Category: Durham

We drove on about four miles to Binchester Roman Fort. We last came here in 2010 on a warm May Saturday when there was a bunch of re-enactors on site and the place was buzzing. Rather different to a very wet Friday in September when the only people on site are us and the lady from Durham County Council – who came and found us later in our visit to lend us an umbrella. Although there is no café and the loos are portaloos, everywhere in the main buildings are wheelchair accessible (as is a portaloo). More details at...

On Friday 27 September we left Northumberland and drove back down the A68, then we turned off to Escomb Saxon church – NZ 189301. A church literally in the middle of the village, surrounded by a circle of 1960s houses, parking outside, and the key hangs on a hook outside number 28. Church website – https://escombsaxonchurch.co.uk/, and it’s on https://www.explorechurches.org/church/escomb-saxon-church-escomb and http://www.greatenglishchurches.co.uk/html/escomb.html. They also mention a Small Pilgrim Places Network, which looks worth finding out more about – https://www.smallpilgrimplaces.org/ This church was built about 680 AD. Just mull that over – 680. When we read the Lindisfarne Gospels and...

One more Roman blog from the North. Piercebridge (NZ209157) is a place I have driven through many times – it is a useful diversion that cuts a few miles off when driving from the A1 to Hexham. The road follows the Dere Street, the Roman road that ran from York to Corbridge. There was a bridge here over the Tees – indeed there are remains of the bridge (to be precise, the second bridge) in a field south of the river. The first bridge (probably of timber) is a little downstream of the current bridge, the second (below) was of...