Margaret's Monthly Log
APRIL 2021
Easter and Birthday
Easter and Birthday
My Simnel Cake
Easter was a non-event, coming too early with bitterly cold winds on the first weekend of April. There was even a brief snow flurry on the Monday. As for only gathering with a maximum of six from not more than two households outside in a park or garden (if I understand the vaguest of rules), on a short walk on Sunday there was no sign of picnics or barbecues, so I guess most families were sensibly eating inside. I baked a Simnel Cake for the occasion, which doubled as my birthday cake the following weekend.
Simnel Cake, dating from medieval times, is a type of fruit cake that contains plenty of marzipan and is eaten at Easter in Britain and Ireland. It used to be specifically associated with Mothering Sunday (aka Simnel Sunday), honouring both mothers and the Mother Church. Since folk were fasting during Lent, Mothering Sunday, falling in the middle of the fast, offered a respite from 40 days of religious austerity. When Cromwell and the Puritans forbade such revelry, the custom was moved to Easter. It is decorated traditionally with a covering of marzipan circled by eleven marzipan balls (the disciples minus Judas). Naturally, I put 12 on (easier to mark the portions that way!) The icing in the centre and the mini-eggs are my own variation. With no Easter visitors, we had to eat it all ourselves (shame!)
Simnel Cake, dating from medieval times, is a type of fruit cake that contains plenty of marzipan and is eaten at Easter in Britain and Ireland. It used to be specifically associated with Mothering Sunday (aka Simnel Sunday), honouring both mothers and the Mother Church. Since folk were fasting during Lent, Mothering Sunday, falling in the middle of the fast, offered a respite from 40 days of religious austerity. When Cromwell and the Puritans forbade such revelry, the custom was moved to Easter. It is decorated traditionally with a covering of marzipan circled by eleven marzipan balls (the disciples minus Judas). Naturally, I put 12 on (easier to mark the portions that way!) The icing in the centre and the mini-eggs are my own variation. With no Easter visitors, we had to eat it all ourselves (shame!)
Simnel Cake minus the first two Slices and eight Chocolate Eggs
My birthday was marked with a roast chicken dinner and Morrisons best chocolate cheesecake. An Amazon van brought a gift (a monocular – half of a binocular – for bird watching). It also delivered Barry’s birthday present a month early (an Apeman A 100 helmet camera to top his new cycling helmet), which will soon be filming in Yorkshire and Northumberland. The media had nothing to report but the life of Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Lord High Everything Else, who had died the previous day.
Busy preparing the motorhome for the Great Escape on 12 April, after its 6-month enforced rest, we regularly visited the storage site at the River Wyre Estuary Country Park, 2 miles away. Here we talked to a caravanner proudly showing us his new Elddis. We were more interested in learning about his day-job driving a huge JCB at a depot where recycled plastics and paper are used to fuel concrete production. So why do we have to separate those items into different coloured bins?
To Slingsby, North Yorkshire (143 miles)
See my Campsite Review
Liberated from Lockdown at last, the motorhome carried us complete with our Volt bikes over the hills (the Pennines) and far away on a crisp sunny morning. Campsites are now open, though facilities (toilets, showers, washing-up room and laundry) remain closed on most sites until at least 17th May. Reduced services: same prices. We settled first at Slingsby (between Helmsley and Pickering), a favourite cycling area. Next to the site is a field with sheep and horses behind the Old Station Bakery, selling home-made fruit cakes. Very welcome now we’ve finished the Simnel. The tiny village also has a ruined castle (Keep Out), a church that dates back to Domesday with Williamsons in its graveyard, and ‘The Grapes’ (closed Mon and Tues): a pub with an overpriced and pretentious garden menu and take-away pizza on Sat and Sun.
Busy preparing the motorhome for the Great Escape on 12 April, after its 6-month enforced rest, we regularly visited the storage site at the River Wyre Estuary Country Park, 2 miles away. Here we talked to a caravanner proudly showing us his new Elddis. We were more interested in learning about his day-job driving a huge JCB at a depot where recycled plastics and paper are used to fuel concrete production. So why do we have to separate those items into different coloured bins?
