Category: Railway History

  Saturday 16 April was a bit of a greyer, colder day. I drove to Newtown, parked the car, headed east. They are a proud village, but I wonder what happened in 2015 … The sun shone as I left the “Tidy Village (Small)”. The path follows the line of the Wall, past several farms. One lucky child has a mega-treehouse. There is a lovely bridge over the Cambeck. When the Wall was demolished in this area in 1791 it was found to be 8 feet wide and faced with large stones. The space between was filled with alternate...

  April Fool’s Day – and a train ride to west Cumbria. In the real world the best April Fool is that the franchise for Northern Rail has been handed to Arriva Rail North Ltd from Serco/Abellio. They have spent thousands to remove all the Northern branding before they replace it with Northern branding. Bring back British Rail. When the sun is shining it is a lovely ride down the coast on the line from Carlisle to Barrow in Furness. At Ravenglass you can change to the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway and have a narrow gauge ride up into...

On Thursday 31 March 2016 friend Elaine and I drove west. We parked at Burgh by Sands church (NY329591) at about 0930 and she had a look at the church while I put my boots on and turned on the Strava app. When the satellites spoke to me – what would the Romans make of that? – we walked through the churchyard, then the field beside the road, then the road itself. It was a glorious day for a walk. If my geography is correct (scoffers be quiet) these trees must be along the line of the wall – the sheep...

This is what I wrote for April’s Grapevine, our church magazine:  These boots are made for walking  When I came to Ponteland I started walking Hadrian’s Wall. I got as far as Housesteads … Now I am fitter I am going to have another go. I am going to start at Bowness-on-Solway and head west. I will use my blog to report on my progress. When I get a little closer to Ponteland perhaps I can invite people to walk with me, or to join me at Vallum Tea Room for an ice cream. When I reach Wallsend it...