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ENGLAND 2000
Day 9
Cotherstone, Durham, England
Friday
May 12, 2000
Sun! Glorious Sun! Aren't we the lucky ones? It looks to be a wonderful day. We have no plans...just to go where we wish, at our own pace. I had noticed on a map that we were not too far down the road from the old home of Hannah Hauxwell! And for those of you who do not know who Hannah Hauxwell is, here is a brief web page which tells about her and her story.
I'd first seen a BBC show called "Too Long A Winter" back in 1989 while visiting Yorkshire...I was enthralled with her and she quickly became my hero! We got her books as they were published and read them all with relish! She lived in a remote area of Baldersdale, which is several miles from our cottage. She now resides in a small cottage in the village of Cotherstone but we'll see that a little later. For now we were on our way to Low Birk Hat, Hannah's old homestead where she grew up and lived all her life until a few years after she was "discovered" and made famous all over the world!
For some really interesting reading about this area of England, CLICK HERE for a lovely personal description of life in Baldersdale - click on the Dowthwaite link.
We drove to the end of the Baldersdale Reservoir so I could get a good picture looking back at where Hannah used to live. There are new residents there now, and the road down to her house is private I imagine, so we looked on from afar...Paul didn't want to get out, so I got a picture of Paul sitting in our purple Mercedes! One last look at Hannah's former home before leaving this lovely dale. Just about in the center of the photo, on the left side of the reservoir, was Hannah's house, in amongst that clump of trees. I can certainly now see why Hannah was so reluctant to leave this place...it is perfectly wonderful here!
We took some of the tiny back roads... in fact these roads were so tiny that we ran across gates that needed to be opened and shut - Paul did not feel comfortable going down these roads so we backtracked and found ourselves on the main road toward Middleton-In-Teesdale. From there we decided we'd head up toward a town called Stanhope, which was up across the Durham moors - this should be an interesting ride!
It looks like it's just you, me, and the sheep, Paul! This is right where I love to be... up where civilization has ceased to exist, and we are one with nature! We climb high into the moors - oh, this must be lovely in the Fall, when the now-brown coloured heather has turned a wonderful purple. After about an hour of this perfection, we come down out of the moors into Stanhope. It's like a fairy tale to come out of the hills and find an oasis like this - here we are getting closer to the village of Stanhope. We drove into town and found the most wonderful car park you ever saw! This is next to the car park and is called The Dales Garden Center, and there were quaint little shops next to these gardens and a cafe where we would eventually stop for lunch. The plantings here were incredible - there were what seemed like hundreds of blooming scotch broom plants - one of my favourite plants. There were flowering trees all around us, and the scent that filled the air was heavenly! I had to take some photos of this Garden of Eden before getting started on our walk through the village. We came upon a church that was having some roof work done - Paul always points out to me roof work when he sees it - it must be a "guy" thing!
On the main street near the church there was one lovely sight after another. This is looking down the high street in Stanhope. As we strolled along the sidewalk, doing a little window shopping, I spotted this alleyway with today's wash hanging out to dry strung across it. This puzzled me - because it looked for all the world as if this tiny street was meant for vehicles... now what if someone wanted to go up this street? I guess you'd have to duck! And back along the sidewalk, there was a prettily decorated doorstep that I just could not resist capturing for you! No matter how small a garden people in England may have, they make the most of what is available to them! Every little piece of property seems to be just right!
We found a very nice little lunch cafe and went in and had some eats...I had tea, Paul had the soup-of-the-day which is always a good bet. We also stopped in a tiny little gift shop / bakery and bought a couple of interesting looking pasteries to take home for dessert tonight. Mine was a cheese filled pastry, and Paul got a raspberry filled one. All in all this was an excellent choice of destinations, and a very nice day out for us.
We drove back the same route we came on, and stopped in Middleton-In-Teesdale to roam around and go into a couple of shops. We found a tiny gift shop that had lovely fudge, and preserves, and really wonderful ice cream cones! Paul broke down and got a Rum Raisin ice cream cone and I stopped into another little craft shop and got a ceramic sable and white collie dog to add to my fledgling collection of collie dogs!
We arrived back home at Barn Cottage by around 4 and just hung out, reading, writing postcards, watching telly, until suppertime. We had steak for supper and carrots with new potatoes and our Stanhope "puddings".
I have to say the weather was certainly very kind to us on our last day in Cotherstone. Tomorrow it's off to the Lakes for the second half of our holiday adventures!
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