To Slingsby, North Yorkshire (143 miles)
See my Campsite Review
Liberated from Lockdown at last, the motorhome carried us complete with our Volt bikes over the hills (the Pennines) and far away on a crisp sunny morning. Campsites are now open, though facilities (toilets, showers, washing-up room and laundry) remain closed on most sites until at least 17th May. Reduced services: same prices. We settled first at Slingsby (between Helmsley and Pickering), a favourite cycling area. Next to the site is a field with sheep and horses behind the Old Station Bakery, selling home-made fruit cakes. Very welcome now we’ve finished the Simnel. The tiny village also has a ruined castle (Keep Out), a church that dates back to Domesday with Williamsons in its graveyard, and ‘The Grapes’ (closed Mon and Tues): a pub with an overpriced and pretentious garden menu and take-away pizza on Sat and Sun.
The first Outing for the Helmet Camera
Under clear starry skies, the overnight temperature dropped to 4 deg C inside the motorhome, soon boosted by the gas & electric heating in the mornings, and the days were perfect for cycling, calm and sunny. Riding the network of quiet country lanes, Barry’s helmet camera innovation had an immediate effect on our safety, or at least our feeling of being safe. It seems that vehicles of all kinds are more likely to wait before overtaking when they shouldn’t, and they give us more space in overtaking (sometimes even the 5 feet recommended - but not mandated - in the Highway Code). As well as acting as a deterrent, the camera gives us a record of the ride and evidence of malpractice, should there be any.
Cycling in the Howardian Hills, we paused at Castle Howard for a coffee break (the stately home remains closed but the take-away café, farm shop and garden centre are now open). The café demanded Card Payment Only but, overhearing that I only had cash with me, the kind gatekeeper lent his bank card to pay for two coffees, in exchange for the right money. There are some gentlemen left (only in Yorkshire, said Barry, who had a long chat with his fellow-country man).
Riding into Helmsley we met a fellow-cyclist and octogenarian, Eric, out shopping on his bike. As we sat in the market square exchanging stories we realised how much everyone (including us) has missed casual conversations with strangers over the last few months.
We also cycled a circular route to Kirkham Priory, going out through the traffic-congestion of Malton. At least Morrisons take-away café there provided a sausage or bacon roll with coffee for £3 all-in (and very good it was too): card or cash accepted!
Cycling in the Howardian Hills, we paused at Castle Howard for a coffee break (the stately home remains closed but the take-away café, farm shop and garden centre are now open). The café demanded Card Payment Only but, overhearing that I only had cash with me, the kind gatekeeper lent his bank card to pay for two coffees, in exchange for the right money. There are some gentlemen left (only in Yorkshire, said Barry, who had a long chat with his fellow-country man).
Riding into Helmsley we met a fellow-cyclist and octogenarian, Eric, out shopping on his bike. As we sat in the market square exchanging stories we realised how much everyone (including us) has missed casual conversations with strangers over the last few months.
We also cycled a circular route to Kirkham Priory, going out through the traffic-congestion of Malton. At least Morrisons take-away café there provided a sausage or bacon roll with coffee for £3 all-in (and very good it was too): card or cash accepted!
The Control Panel on Barry's bike
Our final ride from Slingsby was into Pickering, where we talked to a cyclist whose bike was in for repair at Big Bear Bikes: a place we know well, since they are kind enough to allow overnight motorhome parking at the back for a small fee. The cyclist was trying (and failing) to interest his non-cycling wife in an electric bike. In the window of the Mind charity shop on the main street, I spotted a brand new shoulder bag to replace my tattered old brown leather one. A dear old lady, coming out with a bag full of knitting wool, told me she crocheted blankets, then returned them to the shop to sell. ‘Keeps me busy while I watch TV’ she said. I hope they don’t charge her for the wool. On the way back to Slingsby we paused in Great Edstone and were soon talking to a retiree from Bingley (West Yorks). Recently downsized to live in the village, he wanted to know all about electric bikes. They are certainly a good conversation piece, and Big Bear Bikes may soon have a new customer.
