A weekend in Allendale
We spent the May Day Holiday weekend with our good friends Valerie and Kenn in a lovely cottage, Swallow’s Rest, on farmland near Allendale in Northumberland. Unlike the Easter Weekend a couple of weeks before, which had been warm and sunny, the weather was cold and damp – we even had sleet and hail on the Saturday. However, we got out and about and enjoyed ourselves as we always do – Valerie and I have a long history of friendship having started secondary school together, aged 11, and although we might have fallen out occasionally, I don’t think it’s happened since we were about 16!
Killhope Mine
On Saturday we crossed into County Durham to visit the North of England Lead Mining Museum at Killhope. (I was pronouncing this Kill-hope, but it seems to be Killup.) There are several buildings above ground to visit and you can also tour part of the old mine – wellies included, it’s ankle deep in water. If you take your own, make sure you check that they are watertight: Val discovered too late that hers leaked!
The working water wheel is spectacular.
Climbing above the wheel there’s a pleasant walk round the reservoirs with a couple of hides for wildlife watching.
One of these squirrels is real!
There’s also a small café and museum. I liked this story about the proddy mats!
Finally, the site has some pleasing sculptural features. We all enjoyed our day out here.
Allen Smelt Mill
There is much more lead mining heritage to see in this area. Just outside Allendale is Allen Mill which was a massive industrial operation, smelting lead from many mines and extracting silver from it. Now it is being restored and turned into a small business park. We visited twice: one of the units is an Indian restaurant where we ate on Friday night (the Spice Mill – excellent). We came back to look round properly on Sunday morning as we set out on a walk.
As you can see in the gallery above, this mill also has sculptures. The last image shows A conflict of interest by Dave Morris which incorporates the Christian cross and Muslim crescent with a selection of weapons. He intends this as an anti-war statement and plea for world peace. Amen to that!
East Allen walk
Sunday’s circular walk took us along the River East Allen and through some attractive farmland. If we look flummoxed in the first picture below – we were. These very feathery hens just refused to stop to be photographed!
The sheep were more cooperative.
We were intrigued at this system of bells to avoid flying golf balls. Ring once when you start to cross the field, and twice when you reach the other side. We could see no golf course – maybe the sheep liked to play?
Some of the farm houses were exceptionally pretty. This was a lovely walk all round, and a short detour took us to The Crown at Catton where we had a delicious Sunday lunch.
Allendale Town
Finally, as is our custom, we packed up on Monday morning, left the cottage clean and tidy, and headed out for breakfast. The Allendale Tearoom hit the spot, but we didn’t linger afterwards because it was so cold and wet. We made do with a quick walk round to see all the pubs we didn’t visit – our cottage was well out of town and no-one would have volunteered to drive.
Even a visit to the local Dalek couldn’t tempt us!
So we returned to our cars, with Val and Kenn heading south to Yorkshire and us heading north to Glasgow. We had intended to stop at some of the Roman Wall sites on the way home, but decided just to keep going. After all, we only had a couple of weeks before our next trip away – to the beautiful island of Islay. Coming soon!
The Glasgow Gallivanter 
That old mine looks very interesting. I can’t imagine why a lead mine would not want to be known as “Kill-hope.”
I noticed from your photo that your British squirrels have longer ears than our Canadian ones.
I showed Rob the photo of the Allen Dalek in the linked article and he immediately recognized it and was able to name it. In contrast, I had no idea what a Dalek was.
Jude
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He must be a Dr Who fan!
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What a fabulous weekend . . . . on the golf ball bell warning, what do you do if you walk the other way?!!
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Aha, they have thought of that! Same notice and a bell at each gate.
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ah so hopefully always one at start and two at the end, otherwise could get confusing!
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Yes!
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Sleet and hail! Not fair. Luckily, you were kept warm in the company of good friends. The Dalek gave me quite a start, You made me roar with your ‘one of these squirrels is real. And you know I love ‘Ring My Bell”
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No, sleet and hail wasn’t fair, but we have learned to be resilient! As you say, we had good company and that made the weekend just fine.
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Looks like a lovely weekend despite the weather. Isn’t it amazing how childhood friendships from so long ago stay strong and survive the years. Enjoyed all the lively scenery in your photos.
Peta
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Thanks Peta, it was a great weekend catching up with our old friends.
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At least they have some kind of system in place for golf balls! I’m always wary of getting beaned in the head when I walk through the golf course parts of Wimbledon Common (I sort of feel like they have no business having a snooty golf course on a “common” in the first place, but that’s another issue). Even though the hens wouldn’t cooperate, I can still tell they are handsome chickens!
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Rescued from spam! Everything looks normal so I can’t think why that happened. Good point about the golf balls, I always feel a bit wary round golf courses too. The chickens were exceptionally pretty ones but they led us a merry dance.
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Away again? 😊 Drop me a line when you’ve time – latest updates wiped out my contacts.
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Will do!
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What a shame the weather wasnt a little better but glad to see you don’t let it deter you too much.
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We have become skilled at that over the years, as I’m sure you can imagine!
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Yes, I can imagine!
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I’m sorry the weather wasn’t better, but I still think you are incredibly lucky to get to vacation with old friends!
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Yes, that was the main thing, and it was great!
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Fascinating. You go to the greatest places 🙂
Apparently I have ancestors who were lead miners. Not sure how many generations back, maybe four…
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Interesting! Whereabouts? Not Northumberland, I presume?
