A very reasonable journey with stops at Leicester Forest east and Wetherby both very busy, to Scotch Corner in North Yorkshire. When I was a girl it used to be the North Riding. So, Henry is now parked on a small campsite looking south across beautiful farmland toward Ripon.
Monday mornings route took us to Northallerton – a very nice High Street with individual shops and small version of a select few chains. It also has a Bettys Tea Shoppe with quite a queue outside!
We visited Mount Grace Priory and English Heritage property formerly a cistercian monastery an offshoot of the Chartreuse monastery in France that I visited on a college exchange in 1967. It put me off chartreuse for life !
The gardens were recently refurbished by Chris Beardsmore to reflect the Arts & Crafts interior of the house
The highlight was the monks cell that has been set up. A bedroom, a workroom and facilities with running water! and a patch of garden.
In the afternoon we went to Hartlepool. We visited the National Navy museum that also houses the warship Trincomalee, and where an old fashioned quayside has been created with the small businesses you would expect to find supplying seafarers.
Then we went to (Battery Point) and the Marina where we ate real fish and chips sitting on a seat looking at the yachts and cruisers. Delicious! The watching seagulls gave up in disgust! Definitely not fed or encouraged!
Durham lived up to expectations! By chance in the Market Place we met up with Norman, a volunteer Durham Pointer! The Pointers give tourist information and are highly visible in pink jackets.
We had booked a tour of the Castle
The Norman chapel was atmospheric and my favourite room.
We then had a walk over the bridges to see the River Wear
the went to visit the Cathedral. Its vertical scale is amazing. We saw the tomb of St Cuthbert and the had a behind the scenes tour.
The guide explained how the cloisters would have been glazed and used for study.
He then took us to the Chapter house and the kitchen which houses St Cuthberts cross, coffin. and comb and other bits & pieces. We saw the gold and silver treasures and then the magnificent library.
There is a small plaque on the wall in one corner of the cloisters and this is to do with one John Washington. His shield had three stars and three red stripes. Can you guess who his descendant was?