Once again, we are fortunate to be able to escape the New Zealand winter and head to the northern hemisphere summer. Heading to Nigel’s parents in the north east of England in early May does not exactly guarantee blue skies but we seemed to have the weather gods (mostly) on our side.

Out with the old…

Eric and Christine had a rickety wooden garden swing that Nigel had attempted to patch up last time we visited. This time we felt that it was beyond saving. In the photo below Nigel is holding the remains of the chair arm that he has just pulled off, much to Eric’s horror.

The replacement seemed to meet with approval.

Other than a new swing there seemed to be few changes since our last visit. Eric still manages to get to the Green Tree several times a week. Eric no longer drives so Christine takes him along at 9pm and comes back at closing time. In the pub, the table is always reserved for their oldest customer. While we were there, Nigel took over the pub run and obviously felt obliged to stay for the whole evening.

Several trips to Richmond

Nigel’s sister, Susan, and brother-in-law, John, live about 45 minutes drive away in the pretty medieval town of Richmond. We made several trips to visit them. On the first we just managed to get to their house before the road was closed for a Remembrance parade for the Green Howards – a local regiment that has since been amalgamated with the Prince of Wales’ Own Regiment and Duke of Wellington’s Regiment to form the Yorkshire Regiment.

It was quite a spectacle but none of us knew the significance of the group marching in bowler hats and carrying furled umbrellas. Google suggests that on Remembrance Day, veterans from the British Army’s Cavalry and Yeomanry regiments march in bowler hats and suits as part of the Cavalry Memorial Parade in Hyde Park, London. The bowler hats and furled umbrellas are part of the traditional “walking out” dress for these veterans. Not sure if that was who sported the bowlers today but we did enjoy the parade and our short walk along the river past the remains of Easby Abbey.

Another visit saw a rare family get together with all three UK based generations of Crawfords: Eric and Christine, their ‘children’, Nigel, Susan and David along with wives/husbands, Sue, John and Kathleen, and then all three of Susan’s boys with their partners/wives – Michael with Catherine, ‘newlyweds’ Andrew and Hannah (ok so it was a year ago and we missed it while sailing in Fiji), and Jamie with Sophie.

A final visit took us on an epic walk following part of the coast to coast route first described by the famous Alfred Wainwright (hence the ‘aw’ on the signpost).

Lots of walks around Tudhoe Village

As usual we clocked up many miles around Tudhoe Village including following the River Wear into Durham and back, following the old railway line into Bishop Auckland and returning by bus and a day in Teesdale tramping from Low Force, past High Force and finally meeting Eric and Christine for lunch at Langdon Beck.
High Force seems to be one of our ‘must dos’ whenever we are back in the north. Another favourite for Eric and Christine is a visit to the beautiful 12th century village Blanchland which is just out of Country Durham and into Northumberland. This time, as well as lunch at the White Monk Tea Rooms, we managed a short walk following a no exit road out of the village. We were rewarded with the discovery of the ruins of an old mine pumping house that we had no idea about.
Closer to home we explored Hardwick Hall Country Park. The hall is a popular wedding venue and the grounds are popular with dog walkers and families. Interesting follies, picturesque lakes and fountains as well as bizarre sculptures all add to the appeal of the place.

A mini break in Northumberland

We managed a short trip away from Tudhoe. We headed north to the Northumberland coast where we had booked a little cottage near Beadnell for two nights.

Our route there took us through the historic market town of Alnwick where we stopped for coffee and some shopping before taking a slight detour to get some good views of the castle.


We have visited Beadnell many times in the past. It has an unusual little harbour next to the old lime kilns and then miles of beautiful sandy beaches. Looking back through our old photograph collection we found these images of our boys with their cousins and both sets of grandparents all on the beach together in 1997.

This time this was as close as we managed to get Eric and Christine to the beach.

On our only full day in the area we managed to fit in a reasonable walk. Christine and Eric dropped us off at the little fishing port of Craster. We walked from here to the nearby village of Embleton where we found them in the Dunstanburgh Castle Hotel waiting for lunch. Our route had taken us from Caster along the coast to the spectacular ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle and then onto Embleton. The rain caught us just as we arrived on the outskirts of the village so we were somewhat bedraggled as we sat down to eat.

Our day was not over yet. We headed past our temporary home near Beadnell and along the coast to yet another castle on the beach.
Bamburgh Castle was built by the Normans on the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon fort. It was extended over the years and in more recent times was heavily restored by the industrialist William Armstrong, whose family still owns the castle.
Interestingly, the granite outcrop on which it sits is part of the Whin Sill, the same granite outcrop that formed waterfall on the River Tees at High Force.
From the beach we could see the Farne Islands to which we had taken a boat trip many years ago. It is a breeding colony for puffins and many other birds as well as home to many seals. No time for a repeat visit on this trip.

Eric insisted on one more stop as we headed back to Beadnell. The old fishing village of Seahouses. This was where we boarded the boat to the Farne Islands in 2012. Today we just had a quick stroll along the pier and headed home.

It’s rare that we find somewhere in the UK that Eric and Christine have not visited. So we were delighted to begin the trip back to Tudhoe with a winding coastal route through Longhoughton Sands and Boulmer – a route they had never driven although they knew of Boulmer as it is a significant RAF station.
For yet another first we parked by the River Coquet in the old town of Warkworth. We had all driven through Warkworth many times and even visited the castle but never explored the river bank. Today we had our picnic lunch beside the river before having a quick look at the castle and heading home.