On our way back from touring Scotland, in our Eriba Caravan in 2015, we stayed in Northumberland at a place called Bellingham. By the way Bellingham is pronounced with a soft “g” as in jam.
This is a lovely place nestled in the valley of the River North Tyne and in the Northumberland National Park. It’s on the Pennine Way and we can claim to have walked a bit of it on our amble into Bellingham village via the riverbank. We sat there for a while watching a heron preen itself. Nice to see one moving for a change! It was lovely to be able to sit outside the caravan in warm sunshine. Mind you we also had a day of full on gale and heavy rain – rainbows too.
On Thursday evening we danced with the Circle Dance group in Hexham. It was a lovely evening and we were made most welcome.
We had a drive out to Keilder Lake and sat in the James Turrell Skyscape. We also had a walk along a beautiful river valley to Hareshaw Linn, a waterfall. I even saw a Greater Spotted Woodpecker chick poking its head out of a hole in the tree calling for the parent to provide food. The air is so clean that the valley is home to such a range of mosses and lichen that it is classified as a site of special scientific interest.
We then travelled south. Firstly, across Northumberland and Durham’s splendid scenery. Grand without being harsh – quite similar in places to the White Peak District in west Derbyshire and Staffordshire.
Our aim was Barnard Castle, where we stopped for a couple of hours at the Bowes Museum. From what we saw, as we drove through, the town looks very interesting and we’ve noted it for a possible future visit. The Bowes Museum looks like a massive palace but was in fact built specifically as a museum by John Bowes and his French wife. We had only one reason for going and that was to see the Silver Swan.
The swan is an automaton made in the 18th century. It’s made entirely of silver and is life size. It sits on a bed of glass rods that have twists in them. Thus, when they revolve it looks like flowing water. The swan “runs” for about 30 seconds and moves its head and neck, eventually dipping down to small silver fish “swimming” in the “water” and apparently picking one up in its mouth. It is operated only once a day at 2pm and we had a ring side seat.
Sadly, it was in need of TLC and wasn’t playing a tune or catching a fish. Some specialist was going to look at it two days later. It’s in a glass case so the photo has reflections. We were very amused by a group of young school children sat on the floor in front of us. The girls noticed there were paintings on the walls with the usual naked flesh on show and they got very excited, whispering and pointing the nudes out to each other. The boys didn’t seem very interested – give them a few more years!
The museum has a collection of old lace which my wife enjoyed in the costume room and I was intrigued by a 1960’s box of men’s disposable paper underpants. Handy for caravanning methinks.
So onwards to Teversal, which probably no one has heard of. It’s a former mining village just over the Derbyshire border in Nottinghamshire (near Sutton in Ashfield). It was a convenient stop for 2 nights only so we could visit family in Chesterfield. Teversal is host to lots of trails for walkers and cyclists which use old railway lines and woodland created where collieries once stood. Opposite the camp site was Silverhill Wood and we enjoyed walking on its trails, sitting in wickerwork seats by ponds and climbing to the highest point in Nottinghamshire. This is only some 670 feet high because Nottinghamshire is very flat. I think the hill was previously a waste tip from Silverhill Colliery which once stood here. The top of the hill is marked by a superb sculpture of a miner testing for gas (otherwise known as fire damp – properly known as methane and highly dangerous in a mine). I was very taken with the memorial to all the men who had braved the dangers of working underground. The coal industry is part of my heritage. Teversal is a place to which we may well return to properly explore the trails.