Quiet Heroes

Sometimes I feel inspired to write posts on this 'ere blog, but it's usually when I'm miles away, perhaps driving to work, perhaps sitting in the cinema, even while shopping... always when my mind is wandering as it so often does. Today I've decided to pop a quick post up because I'm actually sat sitting here at my PC at the right moment.

I've just been reading an article about Lockerbie on my local newspaper's website. It's the 20th anniversary this weekend, and because I now work in the town it's rising up in my consciousness as I'm sure it is with everyone else who remembers it.

My memories: I was 18 - I'd just come home from my boyfriends on my bike, on a cold dark evening. I thought I would be in trouble for getting home late... I was called into the living room and remember very vividly standing there in my reflective sash and waterproofs, steamy hot from both the bikeride and the heated room, watching the news open-mouthed. At this stage the news reports were saying it was probably two fighter jets which had collided; a fair assumption as we have so many training flights over the area. So we settled in for the night and watched all the reports until (as with most of these occasions) the news teams changed their story, then ran out of things to say, the police had clammed up, things were repeating themselves and so, we all went to bed.

I don't really remember anything else in detail, we were after all miles away, and most of the conversations at work revolved around the stories of sandwiches being donated by the company to feed the searchparty members, and the idea that the bomb maybe went off right above our heads, how we were lucky to have escaped, and then - well - then it was Christmas. We got on with our lives, subdued but pretty damned normal. This was a time in my life when venturing to Lockerbie had associations with teenage ice-skating trips with the Girl Guides; of course the fact the ice rink was used as a mortuary was amazing to me (I pass it almost every day; I think of this fact every single time).

I realise some of my workmates might read this post, and hope they don't mind. I realise they all have stories and none talk openly, and I never ask. Sometimes it is hinted at, and there are plenty of legacies remaining both emotional and financial but at the end of the day they are normal folk in a normal wee Scottish toon, which is dank in the winter and pretty in the summer, complete with school kids outside eating chips in their lunchbreaks and old ladies rushing the Pelican crossing past the boarded-up old shops caused by the obligatory Tesco takeover... but it's always a busy main street as it's not too far from the motorway, and handy for the curious traveller taking a slight detour.

There's always a sense of vague sadness to the place but tomorrow night we will be ignoring all this and attending the company Christmas party, held at a large local hotel and trying not to think of the rescue teams, families and volunteers which probably stayed there during the searches.... or is this just me, I dunno. I doubt we'll talk about it, though.

x

Ruthwell - a novelletto

I'm endlessly fascinated by gravestones. They are small novels in themselves and all the better for being true biographies; although exceedingly brief, they are written with love and as much accuracy as those who left behind could bare to reveal.

What a story this family had:

In Memory of Christopher McLean, Mariner, who died in Annan 25th Nov. 1831 Aged 29 years. Also James & James his children who died in infancy. Also his son,
William McLean, Mariner, who died at Sea on the 20th June 1842, aged 16 years.
His Body was committed to a Watery Grave Latitude 49N Longitude 21W

Though in the Seamy Body ly,

Mong many of our Fleet,

Ere long we will Set Sail again,

Our Admiral Christ to meet.

Also Janet Lang, Widow of the above Christopher McLean who died at Annan 30th
April 1887, aged 90 years .

(I think the co-ordinates lie somewhere in the mid-Atlantic)

Ruthwell gravestone
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

Seasons, Skylines and Stone Circles

We spent an interesting day at Tullie House on Saturday, taking part in what was billed as a "day-school" but was essentially a series on lectures on a subject we love. The title "Much more than Stone Axes" was obviously dreamt up by someone who thought we wouldn't want to know about axes (we did, really) so we were sad to hear the stone axe man had cancelled.

Firstly, Aaron Watson gave an animated talk about stone circles - what they are (they're not all the same!) and why they might be where they are. The most interesting bit for me was where he showed a series of images taken as he climbed a Lakeland fell, and as he became more elevated the distant Mull of Galloway seemed to rise up out of the Solway. This we know now is as a result of the perspective changing to account for the curvature of the Earth; but what must prehistoric people made of it? Did they think that mountains had special powers because they called up entire other mountains out of the sea? And what about the fact that it can be sunny and warm down at low levels but as you climb upwards, the air gets colder and there even might be snow on the peaks? Did they think they were travelling through seasons, through time?