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I love the carved squirrel Picture. It is very different from those which we have in Finland, because we have generally carved bear sculptures.
Have a wonderful day!
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We sometimes see carved bears here too (though not in the expectation of finding any real ones)!
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We don’t let British weather dampen our spirits, do we? 🙂 🙂 Loved the proddy mat story! Probably true, too 🙂
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We’d be permanently down if we did! I suspect it might be a true story too, poor man!
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Killhope is such a depressing but appropriate name for a mine! Maybe no golf course, just a crofter who likes to whack balls from the back stoop. Lovely pictures and fun stories – yours and the plaque-writer’s.
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I’m not surprised they pronounce it Killup – sounds a lot better!
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What a perfect weekend, with all the best inclusions – great friends, excellent food, good walking and interesting places to visit. I wonder if that poor sick man keeled over completely when he found out his wife had cut up all his clothing. 🙂
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Perfect apart from the weather, but you can’t have everything!
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Poor weather is a good excuse to stay inside and eat cake!
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One of the great things about this cottage was the tray of home baking on arrival. Didn’t last long!
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Looks a cracking place with plenty to do- just as well given the weather. Always nice to catch up with old friends.
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Yes, another place where I wonder why we don’t visit more often!
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Some very interesting sculptures.
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Yes, I always like coming across sculptures in unexpected places.
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Ooh, that farmhouse is handsome! We visited Allendale, but I don’t recall that mill complex which looks very interesting. I do remember seeing an advert for Blue Roan Cocker Spaniels and wanting one! We visited the Garden Station café and had a lovely walk around there which I think is not so far from Allendale. Lovely region.
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The mill is not on the main route in and out of Allendale so you’d probably miss it if you weren’t specifically looking for it. The path took you right through the garden of that first farmhouse! The owners were out gardening and seemed unfazed but I don’t think I would be awfully keen on that.
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Mmm… when we bought this house a public footpath was still shown as going through our garden (in fact our conservatory)! It had been moved but never formally stamped by the council. We made sure it was done before we parted with any money!
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I should think not! Either that or you could have done a side line in teas in the conservatory …
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At first glance I thought the title was A weekend in Adelaide – would have benn warmer there!
That museum looks interesting. Just the sort of place I like
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Much warmer! Though a tad far to go for the weekend …
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😉
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Sounds like a good trip, shame the weather wasn’t that good. We passed the mine and Allendale last week on our North East road trip but the weather was so bad we didn’t stop. Next time hopefully.
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Sounds as though your weather was worse than ours!
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The first picture reminds me of the film “How Green Was My Valley.” This looks like it would be a very interesting walk even though it was cold. The woman was a bit too practical regarding her husband…not sure it was a Happily Ever After kind of marriage. The town must have been a setting for Dr. Who. Love the walks
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Yes, I think the mine would be very similar. The woman was certainly very premature in getting rid of her husband’s clothes!
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I love these (open air) museums.
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So do I! I’d never heard of this one. Ankle deep in water was cold, mind you, even though I wasn’t the one with leaky wellies.
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Hmmm, that might spoil the fun – somewhat. ;D
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I continue to be so impressed and a wee bit envious about the lovely walks and incredible scenery in your part of the world. Even with less than stellar weather, everything looks so beautiful. And… pubs! The story about the rag rugs was so funny! Poor man 😁
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Thanks Janis. I don’t expect much from the weather, which means I’m not usually disappointed! Poor man indeed, he must have felt very unloved …
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Hi Anabel – it’s been so cold … but it’s been colder over the years – covered in snow!! !869, 1791 and 1749 … That museum looks quite delightful – what a gorgeous looking area … pity about the weather. Lovely chickens … fun – delightful post – cheers Hilary
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Oh well, at least we haven’t had snow! The museum was excellent, I’d like to go back and explore more of the lead mining heritage.
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Sleet and hail in June – yikes! I had forgotten what summer is like in the UK 🙂
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Well, to be fair, that was May! However, we aren’t exactly having a “flaming June” either …
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Hi. Maybe the landowner practiced hitting golf balls on his meadows. That’s the only reason I can think of for that sign.
Neil
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Maybe! Or perhaps he just liked a laugh at all the daft walkers …
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I love the sculpture, A Conflict of Interest. It’s a great commentary in these hate-filled days. Your walk looks lovely along the East Allen River, and the Proddy Mat story is quite funny. 🙂
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It’s a very pretty part of England. I thought the sculpture was very apposite too, and as for the mat – funny, yes, but I’m not sure the husband would have agreed!
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I don’t think the husband would have agreed at all. 🙂
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I too like the story about the rag mats. I’d never really given them much thought before until I visited a ‘pioneer’ village a number of years ago and saw one in the making. It’s interesting how everything old is new again. What was once a necessity out of financial limitation is now being embraced again out of environmental necessity.
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Reuse and recycle – definitely!
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My big challenge right now is reducing plastics. There is still so much room for improvement.
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I try hard with that too, but it’s very difficult to avoid plastic sometimes and although recycling can give a small glow of satisfaction, I don’t have a huge amount of confidence in the system.
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Once I discovered that our recycling efforts were really nothing more than a giant pacifier, I too lost confidence. Not using plastics whenever possible is a much better option for me now.
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