Heritage Open Days

[Guest mrsvic]

What excitement there has been in the past week, eh?

Wednesday, the world nearly ends.

Friday, men on bikes, and more on motorcycles visit the town.

The weekend sees some places open their doors to the public and for free!!

So did any of you take advantage of the cultural high jinks? Let's have a natter about where we've been and what we've seen...

[Guest mrsvic]

I'll start with Newcastle Keep, visited by MrVic and I on Saturday... full of re-enactors of a medieval kind, making bows, weaving and apothecary like it was going out of fashion! We had a great talk from a guy about 15th Century doctoring and learned how to plate things in gold! The castle itself was on top form, with a great rooftop terrace providing a view of the tyne bridge, sage, baltic and protesting football supporters hanging round instead of going to the match.

There were paranormal activity folk there, possibly trying to tell folk about ghosts, but really just looking like goths, so we avoided them... they may have been of interest to some but not us.

Outside of the keep itself is the 'Black Gate' which is a canny gatehouse with a 18th century restoration project at the back... worth a look too if you're at the castle... or if you're tottering back from the Bridge Hotel on a night out.

Sunday was spent visiting Bothal Church... a fine example of a 700 year old church, with some Anglo Saxon stonework there too! A nice cup of tea was served, along with a heavenly fairy cake. A craft fair filled the pews and a vicar was on hand to give out information to the laymen. Music was performed by a lovely accordian player and was of a Northumbrian ilk. There was also a tour of the castle grounds, but it looked a bit busy, so we set off for another sight!:

Blyth Links was the venue for yet another Medieval re-enactment with tents set up and plays being performed. The WWII lot were there too, with a big gun and maybe even a tank... I can't remember as I was too engrossed in looking at the vintage busses which were also on site! Excellent! There seemed to be an 'archeology day' on in the visitor centre, but on further investigation there was a charva on the door who laughed at my shoes, so we didn't bother...

Off now to Seaton Deleval Hall... Which had the grounds advertised on the H.O.D website, but had a huge A4 laminated sign saying it was not when we got there. The National Trust were begging for money to save it down at Blyth, they weren't getting any from us after that.

We tee-ed off for a game of mini-golf down at Tynemouth... not really a heritage open event and not free either, but somewhere open after 4pm. On the other side of the roundabout from the Sea Life place and opposite the Toy Museum, the heritage of nation shone through as our Dinosaur forefathers entertained us with water related antics for the whole 18 holes! Terrific!

What an adventure, eh?! And really nice to see a load of people out enjoying themselves, like at Bedlington's cycle-event on Friday... Wouldn't it be nice if weekends were like that all the time?