So it was a very successful return to North Yorkshire, with the weather gradually warming. After months of short winter cycling excursions along the flat Fylde coast we are now enjoying rides of over 30 miles in the hills, and feeling much stronger.
So it was a very successful return to North Yorkshire, with the weather gradually warming. After months of short winter cycling excursions along the flat Fylde coast we are now enjoying rides of over 30 miles in the hills, and feeling much stronger.
The Angel of the North in a Tangle of Roads
To Haltwhistle, Northumberland (148 miles)
See my Campsite Review
After shopping in Helmsley, thanks to its long-stay car park with motorhome places (free overnight 6.30 pm to 9 am, pay & display in daytime), our aim was the challenging 25% descent (‘No Caravans’) of Sutton Bank en route to Thirsk. Soon found the road closed by Police due to an accident, so diverted onto the ‘Caravan Route’ through the back lanes of Ryedale, via Ampleforth and past Byland Abbey. It was a relief to reach the A1(M) heading north to Newcastle, with a view of Gormley’s ‘Angel of the North’ statue at Gateshead (top left in the photo): Britain’s largest sculpture, though its comparison with the Statue of Liberty fails me! Turning west along the Tyne Valley, we drove past Corbridge (better known to me as the Roman town of Corstopitum, largely excavated by my renowned Professor of Archaeology at Durham: Eric Birley of fond memory. Where the river divides at Hexham we followed it to Haltwhistle and a small wooded campsite below the town, on the banks of the South Tyne in the National Trust Bellister Estate.
See my Campsite Review
After shopping in Helmsley, thanks to its long-stay car park with motorhome places (free overnight 6.30 pm to 9 am, pay & display in daytime), our aim was the challenging 25% descent (‘No Caravans’) of Sutton Bank en route to Thirsk. Soon found the road closed by Police due to an accident, so diverted onto the ‘Caravan Route’ through the back lanes of Ryedale, via Ampleforth and past Byland Abbey. It was a relief to reach the A1(M) heading north to Newcastle, with a view of Gormley’s ‘Angel of the North’ statue at Gateshead (top left in the photo): Britain’s largest sculpture, though its comparison with the Statue of Liberty fails me! Turning west along the Tyne Valley, we drove past Corbridge (better known to me as the Roman town of Corstopitum, largely excavated by my renowned Professor of Archaeology at Durham: Eric Birley of fond memory. Where the river divides at Hexham we followed it to Haltwhistle and a small wooded campsite below the town, on the banks of the South Tyne in the National Trust Bellister Estate.
On the former Railway Line from Alston to Haltwhistle
As National Cycle Route 68 (the Pennine Cycleway) passes less than a mile from our base, we first rode the short section into Haltwhistle, partly on an old railway track and partly quiet roads. After climbing the steep hill out of the campsite, it is an easy 5-mile ride north along the cycle route (or a 2.5-mile wooded walk on public footpaths) into the centre of the nice little town. It lies on the main line (Newcastle-Carlisle) railway, with a pub called ‘Centre of Britain’ (?), shops and a Library/Info Centre, where Tim supplied helpful leaflets on Hadrian’s Wall which runs just to the north. The locals are friendly with soft Geordie accents.
Riding towards the Barrier on the Lambley Viaduct
The 15-mile NCR 68 south to Alston in Cumbria (England’s highest market town at 1,000 ft) was more of a challenge, which we enjoyed enough to complete the return ride twice. The cycle path mostly follows the old railway line that carried minerals down from Alston Moor (coals to Newcastle!) through dappled woods with deer and red squirrels, climbing across gated moorland where every ewe was followed by twin lambs. There was one disgraceful permanent diversion, where the Lambley Viaduct over the river has been blocked by a high steel barrier erected by the selfish residents of a large house and garden at its far end. Walkers can descend a steep iron staircase off the viaduct and take a path through the woods; cyclists can only swear in disbelief, finding NCR 68 re-routed round three hilly miles of busy road to avoid this blatantly deliberate obstruction.
