A Baptism in Brancepeth, and a visit to Beamish

Our God son's youngest was to be christened in his mother's church. His grandmother is vicar there.  We were invited to stay in the castle overnight.  They very kindly offer us an evening meal, a room and breakfast.  The castle is a wedding venue, and a private home, among other things. When it is properly decorated, it is an amazing place.  Now, though, it is simply a residence, all the finery is safely stored away.  

Brancepeth Castle

We had a tour in the evening, getting to see the wedding venues and some other parts of the castle which visitors would not normally see.  It is an amazing place, trying to keep tack of the history is quite a challenge.  After the christening there was a short reception, and, it being a lovely day, we had a tour of the grounds.  We visited the damaged bridge and speculated about the defensive position the river offered.  I also wondered about the possibility of using the drop for generating electricity.

It's a long drive from Essex to Durham, so that night and the next we stayed at a B&B - The Old Post Office, Lanchester.  We were the only residents for our two nights. The B&B and the room had all the usual features that are expected these days.  So it was a lovely stay.  There are always a couple of things that stand out in any B&B we visit.  Here the shower is worth a mention, lots of water and nicely hot. The breakfasts are also worth a mention.  If, like me, you enjoy a kipper, this is the place to visit.  A large smoked herring, and very nicely smoked too, none of the orange/brown colouring, and definitely no 'smoke flavour' added.   Keith, the proprietor, is rightly very proud of his sourcing arrangements for his breakfasts. The next morning we had smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, another superb breakfast.

Sunday night we visited Ravello, an Italian restaurant in Lanchester.   They provided us with very nice meals and very good service.

Here's the halibut:

It really was good enough for Jehovah. (If you don't get the reference, watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYkbqzWVHZI)

On the Monday morning, we travelled just down the road to Beamish.  The weather looked like it was about to spoil our day, the rain had started.  Neither of us was prepared for wet weather.  Fortunately, the rain cleared by 11:00 am, and we could wander around Beamish without getting wet.  First we visited the pit village, where we can see how life was in a mining community at the turn of the last century.  All very basic, but I got some gardening ideas out of it.  

One thing that surprised me was the projector in the Methodist church.

Turning around, I was equally surprised to see a screen above the pulpit.

We then caught the tram and headed to the main village.  Trams are a great way of moving around a local area, I can't imagine why we ever got rid of them.  There, we bought lunch from the bakery, a cheese slice and a ginger bread slice each, both cooked in the appropriate way for the time.

There was a lot to see.  Much of it was vaguely familiar.  It seems the change from the time of the village to the start of my life (about 50 years) was not that great.  The changes since mean that the world is unrecognizable.

New villages are being developed, we stopped in the 1950s village for a snack - ice cream in a tub and a bottle of Dandelion & Burdock for me.

Time was passing, so it was time to leave.  Our ticket will let us back in for up to a year, hopefully we can get another visit.