Forty, Firths and Une Fête Foraine: Little Towns, Tiny Terriers, and a Windy Wall Day

We had fun getting to know the little town we are staying in. What better way than to join in the local Church service. They played beautiful bells at 4:00 yesterday that lasted about 30 minutes. We think there was a wedding.

The Anglican priest had a 45 minute communion service bright and early this morning so we attended along with 7 other local parishioners. The vicar chose the new communion booklet which we were a little familiar with from home so it wasn’t too difficult to follow. After the service we introduced ourselves and she advised that the church was built in the 1150s. She took us into a back room and showed us remnants of the church from the Roman times with a Roman font and a Roman altar just sitting in a closet gathering dust.

The historic Roman font and altar in the church we went to this morning.

The exterior of All Saints Church in Lanchester.

The interior of the church.

A major goal on this trip was for David to see Hadrian’s Wall and today was the day. So off we went to explore Northumberland. Our early education began with an audio tour and visit to Corbridge to see a Roman fort. They have an indoor museum and then the outdoors consists of the remains of the Roman fort. It was a good backdrop to our next stop at Housestead where there is another larger site with remains of a Roman fort, right beside part of Hadrian’s Wall. When you park the car you are under the illusion that it is a fairly flat site and that you enter a museum first thing. No such luck. It was the cafe (which was closed for the day). So then we followed the signs, along with lots of other people, 750 yards, up a very steep and winding footpath that finally reaches the admission building and the site of the Roman fort remains. This walk normally might have been challenging but when you add in the 70 mile an hour winds today, (not sure how strong they were but it felt like at least 70) it was with great effort that I made it to the top. Once there we paid our way in and saw the fort remains not unlike what we’d seen at Corbridge. However, this time, Hadrian’s Wall was located just behind the fort. It is impressive to see it winding across the countryside. In its heyday it was likely three times higher than it is now. On the walk down, if you were in the wind in the right direction, it literally blew us down and across. I swear if I had flapped wings I would have been airborne.

Here you can see Hadrian’s Wall in the vertical strip behind the wall David is touching.

That’s Hadrian’s Wall way in the back. This is a wall from the Roman fort ruins.

Some of the ruins at Corbridge.

We were reminded England’s grass is such a vibrant green because of all the rain.

More Corbridge ruins.

Our host at the place we are staying recommended we also take in a visit to Blanchland. It’s a tiny town that according to the craft shop clerk is now completely owned by the Church of England. All of the properties are owned by the church. The town started as an abbey but in Henry the VIII’s rule he had it partially destroyed as he didn’t want anything to do with the Catholic church. It’s name “Blanchland” came from the white robes that would be worn by the canons and monks in the abbey. It was an old little church and it proved interesting to walk around the town and imagine what it was like in days gone by. We ended our time there with a small bite to eat in The White Monk Refectory & Tea Room. This was lots of fun. We got to be observers as all the locals came in with their dogs, almost all tiny Yorkshire terriers. Lots of adult children taking their parents out for Sunday tea and lots of neighbourly chit-chat taking place. The wall beside our table was papered in actual pages taken out of books. It was a delightful spot to while away an afternoon.