Bolam, Wansbeck and Shaftoe....Northumberland November 24.
They sound like a firm of solicitors, but they are places on today's walk. (The best known solicitors in the north east are Hadaway, Hadaway and s*****)*
Another familiar walk and another close to home, starting at St. Andrew's Church in Bolam. To get there, A1 north, turn off for Morpeth and turn left at the golf club shortly before going downhill into the town. At Whalton turn right for Bolam and after four miles take the lane on the right that goes to the church.
Interesting church, Saxon West Tower, Norman additions and a small window where a WW2 bomb pierced the wall but failed to explode. Some years ago the German pilot came over and apologised.
The map for the walk is OS Explorer OL 42 Kielder Water and Forest. (GR NZ 092825 for the church)
Another grand turnout too. Nine gadgies braving the cold day; John x 3, Dave, Harry, Ben, Brian, Ray and me.
Naturally we are having breakfast first, this time at the Kirkley Cycle café which is not on the route above but is close to Kirkley Hall College which teaches dry stone walling and hedge laying amongst other things. Very interesting café, specialising in supplying energy to cyclists and anybody else. Next door, in an old farm building, is a gym. This morning a group of lycred young ladies were going through their exercises, later, as we were having breakfast they came to the café. Too much.
Gym and cafe
The walk; We left the café and went to the church at Bolam. There is parking on the grass verge outside the church yard.
St. Andrew's, Bolam, plus the shadow of the photographer
The small window is where the bomb pierced the wall of the church.
This week's car park by the church, slightly out of focus, but free
Walking through the church yard and past the west end tower we went through a gate, with marker, and headed north across very muddy fields past the houses at Angerton Steads, which have their own tennis court, across the dismantled railway, so dismantled you hardly know it's there, to the farm at Low Angerton.
From here we walked a few hundred yards along the road to the sign post on the left hand side pointing west.
Top line says Public Bridleway but the bottom line has faded, follow it anyway.
The path here crosses fields alongside the river Wansbeck. There are some markers but like the river itself it meanders. Could be some Ox bow lakes here in a few hundred years. The path crosses a stream by means of a footbridge (unmarked) and it also crosses a field that had been ploughed, seeded and had shoots of some cereal crop. The footpath, marked, goes straight across this field and reaches Middleton Mill Farm. Through the yard we went and along the farm track to a road. At the road we turned left, crossed the bridge over the Wansbeck and turned into a field on the right. Dave the archaeologist explained we had just passed the site of a Medieval Village and the field boundaries. Some few hundred yards further on we came to an open stone rectangle, presumably designed as a shelter for sheep. It made a classy Herbie Spot as we sat backs to the wall, keeping out of the cold west wind.
Herbie time in the shelter, with shadows. Today's lunch included pork pies, quiche from Mrs A., ginger biscuits from Ben, Alpen Bars, Yorkshire flapjacks and home made cake from John Ha.. And soup for some of us. A good idea, it seldom got much higher than 2C today.
Lunch over we walked south west to Middleton South Farm and having gone along the road infront of it for a short distance turned south along a grassy track alongside the field wall. Crossing a wall we turned south west on a farm track heading north of Half Moon Plantation and up a slight slope towards the Salters Nick.
Salters Nick, part of the ancient drove road.
Rather than go through the nick we turned south and followed the boggy track to the Piper's Chair. Tradition has it that at the wedding of one of the Shaftoe family the bowl on top of the rock was filled with wine for the guests. There is quite a steep drop on the south side............
The Pipers's Chair.
After a short detour up the hill to admire the trig point, and the view, we headed east on a well paved road to East Shaftoe Hall Farm.
East Shaftoe Hall, the left hand side is 17th century at least.
From the hall we followed the farm track back to the road. Part of the road is made up from old concrete railway sleepers which came all the way from Glasgow. They make a good hard road too.
At Bolam West Houses we turned right on the road and after about a half mile turned into Bolam Lake Country Park. We followed the footpath through the wood which surrounds the lake eventually emerging on the road near the information centre. We turned left, then right and walked uphill on the road and back to the church.
