Lindisfarne

                                                                    Lindisfarne Priory

For our final outing in the North East we decided to see Lindisfarne or Holy Island. I knew from a friend that the island is connected to the mainland by a causeway which floods twice a day. Visitors are exhorted to check the tide times.  I didn't have any sense of what the causeway looked liked or how long it was. 

I now know that the causeway is a tarmaced road wide enough for two vehicles going in opposite directions. It is 3 miles long and the vast majority of visitors arrive by car. At high tide the road lies under 1.5 - 4 metres of water.

We parked in the large car park and walked towards Lindisfarne Priory. Holy Island has a recorded history which goes back the 6th century AD; it was an important centre of Celtic Christianity, especially St Cuthbert.   After the Viking invasions and the Norman Conquest a Priory was was re-established. A small castle was built on the island in 1550.

Below are two views of the Priory ruins. The monastery continued until its suppression in 1536 under Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasterie after which the buildings surrounding the church were used as a naval storehouse, and presumably began a long period of decline

 We concluded our visit of the Priory by admiring this modern statue of St Cuthbert by Fenwick Lawson. 

We could see Lindisfarne's other major sight as we were exploring the Monastery - the Castle, perched upon a rocky hill on the highest point of the island. It was constructed in 1550 and stones from the priory were used as building material.

We followed a road and then a grassy path towards the Castle, now looked after by the National Trust. When you get there it is a steep climb to the top.

In 1901, the Castle became the property of Edward Hudson, a publishing magnate and the owner of Country Life magazine.  It is said that Hudson and the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens came across the building while touring Northumberland and climbed over the wall to explore inside. 

Lutyens created a remarkably cosy and characterful building, and as you tour round it now you are taken by the small homely rooms, many of which have the feeling of having just been vacated. No doubt this was the work of the National Trust.

From the rear windows you can see the small walled garden which had originally been the garrison's vegetable plot. It was redesigned by Lutyens' long-time friend and collaborator, Gertrude Jekyll, between 1906 and 1912. It is some distance away from the castle itself. Between 2002 and 2006 it was restored to Jekyll's original planting plan by the National Trust.

On the opposite of the building there is a terrace which offers fine views back towards the main body of the island.

This view is particularly interesting, with the two columns at the back of the sands which remain important for navigational purposes. The thick black line in the foreground is ..... yes, hundreds of seals on a spit of land!

A wonderful experience!

Bamburgh Castle

 Bamburgh Castle, from the land side

Above is the first, very imposing, sight you get of Bamburgh Castle if you are coming from the North as we were.

We parked in the car park by the castle and looked out to sea to be greeted by the Farn Islands. It is a group of 28 islands which are of great interest for birders (who will hope to see Puffin, Eider, Razorbill, Guillemot, Shag, Kittiwake and Fulmar). The island you can see is Inner Farn and the two buildings which can be made out are the lighthouse (on the right) and a tower. What this low angle lost was the long sandy beach, where a ceaseless promenade of people were striding out.

We entered the castle through a Gate House as you might expect and emerged into a large open area with an imposing Keep to the right.

 

We quickly discovered some key facts about Bamburgh. The rocky outcrop was fortified from as early as 500 AD. The Normans built a new castle on the site, which forms the core of the present one. After a revolt in 1095 supported by the castle's owner, it became the property of the king. In 1464 during the Wars of the Roses, it became the first castle in England to be defeated by artillery. By the early 1600s, Bamburgh had become ruinous and in private hands, those of the local Forster family. It later became a hospital and a school, before being bought in 1894 by the wealthy local industrialist, Lord Armstrong (of Cragside), who began the work of restoration but died before it was completed. His descendants carried on his work and remain the castle's owners.

This is the range of buildings to the left of the Keep. A miscellany of styles is visible.

Entering the door on the left you are soon ushered into the Great Hall, a fine, late Victorian building.

In the next room I was delighted by this lovely pattern.

