{"id":3501,"date":"2022-06-24T09:41:45","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T09:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=3501"},"modified":"2022-06-24T09:41:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T09:41:45","slug":"7-northumberland-continued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=3501","title":{"rendered":"7. NORTHUMBERLAND CONTINUED!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, after a week with no significant Internet connection and no phone coverage, we are back in the connected world.\u00a0 Not that that’s a great advantage in many ways!<\/p>\n

We continued our busy time in Northumberland.\u00a0 One day we visited Delcor in Seaton Delavel before fish and chips lunch with Bruce and Angela at Seaton Sluice.\u00a0 And toured Delaval Hall in the afternoon …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

…where I found the answer to my hair “problem”!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yes, just to confirm, that is a wig complete with a three-masted, square rigged sailing ship.\u00a0 Just the thing to wear to Parkstone Yacht Club Summer Ball!<\/p>\n

Apparently one of the residents had been a bit of a jester and was renowned for playing tricks on his visitors.\u00a0 Bruce got a bit carried away in the upside down room!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In days of old, unsuspecting house guests would wake up on the “ceiling” after being drugged to sleep and moved into this room in their slumber.\u00a0 Allegedly.\u00a0 Another good story best left un-researched!<\/p>\n

Another day we visited the Tyne Valley.\u00a0 First stop, Hexham with its abbey …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

… and Corbridge with its bridge!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While Glenda was bothering the shops, I took the opportunity to visit Hadrian\u2019s Wall.\u00a0 \u00a0I remember the first weekend at university (in 1966) (frightening!) (but at least i can still remember) (now, what was i saying?)\u00a0 Oh, yes, that weekend I cycled the length of the wall and back.\u00a0 This time I motored a short length.\u00a0 When I walked to look at the actual wall, all i could see was a bit of a ditch and a sort of much-elongated bank.\u00a0 Not a brick in sight.\u00a0 However, I did meet a lady hiker who proudly announced that she was the Vicar from Heaven and was looking for the Bishop who was allegedly “walking the wall”!\u00a0 I think I must have commented that her’s must be the dream job!\u00a0 She quietly explained that she’d heard that comment “a few” times before – along with many variants.\u00a0 I’ve looked her parish up on the map and see that she’s actually the Vicar of St Oswalds in Heavenfield, near Chollerford\u00a0 But why spoil a good line with the whole truth?\u00a0 We will re-visit St Oswald later.<\/p>\n

Formally recorded as ‘St Oswald in Lee’, her church is more commonly known as Heavenfield. The church has been a place of pilgrimage for many centuries.\u00a0 Indeed, there is still an annual pilgrimage from Hexham Abbey to Heavenfield on the first Saturday of August to mark St Oswald’s Day (August 5th).\u00a0 I thought you should know that!<\/p>\n

On a related topic, but wildly out of sequence, we did see one of the Heavenly Vicar’s colleagues advertising direct electronic communication with his or her Commander.\u00a0 This was at St Patrick’s in Patterdale …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Back to the Northeast…\u00a0 No visit to the county would be complete without a trip to Lindon Hall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is where Glenda and her father used to meet with the hounds.\u00a0 It’s also one of the places we DIDN’T have our wedding reception (the other place apparently ruled out was the White Swan in Alnwick).\u00a0 Too far up-country was the reason…\u00a0 so, the Queens Hotel in Morpeth was selected.\u00a0 We need to re-visit there too.\u00a0 We knew it was being renovated, but the change was immense.\u00a0 Out was the old hotel.\u00a0 In was a new very yuppyish-gin-bar-restaurant establishment with exposed beams and subdued lighting.\u00a0 Actually, apart from being unrecognisable as the venue for our wedding breakfast, it was done rather well.\u00a0 It’s been brought forwards a couple of centuries!\u00a0 And renamed as “Pleased to Meet You, Morpeth” or PTMYM.\u00a0 With a snappy name like that, it can’t fail!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We did eventually get back to Longhoughton and Low Stead Farm to park in the dunes and walk northwards on the coastal path now renamed as the “England Coast Path”.\u00a0 Hundreds of new signs have been erected – and not one of them gives any information on the destinations that may be reached, or indeed how far it is in time and distance to these unnamed places!\u00a0 What a wasted opportunity.\u00a0 So you still need a map (or a phone with reception) to know where you are, where you are going and whether you will get there before dark!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The coastal scenery in this part of the world is fabulous – cool but fabulous!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The old (and undoubtedly more economical) signs are still in evidence in places …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

