Episode 14

Episode 14
So now we are back in England. We stayed with Heather nearly a week this time. We did plan to go to Cornwall to see the Keoghs again but that plan had to be cancelled at the last minute due to the untimely death of a friend there.
David decided that he would like to visit the Scottish Islands so with this in mind we set out one sunny morning. This being late September the weather was certainly getting much cooler. I had been going for a morning walk in shorts but usually wearing a light pullover, so that is what I was wearing when we left.
We headed west through the smaller towns of Midhurst and Petersfield then on to Winchester and Salisbury. This is a pretty drive through the countryside that we have done a few times in the past. It’s mainly rolling hills with plenty of patches of woodland and fields of cultivation or grazing cattle or sheep. The trees in the woods are beginning to get their autumn tones now with some gold and russet coloured leaves appearing. The road wends it way around the hills and crosses streams on little humped backed bridges.
As we approached Salisbury the spire of the cathedral is quite the dominating feature. On this occasion we didn’t stop in the city but continued on our way now heading northwest towards Bath but as the afternoon traffic through the towns began to build up and with heavy rain threatening we took the motorway for quite a distance with only a couple of small delays through Birmingham. We managed to miss most of the rain too. Then we turned west and camped near a small village in which we had seen a lovely old church that sadly was locked so we couldn’t see inside. We were near the Welsh border.
After taking the motorway again to avoid traffic holdups through Liverpool or Manchester we turned east near Preston and went into the Forest of Bowland area with moors and fells that are quite lovely and you would never think that you really are only a few miles from a huge city like Manchester. With high steep mountains and narrow valleys the very narrow road twists around clinging to the sides of the mountains. There were a few patches of forest, mostly pine or spruce, but also some other deciduous trees beginning to wear their autumn colours in the valleys.
At one point we pulled into a layby and there in front of us was a group of people flying model gliders. They were interesting to watch as their operators were no amateurs. There were 5 gliders in the air together and some were doing loop the loops whilst others did barrel rolls, it was good entertainment while we waited for our jug to boil and make a cup of coffee.
Some of the fields were open grazing but others were covered in Heather, they were divided mainly by stone walls in various stages of repair. Whilst most were in quite reasonable order, some were broken and repaired quite hastily it seems, with barb wire, or whatever other material was at hand.
Then we made our way to the Lake District. This is one of my favourite areas as it is with a great many people, it is just so picturesque. It too has steep mountains and narrow valleys and twisting narrow roads, but far more tourists than in the forest of Bowland. In summer it must be hell to try and drive around here, one car has to find a place to pull off for another to pass, then there are also a lot of cyclists and people walking and there isn’t even enough room to pass them unless they stand off to one side. The busses and big delivery trucks keep the road side foliage well pruned by rubbing past it all the time.
There are a great many walks here but David wasn’t really feeling up to much in the way of walking so we wended our way round some narrow roads. The houses and fences are built of a dark stone, probably slate and even many of the new houses are built using the same material. Here, everything looks in fairly good repair; probably more effort is put into keeping everything looking good because it is a popular tourist spot.
One of the lakes we drove along the shore of is Coniston Water, David remarked that this is the lake where Donald Campbell was killed attempting to break the water speed record in the 1960’s, for those of us who are old enough to remember who he was. There were no boats out on the water as we passed but a couple of marinas on the other side looked to have plenty of resident boats. The road goes within a couple of metres of the waters edge in places with woodland on both sides of the road.
We called into Wray castle but it was closed so we couldn’t go inside and likewise the lovely stone church nearby. The castle is in very good repair as it is owned now by the National Trust. Beatrix Potter’s cottage is another place we tried to visit only to find it was closed too; we weren’t having much luck.
Ambleside is probably the prettiest place in the District and it was packed with tourists. There wasn’t anywhere reasonably close to the town to park the car. Its a shame really as it is such a pretty place and I would have loved to take some photos of it. The winding narrow streets with the grey houses and brightly coloured window and flower boxes: Most houses are two and three story and open right onto the street. Ambleside is on Lake Windermere.
Making our way towards Keswick we took the road up the Vale of St John and came to a quarry and mining museum at the end of the road. Here we found a great many old cranes all standing idle gathering rust. The quarry was an old stone quarry where local building stone was dug. The museum had a geology display mainly. Not far from here we came to Castle Rigg, an old stone circle dating from Neolithic/early bronze age, 4000 to 2500 BC. A mini sort of stone henge: It’s not a true circle being more oval in shape and flattened on the eastern end. It has a small square laid out within it at that end too. The stones vary in size from well over 2m high to small ones a couple of men might have managed. I don’t know how deep into the ground they go but they are packed in with small stones and dirt. It is believed that this circle was used for special ceremonies and also to tell the seasons but quite how they have reached this conclusion I cannot say.