Now into the Keep. The upstairs rooms don't seem very Norman, bit when you get to the undercroft you gain a very strong sense of the weight bearing down on you.

I was excited by my first sighting of Bamburgh Castle, but by the end I felt a bit disappointed. The Keep is a wonderful sight from the outside, and the Great Hall was imposing, but much of the interior and most of the exterior was not very interesting.

To complete our visit we had a short wander round the village of about 500 people. I was delighted to spot some former almshouses (dating from 1807). The nearest ones remain their character, but the two furthest are now used as shops and have lost theirs.

More or less opposite is the former water pump.

Berwick-upon-Tweed

 

We set off this morning from our hotel in Hide Hill to tour the walls and were surprised to find that our first interesting sighting was this wonderful art deco façade of what was surely a cinema.

 

We headed uphill into Marygate (see the picture at the head of this post), where the tall, narrow Town Hall dominates the scene. A helpful plaque explains that there is a fine painting of the scene by Lowry.

At the top, we turned right and then left to join the top of the walls in an ante-clockwise direction.

We walked along to the grassy area known as Meg’s Mount and looking back got our first view of the imposing railway bridge over the Tweed. Its proper names is the Royal Border Bridge. It was built in 1857-1860 by Robert Stephenson, the son of the railway pioneer George Stephenson and opened by Queen Victoria. Despite its name, the bridge does not in fact span the border between England and Scotland - this is three miles further north.

Continuing anti-clockwise we came to our first view of the New Bridge, with the Old Bridge hidden behind it. The New Bridge is properly called the Royal Tweed Bridge and was built between 1925 and 1928.

A bit further on we looked ahead to the modern road bridge, with the old bridge just behind it. This is the view of the handsome Old Bridge, known correctly as Berwick Bridge. After various tribulations, a permanent stone bridge was completed in 1624. It is a lovely sight.

Next we saw a plaque telling us that we were passing a one-time Ice House built mainly to store Salmon to be sent to London. At its peak it would had held three double decker buses (if they had been invented by then). Now there is just a cave-like hole.

We continued along the quayside to pass the newly renovated Gallery and Bistro. It was previously a Granary, built in 1769.

We passed the former Custom’s House, which was plainer than they usually are.

Next up was the interesting Main Guard building dating from the 18^th century when it was located in Marygate, the main road heading north into Scotland. The guard’s main function was to maintain order among the troops (there was a garrison at the time). Later it was relocated to its present location, unused but still rather pleasing.

We passed a impressive short terrace of three imposing houses - Wellington Terrace. We had been following the edge of the River Tweed but now we were looking towards the sea ...

... and to structures which were much more defensive, like these substantial bastions ...

... and this gun.

We continued curving round to the left to reach the powder storage building.

The large and imposing garrison buildings stood behind grassy banks which held the massive defensive works. The barracks were built between 1717 and 1721 by Nicholas Hawksmoor, better known for his work in London to protect the town during the Jacobite rising. The buildings are now a museum, maintained by English Heritage.

Berwick's Elizabethan Walls are the only example of bastioned town walls in Britain and one of the best preserved examples in Europe. They were built in 1558 and were designed to keep out the marauding Scots who regularly laid claim to the town. The walls were built to an Italian design and contained bastions which were designed to allow gunfire covering every part of the wall. Outside the curtain wall and bastions, there were wide water-filled ditches to deter potential invaders.

The final sight was Holy Trinity Church which dates from 1652. It is a rare example of a church built in the Commonwealth era.

Sunderland

Today’s city walk is in Sunderland. I have always been slightly dubious about Sunderland’s rise to City status in 1992 (on the occasion the 40^th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne). There were, as always, many candidates and Sunderland only became a Metropolitan Borough through the merger of four smaller local authorities in 1974. Having now visited the City, however, I have become convinced of its charm and character.

We arrived in Sunderland and found a parking space opposite Mowbray Park. I was drawn by this fine 19th century statue commemorating the major naval battle at Camperdown in 1797 (see Wikipedia for the full story).

