NORTH - SOUTH - EAST - WEST - UMBERLAND

North, South East West, weve been everywhere man, even the Scotswood Road and along the River Tyne with it's new millenium bridge

All the lads and lasses there

They all had smilin' faces

Gannin along the Scotswood Road

To see the Blaydon races

Millenium footbridge opening to let ships through

After continually and repeatedly getting lost in Cheshire we decided to hire a guide in Umberland, and who better than Lord Fraser of Hexham. Bill as he is known to his friends took us on his highly reputed tours to Hadrians Wall, Holy Island and Cragside.

Friday 7th September we rambled along Hadrians wall. Hadrian was a rather obsessive Italian who had a passion for building walls. About 2000 years before Bill and Lady Fraser moved to Hexham, the region was managed for four hundred years by blokes in Roman Sandals who chose to live in Forts positioned every mile along the wall. The tree featuring in the following photograph is known as Kevin's tree because it apears in the Kevin Costner film Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.

About 500 years later a few miles up the road near the Farne Islands a guy called Aiden was paid by the local top hencho to bring Christianity to the Geordies. Aidan brought in a scribe called St Cuthbert who used a rather slow laptop to write an early blog, later called a bible. These intellectuals chose to live on Lindisfarne, one of the Farne Islands, which can be accessed only at low tide across a cause way. The island is also known as Holy Island because of its important status in the development of Christianity in Great Britain and because of the very tasty strawberries and peas that you can buy on the road into the island. On Saturday 8th September we visited Holy Island and bought a packet of holy strawberries and peas. However, these were out-shone by the fish and chips bought in a famous Umbrian sea side resort of Seahouses. See photo and note pot of tea, sliced bread and tablecloth.

Only 1300 years later in 1810, George Armstrong was born just a few miles South of Holy Island. He built the earliest hydraulic cranes, military guns, military ships, many for the Japanese Navy , and a range of aircraft in association with Joseph Whitworth . He was also famous for having the first house in the world to have electric lights. On Sunday 9th September we visited his house called Craghouse with Lord and Lady Fraser. Our names were added to an elite list of distinguished visitors including the Shah of Persia, the Prime Minister of Japan, and King Edward The Seventh. Lord and Lady Fraser known as (.) or Dorothy bought us an ice cream to commemorate the occasion.

The following is a photo of the famous Australian visitors.