On our way home we stopped at The Blackbird Inn, Ponteland, a pub with a special meaning for me. My wife and I had our first date there in 1965! Nowadays it's a dinner date, then it was a drink and a chat. My generosity obviously paid dividends. The pub has changed considerably, more of an eatery now but it did have a selection of real ales. I chose Supermac, named for a seventies Newcastle footballing hero. Nothing special, the beer that is, so I had a pint of Blackbird Hand Crafted Ale
The Matrix MMXVII Z ^27
steps miles
NAK 27273 11.19
IPhone 22836 10.2
Dave's 3D 21595 10.58
"" USB 20946 10.57
"" NAK 20622 10.41
Sylvia's mother 21299 10.76
OUTDOOR GPS 9.87
Brian 9.87
John C. 10.5
Contains OS data. Copyright. Crown copyright and database right 2017
* This refers to a Geordie joke. Copies of the joke are available free, with a SAE
They sound like a firm of solicitors, but they are places on today's walk. (The best known solicitors in the north east are Hadaway, Hadaway and s*****)*
Another familiar walk and another close to home, starting at St. Andrew's Church in Bolam. To get there, A1 north, turn off for Morpeth and turn left at the golf club shortly before going downhill into the town. At Whalton turn right for Bolam and after four miles take the lane on the right that goes to the church.
Interesting church, Saxon West Tower, Norman additions and a small window where a WW2 bomb pierced the wall but failed to explode. Some years ago the German pilot came over and apologised.
The map for the walk is OS Explorer OL 42 Kielder Water and Forest. (GR NZ 092825 for the church)
Another grand turnout too. Nine gadgies braving the cold day; John x 3, Dave, Harry, Ben, Brian, Ray and me.
Naturally we are having breakfast first, this time at the Kirkley Cycle café which is not on the route above but is close to Kirkley Hall College which teaches dry stone walling and hedge laying amongst other things. Very interesting café, specialising in supplying energy to cyclists and anybody else. Next door, in an old farm building, is a gym. This morning a group of lycred young ladies were going through their exercises, later, as we were having breakfast they came to the café. Too much.
The walk; We left the café and went to the church at Bolam. There is parking on the grass verge outside the church yard.
Walking through the church yard and past the west end tower we went through a gate, with marker, and headed north across very muddy fields past the houses at Angerton Steads, which have their own tennis court, across the dismantled railway, so dismantled you hardly know it's there, to the farm at Low Angerton.
From here we walked a few hundred yards along the road to the sign post on the left hand side pointing west.
The path here crosses fields alongside the river Wansbeck. There are some markers but like the river itself it meanders. Could be some Ox bow lakes here in a few hundred years. The path crosses a stream by means of a footbridge (unmarked) and it also crosses a field that had been ploughed, seeded and had shoots of some cereal crop. The footpath, marked, goes straight across this field and reaches Middleton Mill Farm. Through the yard we went and along the farm track to a road. At the road we turned left, crossed the bridge over the Wansbeck and turned into a field on the right. Dave the archaeologist explained we had just passed the site of a Medieval Village and the field boundaries. Some few hundred yards further on we came to an open stone rectangle, presumably designed as a shelter for sheep. It made a classy Herbie Spot as we sat backs to the wall, keeping out of the cold west wind.
Lunch over we walked south west to Middleton South Farm and having gone along the road infront of it for a short distance turned south along a grassy track alongside the field wall. Crossing a wall we turned south west on a farm track heading north of Half Moon Plantation and up a slight slope towards the Salters Nick.
Salters Nick, part of the ancient drove road.
Rather than go through the nick we turned south and followed the boggy track to the Piper's Chair. Tradition has it that at the wedding of one of the Shaftoe family the bowl on top of the rock was filled with wine for the guests. There is quite a steep drop on the south side............
After a short detour up the hill to admire the trig point, and the view, we headed east on a well paved road to East Shaftoe Hall Farm.
From the hall we followed the farm track back to the road. Part of the road is made up from old concrete railway sleepers which came all the way from Glasgow. They make a good hard road too.
At Bolam West Houses we turned right on the road and after about a half mile turned into Bolam Lake Country Park. We followed the footpath through the wood which surrounds the lake eventually emerging on the road near the information centre. We turned left, then right and walked uphill on the road and back to the church.
On our way home we stopped at The Blackbird Inn, Ponteland, a pub with a special meaning for me. My wife and I had our first date there in 1965! Nowadays it's a dinner date, then it was a drink and a chat. My generosity obviously paid dividends. The pub has changed considerably, more of an eatery now but it did have a selection of real ales. I chose Supermac, named for a seventies Newcastle footballing hero. Nothing special, the beer that is, so I had a pint of Blackbird Hand Crafted Ale
The Matrix MMXVII Z ^27
steps miles
NAK 27273 11.19
IPhone 22836 10.2
Dave's 3D 21595 10.58
"" USB 20946 10.57
"" NAK 20622 10.41
Sylvia's mother 21299 10.76
OUTDOOR GPS 9.87
Brian 9.87
John C. 10.5
* This refers to a Geordie joke. Copies of the joke are available free, with a SAE