We walked up to the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens and took a left along Holmeside.

This soon brought us to the imposing former Technical College in St Michael's Way.

Soon we were in the former parish church of St Michael and All Angels, now known as Sunderland Minster. Frustratingly it was closed.

Just to the right were the attractive Almshouses. A plaque revealed that the almshouses were designed by Edward Robert Robson and erected in 1863, funded by Elizabeth Gray Mowbray. They replaced earlier almshouses, erected in 1772 by Jane Gibson. This earlier complex is commemorated in a Latin inscription on a stone positioned at the left hand side stepped chimney stack. The design for the Mowbray Almshouses follows Gilbert Scott’s and Pugin’s notion of recreating medieval architecture in the contemporary world.

A few steps along Church Lane brought us to the delightful Sunderland Empire Theatre, doing good business with a children's matinee.

Just along the road we came to the wonderful former Fire Station, full of Sunderland fans, young and old, getting ready for the afternoon's game (a 5-1 victory, happily).

Then things started to get surreal as four Knights were seen wondering the streets and waving their swords in great good humour.

Then in Fawcett Street we spotted this wonderful pair of late Victorian buildings.

We were surprised to find Sunderland's tourist information describing a visit to Herrington Country Park as a must-see, but when you get there the first thing you see is the wonderful Penshaw Monument, perched high on a hill, within the City precincts.

It was built in 1844 in honour of John George Lambton, the first Earl of Durham, and is based on the design of the Theseion, the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens. About £6,000 was raised by public subscription to build the monument, but funding ran out and the roof and interior walls were never added.

The very useful factsheet also reveals that one of the columns is hollow and contains a spiral staircase giving access to the roof. Perhaps inevitably, a young man fell from the roof in 1926 and the staircase has remained locked ever since.

Fountains Abbey

We hadn't realised that Fountains Abbey was so near to Ripon - about three miles away. So we decided that before we departed the area we would have a quick walk around the Abbey. Neither did we know that Studley Royal - a World Heritage Site, no less - was adjacent. Reluctantly we decided we would have to forego Studley Royal as our schedule required us to be in Sunderland around lunch time.

Leaving the Visitor Centre we headed towards the Abbey, the top of whose tower could be spotted in the distance. However, the first thing we discovered was Fountains Hall (see above). The house was built by Sir Stephen Proctor between 1598 and 1604. It is an example of a late Elizabethan Prodigy House, perhaps influenced by the work of Robert Smythson. The hall was renovated and modernised between 1928 and 1931 and after the war the hall again fell into a state of dilapidation. The National Trust acquired the Fountains Estate from North Yorkshire County Council in 1983 and has restored the hall. Part of it has been divided into flats, one of which is a holiday let. (Wikipedia)

 The main front is very impressive.

We continued along the path towards the Abbey ruins. The Abbey belonged to the Cistercian order and was founded in 1132. Along with many other similar foundations it was destroyed by Henry VIII in 1539.   The Abbey buildings and over 500 acres (200 ha) of land were seized by the Crown, and sold on 1 October 1540 to Sir Richard Gresham. Gresham stripped some of the fabric of the site (stone, timber, and lead) for sale as building materials to help defray the cost of purchase. In 1597 the site was acquired by Sir Stephen Proctor, who further vandalised the monastic complex for stone to build Fountains Hall.

 

The bell tower on the left is known as Huby's Tower. It was built by Abbot Marmaduke Huby (1495–1526). Below is the Crossing.

And here is a view looking along the nave.
 

This is the east end of the church.

I am not sure about this picture, but the Romanesque arches are delightful.

And, finally, this wonderful structure is the Cellarium - or larder.

As I have been writing this, I have come to the conclusion that my project to visit all of England's cities should allow me another visit to the Ripon area to have a proper look at Studley Royal (and the nearby William Burges church of St Mary's) - it could be tacked on to a visit to Bradford or Preston say.