Lunch Stop in Alston, England's highest Market Town
Finally, at Slaggyford 4 miles before Alston station, a restored narrow gauge track carries tourist trains into the town, so our route deviated along a stony section of the Pennine Way, then a minor road to our destination. The reward for this frustrating but beautiful ride was to squat in the lofty marketplace with coffee and home-baking from the tiny Blueberry’s Café. Sitting inside by its blazing fire would have been even better but Covid rules rule the day. We met more dog-walkers than cyclists along the way but did have a lovely chat with 82-year-old Ken, on his regular e-bike ride between his home in Haltwhistle and Lambley Viaduct. He told of life as a truck driver for Crown Paints (once the main employer in Haltwhistle, now closed) and his work as a volunteer fireman. He used to know everyone before new housing estates sprung up around the town (a familiar story).
Meeting Nancy outside her Home in sight of the Wall
Hadrian’s Wall, the northern frontier of the known Roman world for almost three centuries, ran for 84 miles from the Solway Firth on the west coast to Wallsend on the east. Many years ago we cycled its length, a route now designated NCR 72 (Hadrian’s Cycleway) which passes through Haltwhistle, and the town is within easy reach of some of the best preserved sections and forts. Our present cycle ride left Haltwhistle following NCR 72 northwest to meet the B6318, where we turned east along this ‘Military Road’ built after the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. Riding south of the Wall through this long-disputed borderland, we soon stopped to chat with tiny 92-year-old Nancy, strolling along the lane from the cottage once owned by her late husband’s parents and now shared with her son. A splendid woman and a great talker, we had to gently resist her kind invitation for coffee. We learnt how she was evacuated from Tyneside as a girl in WW2 and continued visiting her ‘second family’ in Hexham as long as they lived.
Following Nancy's directions to the Cawfields Quarry Roman Site
We followed Nancy's excellent advice to reach the next site along the Wall: turn left at the Milecastle Inn pub and climb the lane up to Cawfields Quarry (car park and toilets), right next to the remains of Roman Milecastle No 42 and a short stretch of Wall. Milecastles were small forts (up to 30 soldiers) built every Roman mile – and the more recent roadstone quarry was closed in 1952, long before the Wall was protected by World Heritage status.
Back on the B6318, it was another 4 miles to the Twice Brewed Inn in the village of Once Brewed (what strange names). Next to the Inn, in the rooftop café of ‘The Sill’ National Landscape Discovery Centre, a friendly volunteer guide pointed us up the hill to Steel Rigg (car park) and a short onward path to Whin Sill Crags.
Back on the B6318, it was another 4 miles to the Twice Brewed Inn in the village of Once Brewed (what strange names). Next to the Inn, in the rooftop café of ‘The Sill’ National Landscape Discovery Centre, a friendly volunteer guide pointed us up the hill to Steel Rigg (car park) and a short onward path to Whin Sill Crags.
Aerial View of Vindolanda
Here we had a brilliant view of the Wall rising and falling away to the east, before cycling south back to Haltwhistle on quiet rolling roads, past the turning for the museum site of Vindolanda. The Director of Excavations at this Roman garrison is now Dr Andrew Birley, as was his father Robin Birley, son of Eric Birley: the doyen of Romano-British History and my warmly remembered professor of archaeology. Vindolanda is well worth a visit, a lovely example of the meeting ground of classics and tourism, but the site deserves a whole day and I know it of old. The round trip from camp totalled 25 miles of cycling, all on tarmac with some gentle hills.
Back to Lancashire (111 miles)
Our week at Haltwhistle was curtailed by a text message from our Health Centre, giving a time for Margaret’s second Covid vaccination. Not wishing to decline and go to the back of the queue, we returned to the Fylde via Carlisle and the M6 for a 2-day break at home. Now we’re both doubly dosed (which gives our ages away!) until the next round of boosters is upon us.
Our week at Haltwhistle was curtailed by a text message from our Health Centre, giving a time for Margaret’s second Covid vaccination. Not wishing to decline and go to the back of the queue, we returned to the Fylde via Carlisle and the M6 for a 2-day break at home. Now we’re both doubly dosed (which gives our ages away!) until the next round of boosters is upon us.
