Two posts in two days … . A beautiful sunny day today, so we drove along the Wall, had morning coffee (and lemon meringue pie) at St Oswald’s tea room at Heavenfield, then north to Wark (missed Wark church), Bellingham (already done), and out towards Kielder. At NY771859, just beside the North Tyne, and on a pretty nasty bend – I spied a church. Redundant, locked, broken windows, overgrown churchyard.
It is St Luke’s church, a Greenwich Hospital construction of 1818 (like Humshaugh and Thorneyburn), is grade II listed, and has apparently been redundant for quite a few years. According to the Hexham Courant back in March (2011) – www.hexhamcourant.co.uk/news/news-at-a-glance/couple-bid-to-transform-church-into-holiday-haven-1.819777?referrerPath=news – Mr & Mrs Munroe, who live at the Rectory, want to make it into a holiday home – four bedrooms at ground level, kitchen and dining area at first floor, and living accommodation added to the east (over the graves??). It has got to be better than the current desolation.
We continued past Falstone – I need to do that church and there is a nice cafe there (but too full with l m pie) – then on to Kielder and over the forest drive to the A68. By the time we got home it had been a 98 mile round trip. Northumberland is a big County!