Next there was a lecture by Kate Sharp about prehistoric rock art, a subject we are very familiar with and even so because some of B's images were to be used in the presentation! There were a few sites I hadn't seen before though, and I'd like to check out, especially one reused as a gatepost which looked great. B had to stand up and take a bow for his photos ...

The lunch came next; carrot soup and plates of sarnies, too many sarnies and no cake! shocking. I had to go buy a brownie.

B placed some of his business cards on the top table and they all went almost immediately - each a little artwork all of its own. Some people must have been collecting the set...

The talk after lunch was about fieldwalking in the Eden Valley. This was fabulously interesting to me and made me amazed to think this had been going on so near to us and we didn't know. They had found loads of flinty tools and arrowheads; just imagine being the person to find those - we might do some next year, it sounds amazing.

Finally, the last lecture was about the Brampton Lunula, an item we'd seen pictures of before in a previous talk about Prehistoric Bling! It was a gold fragment first thought to be a gold spoon but soon identified as a lunula, the true purpose of which is unknown but it's shaped like a necklace so is often portrayed as such.

So afterwards some delegates took advantage of the offer of free entry into the museum - something we are already entitles to as locals, so we headed home, our minds buzzing.

England's Rock Art - the aftermath

We're slightly hacked off today because some of B's images, with permission granted for use in the booklet and website, have been used by various places to report the story without proper credit given.

For instance:
BBC blog
Guardian slideshow
Guardian blog

Grrrr!!!

One of the best photos, this one of Kettley Crag, is being used in quite a few places. It's a fantastic shot, and reminds me of the exact day it was taken. I still laugh when I think of the farmer's cursing.

Here's a close-up of the poppy field (well OK the closest I could get to with my zoom, thanks again to the farmer)



Here's a photo of the berries on the tree I was hiding behind while listening to the cursing:



And here is a candid photo of B at the site!



What more can I say? Just for now, nothing. But we will be having words with others.

England's Rock Art - the website launch

Image154
Originally uploaded by pebblesfromheaven

We were invited to attend the launch of a website today - England's Rock Art

B took the photos used for the scrolling images on the front page, and they were also used for the front cover of the extremely flashy-looking brochure!

It was a great day where the volunteer team demonstrated the survey techniques, displaying models which could be viewed best wearing 3-D specs!!!!

Whithorn Bead Pendant

Whithorn Bead Pendant
Originally uploaded by pinkpebbleperson

We visited Whithorn on Easter Sunday. There were lots of visitors there enjoying the view or the history ... I was doing this too of course but I was strangely drawn to the pebbles on the beach ...

I think this one is some sort of mudstone. There are some glints of quartz in the brown but it needed brightened up.

I used some terracotta beads from a necklace I bought in Lockerbie charity shop, with peyote stitching. I was going to add some embellishments but after wearing it on a simple bit of leather I can say that it does feel finished, and very nice the play with ;-)

Gretna Green - Swarming Starlings!

On my way home from work I come down the southern-most stretch of the A74 past Gretna. From there you can get wonderful views across the Solway to the Lake District Fells, at this time of year it's just sunset when I'm on that stretch and there have been some incredible pinky skies during this recent clear weather, tonight included.

While obviously keeping my attention completely on the road, and the skies, I am also watching out for those black swarms sometimes lurking above trees and fields in that area ... swarthy alien-like shapes created against the darkening skies... they are of course huge flocks of starlings!

Tonight I saw an amazing display. I came off the motorway at the tourist trap junction and headed slightly back north, just near the new Smiths hotel. There were already about 3 cars and two minibuses parked on the side of the road, their passengers all out standing by the fence watching the unbelievable swooping and dancing. I stood there watching until they all decided en masse to land somewhere towards the back of the field and the one next to it.

Why? How? Well one's thing for sure - it turns out that starlings are good at something, and are not just those noisy leather-jacket mobs that inhabit city centre trees just waiting for unsuspecting passers-by...

I'm gonna try to remember my camera tomorrow.


