We are staying at the Lindon Hall Hotel at Longhorsley. Glenda used to come here with her father and their horses. That was long before it was turned into a hotel. So this is more nostalgia!
The hotel is a magnificent building but suffering years of under-investment. Faded grandeur at its best! And it’ll fade a darn site quicker if they don’t replace the windows PDQ. Daniel, the manager, was bemoaning the fact that each replacement window will cost him at least £5,000 to make. And that’s not fitted. And there are dozens of the things! I would say it will be a great place for the MacDonald hotel chain to write off a million or two of their profits.
Currently they appear to be doing their best to run the business into the ground. They have shut the attached pub for three winter months and the price of food is driving away most of their other customers. But it’s still an amazing old house in wonderful park-like surroundings. There’s a golf course behind the hotel – and we even saw four people playing golf while we were there (for four days).
The view from our window.
While Glenda was shopping in Morpeth on the Friday, I drove back up to Rothbury to admire the Autumn colours at Cragside…
But, boy, has it turned chilly. Having left Devon at a balmy 23°C in shorts, we were just getting acclimatised to temperatures in the mid teens. But today it’s a breezy 8°C and I’m being reminded of the cold winters I spent in the late 60s while at Newcastle University. Parky! Very parky! I’ve even gone and bought myself a pair of highly insulated polar gloves. And, guess what… tomorrow I bet it’s going to snow! In October! I ask you…
See, I told you! OK, wasn’t enough for skiing, but the ground did turn white for a while on the Saturday morning.
On the way to our next hotel (closer to Newcastle), we called to see Aunty Gladys, one of Glenda’s mother’s best friends. A spritely 93 years old. I’d like to think I’d look as well as her in 23 year’s time – without the hair of course!
The other thing we had to do – and those of you who know us well will appreciate this – we had to go to Delcor in Seaton Delavel and try out ALL their sofas. That passed a pleasant hour or so. And their coffees were good too.
On to the Gosforth Park Holiday Inn. It surprised us both by NOT being in Gosforth Park as we had expected. It wasn’t even close, really. We had, in fact, booked the “wrong” hotel! We wanted the Gosforth Park Hotel – altogether a different kettle of fish. Still, there you are. Accidents will happen! They put us in room 191, the most distant room in one wing of the building. They then upgraded us to room 45 – the end room of the other wing. A move of about five miles. Any further and we WOULD have been in Gosforth Park after all!
In the late afternoon we had dinner with Kathleen and Dave at the Dome restaurant in the newly refurbished and reopened Spanish City at Whitley Bay. This used to be an amusement park. Now it’s a collection of function rooms and restaurants and a hotel.
Kathleen, you should know, was responsible for setting Glenda and me up on a blind date. But that IS a WHOLE different story which will remain untold here. Not even mentioned. But I might tell you the story about her crocheted dolls one day. Remind me!
Until then… you might like to hear that…
… an elderly man lay awkwardly sprawled across three entire seats in the cinema. When the usher came by and noticed this, he whispered to the old man, “Sorry sir, but you’re only allowed one seat.”
Great to see you again. Save journey home