Hunstanworth, Durham – St James (again)

Our bus waited for the sheep as we drove south of Hexham.

It is not very long since I blogged about Hunstanworth. There is not much to add. 1862-3, the work of Samuel Sanders Teulon. It was a gift to the parish by its then incumbent Daniel Capper. He also built the vicarage, school and other buildings in the village. Last time I commented the church would never have been full. I was wrong. At the time the village had a population of 800 because of lead mining in the area.

The hand-blown organ – here being played by Fred and pumped by Robin – is by Gray and Davison and is said to have been shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851. It might be worth looking at this website.

I went up into the tower with Howard, the bells’ adviser. He had fun checking the bell, while I took photos, and Lucy tried to get us back onto the bus (sorry).

And, back on the bus, we met another bus on the narrow road en route to Blanchland. There are 2 buses a day between Hunstanworth and Consett, with a third (the one we met) on a Thursday. So … was it mine and Howard’s fault for delaying our coach so it met the service bus, or Lucy’s fault for not checking the service bus timetable when she planned the timings of our day out? Sally our driver reversed our bus. And I have just discovered that Durham’s website has a wonderful interactive map on which you can plot the bus routes. It is rather more hi-tech than Northumberland’s version. Hours of amusement!