Here's a video taken last month

Check this web-page out: this was today!

Swinging in the new job

Yeah, so it's day two and I still feel a complete spare part. It's starting to remind me vividly of the two days work experience I spent at Robert Ferguson's Printers in December 1986. I filled most of the time spinning on a wonderfully free-moving spinny lab chair, but also managed to get a tour around one of the last Victorian factories left in Carlisle. It was worth it for that. I watched the huge fabric-printing machines and visited the design room and peeked inside the director's office, all this impressed my Mam no end because she worked there as a telephonist in the 1960's and was amazed it was all still there for me to see. It's been converted into flats now.

I suppose should make the most of this quiet time, while I can still go home at 5pm without feeling guilty.

Perfect day out = two bits of top class rock art, a castle and a beach

We went across to Northumberland again yesterday, to allow B to try out more photography techniques, and because we have to go back there every once in a while cos it's the law. I love it over there - and it was great to see those pink roads again.

We arrived at Chatton Park first, and climbed the small hill past the old shallow quarry, to the rock art located in surely the most spectacular positions in the UK. The view opens directly over the pale glittery sandstone surfaces towards the outline of the Cheviots, across the Till valley inbetween. It's an extremely memorable sight, and one which I always treasure.

It was very windy up there today but at least the sun was trying to get out, the weather on its last chance before autumn set in properly. We continued down the other side of the hill to Kettley Crag, and one of my favourite pieces of prehistoric rock art anywhere.

After a while, my eyes were drawn down to a nearby red field, which seemed to have poppies growing in it - and I felt the urge to get a closer look. It would certainly make a potentially smart photo. Only one problem - there was a farmer-type walking the fields, and I wasn't sure if he'd let me onto the land. After a while I decided to see how close I could get without crossing the boundary. As I approached, I could hear him shouting and cursing at the broken fence (proper c-word and everything, mind!). I was behind a tree at this moment, trying not to laugh out loud. He was taking all his frustrations out on this poor inanimate object and as I turned heel without him seeing me, he cracked on the chainsaw and let rip on the fence. Maybe the poppy question wouldn't have gone down very well after all...

On my return I occupied myself with puzzle and camera until B was ready to move on. We hauled ourselves eventually back up the hill and down again towards the car, and drove onwards to Bamburgh.

The first view of Bamburgh Castle along the road from Belford is always wonderful. The village was really busy - lots of tourist types (ahem) making the most of the good weather. It was between lunch and tea time so we couldn't visit our preferred cafe-bar so visited the Copper Kettle instead, which was fine. After a couple of gifty shoppies we continued on to the church, where Grace Darling is famously buried. Here there are some rather smart old gravestones there but sadly a lot of them have been completely sandblasted to bare rock by the unforgiving sea winds. Discovered that the Grace Darling Museum opposite the church is being completely rebuilt with lottery money - it used to be housed in what felt like an old garage!

We took a good look at the church and I got some good photos of the plants and insects. Then, back to the car and to the little carpark near the beach. The plan was to hang around until sunset to get some great skies, but there was some great people- and dog-watching to be done first. As the sun lowered it became clear that the sky wasn't going to be as spectacular as promised so we made do with the shots we had and headed off back home.

Meanwhile we got some great shots of the beach and the dogs etc, here are mine - enjoy!

Fylingdales and Goathland - Rock Art Walk

Today we drove down to the Robin Hood's Bay area, to meet up with the NEWalks group who'd organised a trip there today.

We were there primarily to see the rock art panels, many of which have recently been rediscovered after a fire cleared most of the heather in 2003. Our guide was Graeme Chappell, who's spent many years wandering the moors in Yorkshire looking down at his feet!

After setting off intending to visit the beach at RHB and failing miserably, we arrived just in time to set off across the grassy moor. It's grassy now, but used to be a few feet thick in heather and peat, all of this was burnt off in the fire. The grass was sown in order to prevent what little soil was left being blown away as dust - but in many places the heather is already recovering.

After the fire, there were many cairns and features visible which are already started to be hidden again. Read some more about the fire here.