We did stop in Keswick for a while and had a look about. It too was crowded with tourists but it isn’t quite as pretty as Ambleside, it is on Derwent Water. As we walked around we found that some of the shops were having end of season sales and I got a good pair of hiking boots to replace the ones I’ve been wearing that now leak and also a pair of new warm waterproof gloves; I may need them soon.
With rain threatening we drove on out of the Lake District and on up to Cockermouth. Quit suddenly you leave the mountains behind and are in very flat farming country. Can’t say that Cockermouth has much to offer but someone is bound to disagree. As we drove along the south coast of Solway Firth we passed several camps of Gypsies’. One lot had an old wooden gypsy caravan but using a modern pick-up truck to tow it.
When we came to the small Finglanrigg Wood nature reserve we stopped and walked through it. It’s secondary growth woodland, not been touched for about 150 years. It contains a peat marsh that has at one time had the peat cut from it but has now returned to being a marsh. Although it is only 97 hectares it’s a vital home to a number of birds and the native red squirrel. This squirrel is under threat as the grey imported one is taking over. The number of oak trees here is controlled leaving plenty of rowan trees, birch and scots pine, all vital for the red squirrel. Too many oak trees and the grey squirrel will move in and soon the red squirrel disappears. Unfortunately we didn’t see any squirrels but we did manage to see two red deer. Heard plenty of birds but of course Lyn didn’t get to see them either.
Thought we would have a look at Hadrian’s Wall or at least what is left of it, while we were in this area. The Roman Emperor Hadrian (76AD to 138AD) had this wall built during his reign. It was constructed during the 120’s and it’s believed that he visited the site in 122 in the early part of the construction. His aim was to consolidate the empire and to keep out the marauding Scots that the Romans called Barbarians. The Roman soldiers here were Auxiliary troop, which means that they were not Roman citizens. The Roman Legionnaires were the troops that were Roman citizens; the Auxiliary troops were give Roman citizenship at the end of their 25 year tour of duty if they survived.
The wall was two metres high with a castellated top, and for much of the way it was built along the top of dolerite cliffs just a couple of metres back from the edge. It was about 1m wide and well constructed of stone. On the steep slopes of gullies it was stepped up the slopes. The Romans were really good stone masons and excellent builders. This is no ‘great wall of China’ but it did stretch for some 80 miles. Every 1/3 of a Roman mile there was a watch tower and there were many forts along the way. Some remnants of many still remain.
We started with a visit to the Roman Army Museum. Here we watched a film about the wall and how it would have looked at the time of its construction. It explained the construction and the reasons for it. From an aerial view you can see many places where there has been a fort at some time, the shape being clearly visible even if it’s just grazing land now and covered in sheep. In another room a man gave us a talk and demonstration on all the things a Roman soldier wore. From his helmet and armour and shield, the cloak he wore under the armour, his weapons to the sandals and boots with studs that he wore on his feet. It was really very informative.
On display were many items that have been found in the area over time. A lot of iron tools some similar to those still in use today, plenty of leather items, mainly boots and sandals, but also bags and even a shield for a horses head. Many Roman coins, and lots of pottery and household items. A few small pieces of jewellery and some carved stone tablets.
At three different places we went and had a look at the wall and walked along it for a bit. One was quite a steep climb up a hill. You don’t actually walk on the wall but alongside it. What we though was really cheeky though is that at two of the three places we stopped at you have to pay to park the car, at least £1.
Probably the most important site we visited along the way is the site of the old Roman Fort and town of Vindolanda. Archaeological excavations are on going here, started some 30 or so years ago and expected to take another 200 years to finish the job, they only work on it from April till the end of August.
Several forts have been uncovered here. The earliest ones being built of wood: In this climate wooden structures would not have lasted very long, only about 8 years so then a new clay floor was laid and the next fort built on that, and so on: About 4 wooden forts were followed by a couple of stone forts. The foundations we could see were of the last of the stone forts and many of the houses and shops of the civilian town that had sprung up around the fort.