To Beadnell, Northumberland (192 miles)
See my Campsite Review
Driving coast to coast from the Irish to the North Sea,through Lancashire, Cumbria (once known as Cumberland and Westmorland) and Northumberland, we reach Beadnell, a small village south of Seahouses on Beadnell Bay. Lobster pots are piled inside the old lime kilns by the tiny harbour and beach, while signs along the cliff path ask dog-owners to keep their animals away from resting seals, though we saw none (seals, that is – we see far too many dogs).
One memorable event is the Super Pink Moon on Tuesday 27th April, clearly visible in our night sky with no city light pollution, shining dramatically through scudding clouds. Another is the arrival of the fish & chips van in the village on the Friday, providing a delicious cod supper (not for much longer, with our last super-trawler the Kirkella laid up in Hull thanks to the Government’s failure to replace the EU-Norway fishing agreement).
It's an easy 3-mile cycle ride (or cliff-top walk) to the larger fishing village of Seahouses, a busy tourist spot offering cruises to Lindisfarne (Holy Island) or shorter boat trips round the Farne Islands and Longstone Lighthouse (£20 for 1.5 hours). One lighthouse keeper's daughter, Grace Darling, was famous for her heroic participation in the rescue of survivors from the shipwrecked Forfarshire in 1838. I did take the Farne Islands trip many years ago, when Seahouses was much quieter. Inquisitive seals bobbed around following our boat, which landed for a walk on the Inner Farne to see the puffins and again on the Outer Farne to visit the lighthouse museum. Today, landings are not allowed by the National Trust and we are not tempted to sail. We do have coffee by the harbour, chatting to two old lads from Sheffield who stop to ask about our bikes, which are becoming quite a conversation piece. Talk ranges from our disaster of a Prime Minister to the World Snooker Championship playing at the Crucible and (of less interest) the decline of Sheffield’s two football teams.
From Seahouses we ride north following part of the NCR1 (Dover to Shetland) North Sea cycle route, which soon leads us through Bamburgh village, dominated by the imposing (if much restored) privately owned 11thC castle. It now contains holiday apartments, while the state rooms are a wedding venue and can be visited for a prebooked price. At least the splendid view of the islands from its battlements is free. Continuing on NCR1 along quiet roads past Spindlestone Mill, at Outchester (site of a vanished Roman camp) we pass the Ducket, an 18thC round tower believed to have been a dovecote. Even this tower has been converted into a holiday let! After Easington we cross the main railway and then the A1, trains and trucks and traffic whistling past between Newcastle and Berwick on a more direct route than ours. Climbing the steep hill into Belford village as a cold drizzle sets in, we find the Well House Coffee Shop on the High Street, serving a Full Northumbrian All Day Breakfast in its tiny walled garden. The church clock strikes one as we tuck in before returning to Beadnell (25 miles in all). On a warmer drier day we might have continued to Lindisfarne but enough is enough (and the Full Northumbrian more than enough!)
To the south of Beadnell Bay, the twin-towered ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle, built over an Iron Age hill fort in the 14thC, are perched above the craggy coast between Embleton and Craster. Mainly following NCR1 again, we cycle via the village of Swinhoe, over the level crossing at Chathill, through Embleton and down a lane signed ‘Dunstan Steads’ towards the castle. The ruins are only accessible on foot across a golf course, through a gate labelled National Trust and No Cycling, with a pre-booked ticket also required! NCR1 continues south through a farmyard to Dunstan and down to Craster (a fishing village known for its kippers – and another footpath to the castle, which is not accessible by car). We turn back at Dunstan, making another 25-mile circular ride.
The large campsite at Beadnell Bay is filling up for the May Day weekend, despite the terrible weather forecast, in keeping with British Bank Holiday tradition. Talked at length with one of the site wardens, who used to work as a tree surgeon. Not much scope for that on this grassy windswept site! We also learn that planning permission for a much-needed second facilities block at the site is being hindered by local opposition, despite the tourist income generated for the village.
