July 6, 2014

Bewcastle, Cumbria – St Cuthbert

Bewcastle is a long way north of Brampton, a long way north of Hadrian’s Wall. Very good village website with pages for the church, the castle, the museum, etc. When the Wall was built in 122 AD this was one of the outpost forts, probably known as Fanum Cocidii, adopting the  name of the local god Cocidius. It was built of turf and wood and, very unusually, had six sides. It was manned (saying a roman fort was “staffed” seems too pc) by the First Nervan Cohort of Germans. It was rebuilt in stone, and lasted until 367. You can pick out...
Categories Cumbria/Outside Northumberland Comments: 0
June 30, 2014

Paisley Abbey, Scotland

Having been to Arran we had a night at the Premier Inn in Gourock, then decided to go to Paisley. A municipal museum which has some good stuff and needs more visitors – http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/webcontent/home/services/leisure+and+culture/arts+and+museums/els-jcp-paisleymuseum “You ought to go and see the Abbey” one of the staff said, so we drove round the town and managed to find a parking space. We followed the sign for the shop and cafe, and coffee and fruit cake increased the sugar levels. Then we went into the Abbey – wow! Jan was a very welcoming guide, and pointed us in the right direction....
Categories Outside Northumberland/Scotland Comments: 0
June 30, 2014

Arran, Scotland

Julie and I had a few days on Arran. We failed to get into any churches, but did have a trip on the paddle steam Waverley around Holy Island. (The photo above is from Waverley’s website. The island has its own website http://www.holyisland.org). It (including the lighthouse cottages) is now a Buddhist retreat centre (he looks a happy chap on the website). They want a volunteer vegetable gardener – time for a career change? We had a beautiful sunset over Machrie Standing Stones and the bay outside the Best Western Kinloch Hotel at Blackwaterfoot http://www.bw-kinlochhotel.co.uk. Highly recommended. Then a couple of nights on the mainland...
Categories Outside Northumberland/Scotland Comments: 0
June 24, 2014

Dean Road Cemetery, Scarborough, Yorkshire

No, I am not going to start blogging about cemeteries and cemetery chapels, but I made a pilgrimage today (24 June). John Wilson Carmichael, maritime artist and railway historian, is buried here. He was born on 9 June 1799 in Newcastle, and died in Scarborough on 2 May 1868. This is a portrait of him by Thomas Ellerby painted in 1839 and in the collection of Tyne & Wear Museums. I have written an 8,000 word essay on him for the Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History, University of York – email me if you’d like the pdf....
Categories Outside Northumberland/Personal/Railway History Comments: 2
June 24, 2014

Wakefield Cathedral, Yorkshire

Wakefield and Bradford are the two Cathedrals I have never visited. I have a North East Rover ticket this week, so got up early on Sunday 22 June 2014 and was on the 0755 from Newcastle. It was a slow journey due to “over running engineering works” and I reached Wakefield Cathedral about 15 minutes before the 11 am Common Worship (Traditional). I went in through the glass doors and was hit by the smell of incense. It was a bit noisy waiting for the service to start – difficult balance between getting a congregation to be friendly and keeping...
Categories Cathedrals/Outside Northumberland Comments: 0
June 19, 2014

Holy Spirit, Denton

I am on sabbatical – and just to prove it here are some photos of my garden. The first two were taken at 10 pm on Wednesday 18 June 2014 – the eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi. Not a bad new camera! The Feast of Corpus Christi is the day when the church celebrates the gift of Holy Communion. Jacqueline emailed to see if anyone could celebrate the Eucharist at Holy Spirit, I replied “yes, if no one else volunteers. I’m on sabbatical”. No one else did! Julie and I joined half a dozen of them for a very...
Categories Newcastle upon Tyne Comments: 0
June 19, 2014

Salisbury Cathedral

I have mixed memories about Salisbury Cathedral – www.salisburycathedral.org.uk. I last visited ten years ago when Hannah was doing an Eton Choral Course and came and sang Evensong here. It was while Gareth was waiting for his transplant, so a day with mixed emotions. Previously to that I had come to a conference at Salisbury Theological College (now Sarum College) and went across to the Cathedral to book for a Spire Tour. When we gathered for the tour there was only me and the Clerk of Works. He took me to all sorts of places normal members of the...
Categories Cathedrals/Outside Northumberland/Railway History Comments: 2
June 17, 2014

Salisbury, Wiltshire – St Thomas and St Edmunds

Friday 6 June 2014 started badly. I had downloaded all the photos off my camera last night, and this morning it would not turn on, or off, or anything. I do not like being camera-less. We had a day planned in Salisbury to meet Jo, her daughter Anna, and the boys. We park and rode into Salisbury from Wilton – that worked well. We were looking for coffee and found St Thomas’s House, a pop-up pantry for the homeless, and a coffee morning to help fund it. An interesting pineapple and chilli cake. “Do visit our ancient church,” they said, but I...
Categories Outside Northumberland Comments: 2
June 16, 2014

Stourhead, Wiltshire – St Peter

One of the most beautiful National Trust properties is Stourhead. We met our friends Geoff and Anne here on Tuesday 3 June and walked round the Lake. It is not very easy to push Julie’s wheelchair round, on occasions we needed a banking engine, but we managed – with plenty of sits. The weather was not brilliant, we got quite wet on a couple of occasions, and the sun never really shone brightly until we were leaving – but we hadn’t got the energy to go round again! In 1717 the medieval Stourton Estate was bought by Henry Hoare (known as...
Categories National Trust/Outside Northumberland/World War 1 Comment: 1
June 16, 2014

Bath Abbey, Somerset

Another wet Monday (2 June 2014). By now we have moved north, with a lovely cottage in Warminster – http://www.sykescottages.co.uk/cottage/DorsetSomerset/The-Oaks-13552.html. We had a couple of days in Bath – I highly recommend No. 1 Royal Crescent http://no1royalcrescent.org.uk and the William and Caroline Herschel Museum http://herschelmuseum.org.uk. We did the Roman Baths http://www.romanbaths.co.uk – marvellous museum, excellent audio tour, but the disabled lift was a bit exciting! (It stopped between floors. The intercom didn’t work. It has glass walls, but you’ve got to knock, get attention, get attention of foreigner who assumes that knocking on a glass wall and waving is a typical bit of eccentric English...
Categories Outside Northumberland Comments: 0