They indicate that this part of the “Northumberland Coast Path” is also part of St Oswald’s Way.\u00a0 This walking trail stretches from Lindisfarne (Holy Island) to Heavenfield – a distance of 97 miles.\u00a0 Before he was a Saint, Oswald was King of Northumbria in the early 7th Century.\u00a0 He played a major part in bringing Christianity to his people.\u00a0 And, presumably, he established his walking route so he could visit his girlfriend, the Vicar of Heaven!<\/p>\n

We seem to be specialising in walking short (and sometimes very short) parts of long distance trails.\u00a0 Anyway, the day was nicely rounded off with dinner at the Foxton Golf Course.\u00a0 Not a bad view!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One final “old haunt” visit was to the Granby Inn at Longframlington for an early supper one evening.\u00a0 The pub has been in the hands of one family for over half a century – and the food is still good.<\/p>\n

The Granby remains the only pub we’ve ever been kicked out of.\u00a0 Yes, we’ve left others at short notice of our own accord – and, as our friends Sue and Ed will testify, not always for sound and sensible reasons!\u00a0 It was in 1973.\u00a0 We had to leave because of “rowdy behaviour”!\u00a0 \u00a0Actually it was because we had Jeremy with us – in his carrycot!\u00a0 In those days it was illegal to have under aged customers in the bar area.\u00a0 And there was a bar in the dining area.\u00a0 In fact, the restaurant WAS the bar area!\u00a0 Jeremy was less than a year old – definitely “underage”, so we had to go!<\/p>\n

And, FINALLY, before we leave Northumberland,\u00a0 Glenda has to have a final fix of the Newcastle shops.\u00a0 I drop her off at Barker and Stonehouse where we can park outside the door.\u00a0 After coffee, and a fair bit of agonising about arrangements (I have an awning to take down and rain showers are suddenly forcast)\u00a0 I decide to head back to camp to get organised.\u00a0 The awning came down between the showers.\u00a0 Just!\u00a0 Then I headed back to meet Glenda.\u00a0 As I was hurtling down the A1, the warning lights came on.\u00a0 “Loss of tyre pressure, stop immediately!”\u00a0 This sounds a bit worryingly like deja vu!\u00a0 I make to the hard shoulder exactly at the point where the A19 separates for the Tyne Tunnel.\u00a0 A VERY fast and busy corner.\u00a0 Traffic is blasting past at 70+ mph.\u00a0 Very scary.\u00a0 So up the bank I went.\u00a0 Called insurance brokers and got a reference code for the RAC.\u00a0 They told me I wasn’t covered.\u00a0 BMW emergency assist was no assistance at all.\u00a0 The RAC came back and said as I was in such a precarious position I was prioritised.\u00a0 Down from about an hour to eight minutes!\u00a0 We would discuss liability and payment later.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And 15 minutes later the puncture had been temporarily repaired and I was guided back on the highway by an escort with full flashing yellow lights.\u00a0 \u00a0Brilliant work RAC.\u00a0 Thank you!\u00a0 And the mechanic wouldn’t charge me anything.\u00a0 He just wanted to get us both to safety.\u00a0 He also directed me to a tyre repair shop still open (possibly owned by his brother-in-law!) …<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After all this disruption to our busy schedule, I met Glenda off the bus in Morpeth and we drove home for a “few” beers!<\/p>\n

The next morning we said a very sad goodbye to Nunnykirk, Northumberland and the Northeast in general as we set off for the Northwest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, after a week with no significant Internet connection and no phone coverage, we are back in the connected world.\u00a0 Not that that’s a great advantage in many ways! We continued our busy time in Northumberland.\u00a0 One day we visited… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-england","category-travels-in-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3501"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3527,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3501\/revisions\/3527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}