Continued at: Margaret's Monthly Log: May 2021
See my Campsite Review
Driving coast to coast from the Irish to the North Sea,through Lancashire, Cumbria (once known as Cumberland and Westmorland) and Northumberland, we reach Beadnell, a small village south of Seahouses on Beadnell Bay. Lobster pots are piled inside the old lime kilns by the tiny harbour and beach, while signs along the cliff path ask dog-owners to keep their animals away from resting seals, though we saw none (seals, that is – we see far too many dogs).
One memorable event is the Super Pink Moon on Tuesday 27th April, clearly visible in our night sky with no city light pollution, shining dramatically through scudding clouds. Another is the arrival of the fish & chips van in the village on the Friday, providing a delicious cod supper (not for much longer, with our last super-trawler the Kirkella laid up in Hull thanks to the Government’s failure to replace the EU-Norway fishing agreement).
It's an easy 3-mile cycle ride (or cliff-top walk) to the larger fishing village of Seahouses, a busy tourist spot offering cruises to Lindisfarne (Holy Island) or shorter boat trips round the Farne Islands and Longstone Lighthouse (£20 for 1.5 hours). One lighthouse keeper's daughter, Grace Darling, was famous for her heroic participation in the rescue of survivors from the shipwrecked Forfarshire in 1838. I did take the Farne Islands trip many years ago, when Seahouses was much quieter. Inquisitive seals bobbed around following our boat, which landed for a walk on the Inner Farne to see the puffins and again on the Outer Farne to visit the lighthouse museum. Today, landings are not allowed by the National Trust and we are not tempted to sail. We do have coffee by the harbour, chatting to two old lads from Sheffield who stop to ask about our bikes, which are becoming quite a conversation piece. Talk ranges from our disaster of a Prime Minister to the World Snooker Championship playing at the Crucible and (of less interest) the decline of Sheffield’s two football teams.
From Seahouses we ride north following part of the NCR1 (Dover to Shetland) North Sea cycle route, which soon leads us through Bamburgh village, dominated by the imposing (if much restored) privately owned 11thC castle. It now contains holiday apartments, while the state rooms are a wedding venue and can be visited for a prebooked price. At least the splendid view of the islands from its battlements is free. Continuing on NCR1 along quiet roads past Spindlestone Mill, at Outchester (site of a vanished Roman camp) we pass the Ducket, an 18thC round tower believed to have been a dovecote. Even this tower has been converted into a holiday let! After Easington we cross the main railway and then the A1, trains and trucks and traffic whistling past between Newcastle and Berwick on a more direct route than ours. Climbing the steep hill into Belford village as a cold drizzle sets in, we find the Well House Coffee Shop on the High Street, serving a Full Northumbrian All Day Breakfast in its tiny walled garden. The church clock strikes one as we tuck in before returning to Beadnell (25 miles in all). On a warmer drier day we might have continued to Lindisfarne but enough is enough (and the Full Northumbrian more than enough!)
To the south of Beadnell Bay, the twin-towered ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle, built over an Iron Age hill fort in the 14thC, are perched above the craggy coast between Embleton and Craster. Mainly following NCR1 again, we cycle via the village of Swinhoe, over the level crossing at Chathill, through Embleton and down a lane signed ‘Dunstan Steads’ towards the castle. The ruins are only accessible on foot across a golf course, through a gate labelled National Trust and No Cycling, with a pre-booked ticket also required! NCR1 continues south through a farmyard to Dunstan and down to Craster (a fishing village known for its kippers – and another footpath to the castle, which is not accessible by car). We turn back at Dunstan, making another 25-mile circular ride.
The large campsite at Beadnell Bay is filling up for the May Day weekend, despite the terrible weather forecast, in keeping with British Bank Holiday tradition. Talked at length with one of the site wardens, who used to work as a tree surgeon. Not much scope for that on this grassy windswept site! We also learn that planning permission for a much-needed second facilities block at the site is being hindered by local opposition, despite the tourist income generated for the village.
Continued at: Margaret's Monthly Log: May 2021