May 8, 2014

Newcastle – St Thomas (War Memorials outside)

St Thomas’s church is across the road from Haymarket metro station, and outside the metro is “The Winged Victory”, a memorial commemorating those who died in the Boer War of 1899-1901. It was not a good day for photos, so you might want to look at the old postcards at the Roll of Honour website. 373 men from Northumbrian regiments died in South Africa. This memorial, 70 feet high, was designed and sculpted by Thomas Eyre Macklin. On the south west side of the church is a statue of St George and the Dragon. This is a WW1 memorial “to...
Categories Newcastle upon Tyne/World War 1 Comments: 0
May 8, 2014

Newcastle – St Thomas

One of my jobs on this Sabbatical is to write an essay on John Wilson Carmichael. He was a nautical painter whose work still sells well, see this art dealer’s website. I am more interested in his etchings of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway; if anyone is interested I’ll post a copy of my essay on the blog (if my tutor’s nice about it!). On Tuesday 6 May I went to the Hancock Library at the Great North Museum to look at his etchings “Views on the Tyne” – here is one of them on the Newcastle Libraries flickr site. After that, and a...
Categories Newcastle upon Tyne/Railway History Comments: 5
May 6, 2014

Durham Cathedral – the Shrine of St Cuthbert

I have a three month Sabbatical – which begs the question “what to do on Sunday?” On Low Sunday Julie and I were in Fort William, and we had a Sunday off. We drove to Ardnamurchan – 60 miles of single track road with passing places. The lighthouse was designed by Alan Stevenson and built in 1849. It now has an excellent cafe and visitors centre – very nice coffee. I climbed the lighthouse, chatted to the retired keeper and admired the view. The sea is “azure”, which is not a word often used about the Scottish sea! We also had a...
Categories Cathedrals/Durham/Outside Northumberland/Railway History Comments: 0
May 3, 2014

Healey – St John

Julie and I were driving to the Hexham Book Festival – a marvellous few days of authors and events in what has become our favourite town. It was a beautiful morning, so I went the pretty way. Healey is a Grade II listed building, on a minor road, with a handful of houses nearby – NZ014583. The church was built in 1860, tower added 1890.   Nice porch, but every single poster in it was out of date, the details are given of the Vicar who retired a year ago, and the inside noticeboard still has an article dating from 1994...
Categories Evetts' windows/Northumberland Comments: 4
May 3, 2014

Beverley Minster – St John & St Martin

Today (3 May 2014) I have photographed another Northumberland church, and when I came to blog it I realised I’d written up two Yorkshire churches and not the third. So, wheel history back to Monday 27 January and let’s travel South (with apologies for my tardiness). I’m now on sabbatical for three months, so I promise you’ll get a few more churches to read about. I will also mention that my George Herbert talks (see Leighton Bromswold) are on Ponteland church’s website. I have also promised my kids that I will mention in my blog that a group of them (i.e....
Categories Outside Northumberland/World War 1 Comment: 1
February 3, 2014

Blacktoft, Yorkshire – St Clement

In Howden minster we had picked up a leaflet “Historic Churches of Howdenshire”, produced by East Yorkshire Historic Churches which says the Minster is only open on a Thursday (today is Monday) – and decided we’d go and find Blacktoft Church down by the Humber (partly because it said there was a loo in the Old School Hall). We took the B road, the old road, to Gilberdyke, then turned south. The roads got narrower until we reached the river. You can’t actually see the river – we could easily be back in Cambridgeshire, north of Ely somewhere. The church is...
Categories Outside Northumberland/Railway History/World War 1 Comments: 0
February 2, 2014

Howden, Yorkshire – St Peter and St Paul

Monday 27 January was a day for a drive. Howden Minster is incredible – in the centre of a small market town SE748283. The Minster had nice flat access, a notice warning us of CCTV, and absolutely no one around. I can’t find a church website, but there is a fascinating one about the artist J.M.W. Turner in Yorkshire. He went to Howden and to many other bits of Yorkshire – and there are pictures, podcasts, trails – a great deal to explore. Originally, that is before the Norman Conquest, the church belonged to the abbey at Peterborough, but then it served...
Categories Outside Northumberland/Railway History/World War 1 Comments: 2
February 2, 2014

Three Yorkshire churches

Our second cottage for our January 2014 holiday was “The Studio”, Land of Nod Cottages, just south of Stamford Bridge. We got it through Sykes Cottages, a company we have used on many occasions. It is an excellent barn conversion, and next door “The Barn” is also available. Rose, the owner, makes wonderful cake. We had a good week. I could blog about days at the National Railway Museum, lunches at City Screen, York (they do a wonderful fish finger sandwich), the church cafe at Spurriergate, York, lots of bookshops, or my gorgeous Goddaughter and her fiancé (I am not old enough...
Categories Outside Northumberland Comments: 0
February 2, 2014

Three (locked) Huntingdonshire churches

Having had our week near Stansted we headed north. I wanted to visit three churches north west of Huntingdon. Barham is a little village just off the A14. Many years ago I was the Baptist Pastor of Perry, just beside Grafham Water, a few miles south of here. I said to Andrew, the Vicar of Barham and various other villages that I would love to preach at Barham church. “We only have a service once a month and only get half a dozen, but you’re very welcome.” In the next hamlet was a hospitality house for the USAF run...
Categories Outside Northumberland Comments: 7
February 1, 2014

Waltham Abbey – Holy Cross and St Lawrence

An interesting drive via a selection of minor roads into Epping, then on to Waltham Abbey. The Parish Church of Holy Cross and St Lawrence – a lovely church, though the town centre has seen better days. I last came here ten years ago (at least) when I had a television career – Sunday morning worship on Anglia TV. It was lovely to go back and enjoy it. Flat access, and they opened the big doors so I could push Julie through – the church is opened and staffed all day. There has been a church here since the...
Categories Outside Northumberland Comments: 2