We walked at a leisurely pace, enough time for everyone to see some decent panels - and quite a few of the smaller rocks inbetween had carvings, often individual cups (someone decided that people who didn't bother with these were to be known as Cup Snobs!)

We did Stoupe Brow first, and headed south towards Fylingdales proper. There were plenty of stones to see, although some of them were sadly quite faded now.

After much wandering and wondering we ended up visiting Judith, so named after a misheard conversation about camera techniques! She's a cracker.



We enjoyed some more moor-scrambling and headed off over to a standing stone, and the place where a lot of our party headed home. We had one more pilgrimage to a small stone resembling either a chewed toffee or oyster shell, strangely unlike anything else in the area and very interesting...



Then a walk up towards the communications mast and the carpark, passing areas which had not been touched by the fire, illustrating what the depth of the heather had been before (approx 5 feet in some places).

We drove next to see some sites at Allan Tofts, but although some cairns were visible, the bracken was very high in some places so we didn't see as much as we'd hoped. Another excuse to return!

Gave up on the idea of chips (next time!) and headed home into the sunset.

Rock Art Hunt - St John Lee, Corbridge Roman Site and Wallington

Yesterday we ventured out to find three pieces of Rock Art in three very different and unusual settings.

The first was to be found just inside the door of the parish church of St. John of Beverley, St. John Lee, near Hexham in Northumberland. The church is easy to find, just off the roundabout on the main A69 road.

The outside of the church is quite plain and Victorian in style, although its origins are in the 14th century. There are some carved gargoyles, a war memorial, and pretty standardised gravestones towards the front. So far, so normal. Inside however, the ceiling has some impressive wooden carved features and its obvious that there has been some serious money poured into it over the last 150 years. One of the most interesting things to me was the marble-carved tomb of a dead Great War soldier, his head lying on a saddle and his hat at his feet. The stained glass windows were OK, again mostly dedicated as memorials, from the Victorian era to the 1940's. I learned all about hatchments, heraldic wooden plaques made in memory of the dead, while waiting patiently for B to take photographs of the rock art!

Outside, we explored the churchyard in search of possible older gravestones, because there must be some if the place is so much older than the architecture... sure enough, I quickly found some old 18th century gravestones, placed against the wall of the church; probably unlikely to be in their original position. My eye was drawn to one for Robert Forester, complete with winged and wigged angel. The graveyard was quite overgrown and my explorations were hampered by possible bare ankle / nettle contact!

Then - bingo! "Memento Mori" (Remember you must die) - a gorgeous stone with skull and crossbones (the skull had a tooth missing)- I set B on the case immediately with tripod and flash to get the best from it. The other side of the stone was carved with wonderful 18thC lettering, as follows:

In memory
of Robert dixon
who died the 26th
may 1761 aged 32
Confide not reader in thy
youth or strength
But more than both thy
present moment prize
Graves here surround the
of each breadth and length
And thou may be perhaps
the next that dies

I loved this!

There was quite a few more similar-aged stones, most had the angel (with various hairstyles) and sometimes egg-timers, snakes eating their own tails, bones and books - all symbols of course representing either everlasting life, or death.

After we left here we drove the short distance to Corbridge Roman site - again just off the A69/A68 and well sign-posted (as with all things Roman around here). We flashed our English Heritage members cards and onwards, to find the Rock Art boulder sat on a wall here.

The site is quite impressive - bigger than I was expecting. The squared grid layout undulates pleasantly, thanks to subsidence into an earlier fort! (I thought this may have been iron-aged but apparently it was a turfed Roman affair). Again, B took pics of the single rock while I wandered about.

The weather was starting too a little bit ropey and during our drive to Wallington, the were a few spits but nothing to get wet about. We'd been to Wallington before, a couple of years ago before I started this blog.

We had a poke about the farm shop and had a cuppa and scone, then headed down to the walled garden. The interior of the house will have to wait to another visit; we'd been before and it would be closed by the time we got back up hill anyway.

We followed the path down the eastern side of the site, across the stepping stones and past the fat couple fondling on the riverbank, up through the trees and back towards the road. The bridge was our target - there is a small "portable" rock art boulder concreted into the inside of the bridge's legs - rendering it not portable anymore. We missed it the first time so crossed over and no it wasn't there - started to panic but found it when returning to the first, southern side of the river.

