Tapp's Travels

Corbridge is one of our favourite little towns to visit.  It has excellent shops and bistros as well as easy parking and a riverside walk.  A good combo.  Always provided we both remember to carry our phones – preferably switched on!

The flood plain on the south side of the River Tyne appears to be excellent, productive farm land.  Lots of rows of tightly packed crops.  But on the day we visited, Farmer Giles was out ironing his field.  He had a commercial scale steam-pressing machine which he was driving very slowly across his field.  If anyone has any clue what is really happening here, I would be delighted to hear from you!!

A couple of miles up the river, the path turns sharp left and crosses the railway linking East and West.  Newcastle and Carlisle, I guess.  And, just as I was about to cross rhe lines, the 2.30 flier flew past.  No warning hoot or wave.  A good place to turn round and retrace my steps.

Another day, another trip!  We found lovely food at the Cook and Barker pub at Newton on the Moor.  Actually, this got sampled a couple of lunch-times!

Another must-visit-at-least-once-per-trip sort of place is Cragside (now owned by the National Trust).  The home of Lord William Armstrong, famous for being the first house illuminated by hydroelectricity.  The water supply for the generators was stored laterly in two large lakes at the top of the property, 340 feet above the power house.  These are known collectively as Nelly’s Moss.  But, why?  A local legend says a witch (called Nelly, obviously) was burned at the stake there in the middle ages.  Hard to prove, but interesting – although far less so for Nelly!

We managed one complete circuit of the double lakes and two out-and-back walks on the east side which is much easier walking.

To get to the Moss without an energetic hike up the hill, we took the carriage drive which starts through the archway under the house …

… and which emerges into the front yard …

… before heading out round the estate to the Crozier carpark!

After our walk we re-visited the house.

Sadly, no ghosts – not even any ghost stories!  Standards are falling!  But there were lots of lovely old decorations and pictures.  The long gallery (above) was completed in 1877 and upgraded just before a visit from the royal family.

Using our non-member cards, we managed a couple of morning coffees and bacon baps at the Rothbury Golf Club.

One day, after elevensies at the RGC, we visited Whittingham.  This was home to members of the family of Vicky Best (Glenda’s Best friend from school days.  With a name like that, she was always going to be a best friend!).  Vicky and her family now live near Adelaide.  Her older brother used to own the village shop and post office.  Now re-purposed as a residential property, leaving village folk with the best part of a ten mile round trip to post their Amazon returns.

The old post office (as was) …

Upstream of Rothbury we had a lovely cross country walk alongside the River Coquet …

… where the river divides and spreads out into an inland “delta” near Bickerton.

Spooky atmospheric view over the river further downstream near Thropton after it had been through a de-delta-ing process.

Great village names around here.  Little Tosson, Hepple, Caistron and Flotterton to name but a few.

Wooler is another favourite destination.   Strictly speaking the real favourite is the Terrace Café.  The place serves magnificent Border Tart.  This confection can only be bought within two miles of the Scottish border (hence the name)!  Last year the café had run out, so this year we went early and got two of the last three slices.  Photographic evidence is almost non existent – the time between purchase and consumption was almost shorter than the shutter speed of my camera.  But I did get this shot while pausing for a drink!

This raises another question.  What is it with this (fairly) recent fad of serving comestibles on top of paper napkins?  I can’t believe it’s because the plates aren’t clean, nor that it significantly reduces crockery cleaning time.  The napkins immediately lose their usefulness as napkins, thereby increasing the amount of paperwork with each serving!  I just don’t get it!

A short wander along the streets of downtown Wooler revealed a number of interestingly named businesses…

She even had a number of roads, streets and crescents named after her!

Near Wooler there are a number of valleys that run up into the Cheviot Hills.  (Strictly speaking, I guess they run down out of the hills.)  Anyway, there are two well known valleys nearby.  Ingram Valley and College Valley.   The former is easily accessed, the latter much less so.  Predictably,  we chose the harder to reach, College Valley.

As we approached via the narrow, winding country lanes, we were met by an almost continuous stream of horse boxes, quad bikes and overloaded rural 4x4s.  It transpired that the local hunt had met in the valley that morning and the event had just ended!  Bad timing, involving lots of reversing round blind bends.  Bad choice of Valley!  But eventually we made it and walked miles upstream with Scotland a mere kilometre away on our right.  Only a thousand metres, but all of them steeply uphill.  To be avoided… at all costs.  So the riverside walk it was, up the College Burn!  All the while watching the local gliding club towing gliders one after the other into the updrafts over the hills.

Leaving this remote corner of the remote county of Northumberland we passed a memorial plaque …

A memorial to the long forgotten “Royal Township” of Cefrin.  The ancestral home of seventh century Anglo-Saxon Kings of Northumberland.  Here, allegedly, the missionary  Paulinus, preached to the residents for 36 days in AD 627  He then baptised them in the nearby River Glen.  I guess that after 36 days, they’d have agreed to almost anything!

By the way I forgot to mention that College Burn empties into the River Glen. Wooler sits just south of Glendale.  That may have some bearing on all the “Glenda” associations in town.  My camera is pre-adjusted to focus on her name and obliterate the last two letters!

Ever perverse in the bet-hedging department, we then took a drive up the more accessible Ingram Valley before turning tail and heading home to a campsite which was rapidly emptying as the closing date approached.

A rather fine sunrise as seen from our caravan.

And then we left Glenda’s home county for Yorkshire…  Well, we had to move because Nunnykirk, our favourite campsite in Northumberland, was closing for good the following day.  Doubly sad!