Up to 4000 people are believed to have lived here at one time, during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD; and the whole place became abandoned soon after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 4th or 5th century AD, I’m not sure just when exactly. The soldiers here often took wives from the local inhabitants and those wives and families lived in the village next to the fort. Merchants and tradespeople would move here too because the soldiers were paid well and had money to spend and the families had to obtain their daily needs somehow. So a whole economy grew around the forts. With the fall of the empire came a very hazardous life of raids and fighting so people left the area.
For around 1000 years virtually no one lived in the area, then when things became more stable in the early 17th century small crofters began moving back into the area. They were often tenant farmers for the big estates and were allowed to have a few animals of their own and a small amount of land on which to grow some fruit and vegetables. The tiny cottages they had with barely two rooms, one for the animals in winter and the other to live in, with a loft above where stuff was stored and where any children slept were much poorer quality than the Roman houses of 1000 years earlier. The Roman houses had running water outside and probably under floor heating, glass in the windows and ornaments from Italy, and they had good public bath houses. The only thing the crofters cottages had the Romans didn’t is a chimney for the fireplace.
All that we could see of the excavations are the foundations of the buildings and some of the drains the water flowed along, the Romans had brick and wooden pipes to carry their water. There are the remains of two bath houses and a commanders (centurion) house, the barracks and the east and northern gates and a large number of civilian houses. Even a small church from the latter part of the Empire after Christianity was adopted. Down by the stream is a reconstructed temple, merchants shop, and a house.
In the museum the main feature here are the wooden tablets that have been found at this site. They give a very direct insight into life at the time as they are hand written letters from one person to another. Quite a lot of these tables have been found and they include an invitation to a birthday party, a reference for a job, a letter from one brother to another asking for a reply, and a letter requesting that some criminal charge be looked into by a higher authority. It is though that this last one was quite possible address to Hadrian himself. I had heard something about these tablets on some TV show at home. They have been preserved because the clay floors that had been laid one over the other have sealed out the air and bacteria and preserved the wood. More are still being found as excavations continue. Apparently the Romans left lots of things on the floor so that when the new floor was being laid it was laid over everything that was on the floor.
After we left here we made our way to Hexham then turned north and west again and wended our way over the hills and dales of Northumberland and into Scotland. Along the way we saw a great many pheasants and a few partridge. The shooting season is probably starting soon but at present there seems to be plenty of these game birds about and they seem to stroll casually across the road in front of us often. The male pheasants are very pretty with their black head, bright red and green neck and tan over the rest, the females are quite plain, a speckled, lighter tan. The partridge are not much different.
We came to the town of Lockerbie. The town that shot into the limelight when a Pan Am Boeing blew up over it and fell to earth killing all on board and 11 towns’ people as well in December 1988. There is a memorial garden for those killed but they don’t really want to make a tourist attraction out of it so we didn’t go there. We did however go and see the little Ukrainian Chapel that is here. It was built by Ukrainian POW’s that were brought here from Italy in 1947 and sent to work on local farms. It is only very small and is Greek Catholic. I don’t know if that is the same as Orthodox or not. Some of the ornamentation in the church is made out of wire coat hangers and gun shell casings, whatever the men could find to use. The man that greeted us when we arrived is the son of one of those Ukrainian POW’s. I think by 1947 they were really displaced persons rather than POW’s. They could not by then return to the Ukraine with safety.
I happened to read somewhere something about the Ruthwell Cross so we headed off towards the little village of Ruthwell to see the cross. In the village we found the small museum and the lady invited us in, it was free because of some open day weekend for many attractions in the area. We read all about Dr. Henry Duncan who found the cross and put it back together again. He was quite an accomplished man. The savings bank was really invented by him; he wanted to encourage the local hard working but poorly paid people to save their money so he started his bank and depositors need only a few pence to open an account and they got paid interest on what they deposited. They were encouraged to say a few shillings a year and if they did then they got bonuses. All the money was pooled together and deposited with big commercial banks to get good interest from them then the same amount of interest was spread among all the small savings account people. He started the local newspaper, found some dinosaur footprints not far away, and became a minister of religion.
The cross was carved from sandstone in the 8th century with religious carvings. In the 16th century it was broken up on the orders of the Scottish Church at that time. He found the pieces and reconstructed it, finishing it in 1820 and now it stands in the local church. It is 18ft high. More carvings were added after it was repaired. When we visited the church a bit later many people were there preparing it for the local harvest festival the next day.
There was just 6 of us in the little museum when we were there and 4 of us had lived in Rhodesia, the museum lady had lived in Beira in Mozambique, and the other lady had close ties with South Africa and visited there frequently. We thought that quite a co-incidence.
© Lynette Regan 1st October 2007