B took some pics while I listened to the cars honking their various horns (there's a roadsign which commands it!) and watched a strange bob-tailed yellow-blobbed bird pecking amongst the reeds (since identified as a grey wagtail)

Then, back up the hill to the car, stopping to take pics of the Griffin Heads (it's the law).

On the way home, saw a hot air balloon taking off at Chollerford, before following the Hadrian's Wall route towards home.

B's photos of St Johns Lee on Flickr

Overhead view of St Johns Lee on googlemaps

St John's Lee Rock Art on themodernantiquarian

Beckinsall Archive details for St John Lee Rock Art

St John Lee website

Corbridge Roman Site overhead view on googlemaps

Corbridge Roman Site on English Heritage site

Wallington overhead view on googlemaps

Wallington National Trust site


St Johns Lee:




















Corbridge Roman Site:






Wallington:

Wreay church and Cockermouth & Maryport briefly

We set off in the car yesterday following our noses (or rather my random decision-making).

So we ended up first wandering to Wreay (pronounced "Rear"), which is only about 3 minutes from junction 42 of the M6. I'd been before - the church here is famous - but last time I came I didn't even get out of the car, no idea why (I'm daft like that).

I'd heard some of the story of the church - that it was designed and built by a Victorian woman (Sarah Losh) and is a favourite of people who are generally known to have respectable architectural opinions. It's often mentioned in the same breath as the famous Rosslyn Chapel, for instance, as being a building full of great craftsmanship and delights.

So this time we got out of the car. As soon as I focussed my eyes on the carvings around the door, I knew I was in love!

After exploring the carvings outside, we tried the doors (complete with arrow insets) and yay! it was open... The first things that greet you are two marble pinecones either side of the aisle. To the right is a fabulously-carved marble font with a mirrored pool (supposedly carved by Sarah herself). There is the usual church visitor paraphernalia, plus postcards and leaflets outlining the history. The pews are a bit boring but the windows were fab, with little interesting bits of glass.

The design of the church is apparently based on places Sarah saw on her visits to Italy during her Grand Tour. The layout is similar to a Roman basilica, ie a rectangular building with an apse (round bit). The numbers of columns and windows are significant, there are lots of references to nature including passion flowers, lillies and fossil stencils in the eastern apse windows. The lectern is made to look like a tree, while the birds sitting either side of the apse are sitting on real bog oak stumps. Outside, there are some lovely gravestones with oyster shells and pine branches, and a large cross based on the Bewcastle Cross.

Sarah built the church in memory of her sister, which was nice. The thing to bear in mind here is that she showed incredible talent and foresight, building what is really an Arts & Crafts-syle building about 20-40 years before everyone else.

Carvings of pinecones and palms are to be seen everywhere, as a reference to a family friend who sent seeds home from abroad just before he died - but there is also an overall theme of resurrection and growth.

We spent ages taking photographs, being briefly interrupted by some people who had been for Sunday lunch at the pub nearby and decided to stop. They too were locals who didn't even know this place was here! We signed the book on the way out, after reading it of course (full of comments from people visiting it after seeing it on telly)

For more information about the church, see the links at the bottom of the page. Otherwise, enjoy the photographs...

We then headed for Cockermouth, intending to revisit the great little cafe we'd been to a few weeks ago only to find it shut. In fact today, Cockermouth was shut. (Note to self - go on a Saturday)

So Maryport was next, to visit the Senhouse Museum as it holds some prehistoric rock art carvings as well as having Roman stuff. We were disappointed here too, because the small portable stones we were looking for were hidden behind screens, nailed in place to display information about (ironically) the spread of the empire ... typical!

There were some paragliders flying above the cliffs here, looking very relaxed floating about on the soundwaves sent upwards from the jazz festival going on below. It was a very clear day, and when I climbed the reconstructed watchtower I could see much of the Solway Firth, and over to the Isle of Man.

B's Wreay photos on Flickr

B's Paragliding photos on Flickr

St Mary's, Wreay on VisitCumbria.com

St Mary's official website

Songs of Praise

Birds eye view on googlemaps