Friday, 13th June BLYTH – GATESHEAD –
CHESTERS ROMAN FORT – BELSAY
Robyn writes: Another jam-packed day today. Thank heavens
for my sleep mask, as it’s getting light around 4 now, and the new flat only
has blinds with wispy curtains, no light blocking here!
It can be a hassle that most things we want to visit only
open at ten, but this morning we had the perfect start, with a visit to The Angel
of the North. This is a massive piece of sculpture on the A1 at Gateshead outside
of Newcastle, placed there in 1998 as a temporary installation. It’s since
become a permanent fixture, and certainly makes its mark on the landscape. The angel’s
body is 20 metres high and the wings 54 metres wide. We got there just as a big bus was parking, so whipped
across quickly to see it and get photos without the hordes! An impressive
piece, and certainly worth the visit.
From there, we set a path to Chesters Roman Fort. Hadrian’s Wall runs basically from Newcastle across the narrowest part of England, so there are lots of Roman forts and ruins in the district. In 2014 we visited Vindolanda, a massive fort complex. This was smaller (about 500 cavalry soldiers at its peak) but very well preserved. We owe this and several other preserved Roman sites nearby to John Clayton, a 19th century local landowner, businessman and enthusiastic amateur antiquarian (Victorian word for archaeologist). He inherited the property that the fort was on, started excavating, and when other pieces of land nearby with Roman ruins came up for sale, he bought them. He lived until well in his 90s, and his last huge dig was excavating the wonderful bath house down by the river. Eventually (he had no heirs) all the land passed to English Heritage. We arrived about 10.40, which was just the perfect time to have a cup of tea and a scone, then join the tour that started at 11. This went for well over an hour, and was excellent – we saw the gatehouses, principal buildings, commandant’s house, stables (the men lived with their horses!) and of course the huge bath house. A lot of the land around is still unexcavated, so who knows what will be found there in future? Before we left, we visited the museum which Clayton had built to house his extensive finds.
After a wonderful couple of hours channelling the ancient Romans, we decided our next visit would be Belsay House, Castle and Gardens, another half an hour’s drive to the north-east, and in a part of Northumberland we hadn’t seen before. Belsay House was built by the Middleton family in the 1800s, so it’s not particularly old, but its builders were obsessed with ancient Greek buildings. After honeymooning in Athens, they decided to channel the ancient Greeks when building their forever home! The foyer is particularly impressively Grecian. Belsay Castle had been the home of the Middletons since the 1300s, but after the family had moved to their new abode, they kept it as a ‘romantic ruin’. (Very trendy!) Sadly, during the war, the house was commandeered by the army, and it got fairly well trashed. The family effectively hasn’t lived there since the 1960s, as the upkeep was too much and too expensive. At least it’s looked after, now.
We arrived just before 2, so by this stage were looking for a late lunch. The lady in the Tea Shop very obligingly heated us up two bowls of red lentil and vegetable soup, and they were delicious, especially as I had mine with a cheese scone. This fortified us to go and explore – Lex wanted to do the walk to the Quarry Gardens, so he set off, while I went and explored the house (it’s a bit sad to see it empty – the rooms are huge and echoing.) Then I had a lovely walk around the terraced gardens before visiting the second hand book shop and finding a Louise Penney book I hadn’t read – score! Lex climbed to the top of the castle, admired the Quarry Gardens (Sir Charles was a very keen gardener) and thoroughly enjoyed his walk. Both the fort and Belsay are English Heritage properties, so our membership has saved us money again today.
We set off back towards the coast a bit after 4, and came home via Morpeth just to see what the UK version is like. It was good to get home just after 5, after another big day out!
No comments:
Post a Comment