) will have a pannier rack over the back wheel, which opens up the possibility of using bungee cords to secure something large on them.
For very large items I have a cargo trailer, which hitches onto the back of my bike, and could transport an armchair or fridge with relative ease (and larger items, with a bit of overhang and some bungee cords). Not that I need to transport armchairs or fridges on a regular basis, but it has recently come into its own for transporting lots of heavy books from a house clearance to the local charity shops where there's no parking.
If you were constantly moving lots of things (usually small children, dogs, and a weekly shop for a whole family) and were very committed to it, then you could get a cargo bike (e.g. Babboe, Christiana), though it sounds like that's way beyond what you'd be looking for!
For your specific question of a set of saucepans, I'd either use bungee cords to secure it to the pannier rack, or take them out the packaging to make it smaller and fit them in my pannier bags.
When it's raining, I have a jacket which achieves the holy grail of being both breathable and waterproof. It's DHB / Wiggle brand. Waterproof trousers come out on particularly bad days - but there's not many days where I feel it's raining hard enough for waterproof trousers!