LEJOG Day 58: Slaggyford to Once Brewed

Weather: Sunny and warm, with cool breeze; perfect!

Distance covered today: 22.9km (14.2mi)

Last night's B&B: Stonecraft (£35)

Cumulative distance: 1158.9km (720.1mi)/ % Complete: 60.6%

GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 58 (click!)

Today dawned bright and sunny and it just got better and better. With the warm sun on my back and the gentlest of breezes just ruffling my hair, I felt on top of the world! It’s hard not to be in a good mood on a day like this, and everyone I met was just smiling! Last night had been a bit of a torment, because my very poor connection meant that it took me almost eight hours to deal with email, blog, clothes and preparations for the morning. I finally got to bed after midnight, quite knackered!

All that was forgotten this morning, especially as I had another change of plan based on local advice. Last night, last thing, I had decided that I would shorten today’s route by deviating from the Pennine Way and taking to the roads. A short discussion with my host, a knowledgeable local farmer, persuaded me that it would be far better to take the disused railway track of the South Tyneside Railway as a means of getting to Haltwhistle, an intended stop on my route. This was an inspired choice! Walking down that beautiful track, alternating between sunny patches and deep, shady wood, looking at all the wild flowers and listening to the cacophony of birdsong as they all objected to my presence; it was all just magic. Because of the heat, I was wearing light clothing, and the breeze was blowing through it, tingling my senses and transporting me to another realm. All I could hear was the birds singing their hearts out and the rhythmical crunch of my footsteps and webbing. And for a couple of hours, I had this all to myself!

To cap it all, I suddenly came across the Lambley Viaduct, a bridge that I had never even heard of, yet a structure of extraordinary grace and power. I was amused to find a sign from Ordnance Survey, apologising for the fact that their maps are wrong! The path ingeniously dips under the viaduct and then circles round and rises to cross it; something the map-makers obviously missed! But it is an inspired route, showing this amazing nineteenth century structure in all its majesty. The farmer had told me that I was missing a very ordinary section of the Pennine Way, with poor going underfoot and not much of a view, and what is more, my route was shorter than the official Way. I was transfixed!!  From then on, the path got busier with all sorts of locals out to take the sun and I had a number of interesting conversations, until I finally reached the town of Haltwhistle.

The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway and the spur line down to Alston were typical nineteenth century railways stimulated by the mining industry in the geologically interesting lands of the Whin Sill, where Galena (lead ore) was a vital export for many years.  I thought that this must have something to do with the name “Haltwhistle” which lies at the junction of the spur and the main line. How naïve!! I should have known that everything in this ancient land dates back far further and the construction of the railways is a very recent occurrence. In fact the name comes from “Haut Whysile” which means “The high watch between two rivers” and reflects the town’s long history of being a border town between the Scots and the English. The last public execution took place in 1597, when a young local girl chose to marry a Scotsman. The couple were allegedly hanged, it being decreed that “it is March treason for a Borderer, man or woman, to intermarry with a Scots borderer.”

Also, somewhat to my chagrin, I discovered a hotel and subsequently a plaque in the middle of the market square, claiming that Haltwhistle is the “Centre of Britain”. Given that I have completed about 60% of my journey, this could have been a something of a setback! In fact, a quick scrutiny of the map suggests that this claim is not based on a LEJOG perspective, though the basis of the claim certainly isn’t clear to me!  I discussed the problem with Deidre, a Dubliner running a crafts and curiosity shop in the building with the claim on its wall. She wasn’t much help, and was far more interested in what I was up to!  In the wonderful way of the Irish, she was highly critical of my venture without ever giving insult, because poor Veronica has been left to fend for herself all alone at home. “To be sure,” she said “she must be a most accommodating woman! What have you done to deserve her?” I recounted my virtues, which were apparently far from convincing and then offered the clincher that I had just heard that there was a good chance that she would be coming up to visit me again soon. “Really?” said Deidre, “She’ll be in with the lawyers this morning, then, won’t she? She’ll be comin’ up here with the divorce papers, surely be to goodness!”, and her laughter tinkled across the shop! She then tried to flog her holiday home in County Mayo to me, but I said that I had yet to gain confidence in the Irish property market, which led to much additional mutual mirth.

Armed with these agreeable experiences, I changed my plans yet again. I had previously decided I would march down the B-road to tonight’s B&B, but I was feeling so well that I couldn’t resist a reasonably short detour up to Hadrian’s Wall. In fact this part of the wall is on the Pennine Way, so I had the maps for it and I felt that I had, after all, been really tight with Offa, so I might as well give Hadrian the benefit of the doubt as well. I’m so pleased I did. It did involve a lot of upping and downing, but in the excellent weather, that just wasn’t a problem and the wall was indeed far more spectacular than anything Offa had to offer, even though Offa was doing his thing almost a millennium later! Those Romans really were very organised! The defensive structure and the military organisation around the wall are readily evident. It would have been a brave Scotsman who would have tried to penetrate those defences, but it is easy to imagine that the African and Mediterranean auxiliaries who manned those defences must really have had an acclimatisation problem in a northern winter!

Perhaps the only disappointment of the day is that I had hoped that on reaching the enigmatically named “Twice Brewed Inn” in the village of “Once Brewed”, I would discover the origin of these names. But there is apparently no known explanation!  I have just viewed a document that says as much. The only clue is that a “brew” apparently referred to a hill in times gone by, so that the origins of these names seems to have more to do with the geography than the alcoholic behaviour of the locals.

Still, there is an excellent selection of malt whiskeys behind the bar and I feel that I am close enough to Scotland to limber up, just a little!!

Summer is come to the beautiful forests of Northumberland. I had somehow transferred out of Cumbria into Northumberland, but yet again, I have no idea where the border lay!

The end of the line! The Garrigill to Haltwhistle line is being restored at what can only be enormous expense as a restored, steam, railway line. I passed new station reconstructions, new signals and then suddenly, the end!

The extraordinary Lambley viaduct!

Against my better judgement, I couldn't resist including another shot of this graceful and imposing structure

The South Tyne River below the viaduct, flowing down to Tyneside in Newcastle-on-Tyne

On top of the viaduct, I met Alison, Mordew and Pippa. They were not good at posing for a picture. Alison lives here for the summer, but has a place in Greece where she and her husband sensibly spend the winter. She says they will spend more and more time there in the future

On such a lovely sunny day, the daisies were just shouting at me and I couldn't resist!

The main street of Haltwhistle, a very interesting little town with a range of local shops. They clearly survive because the internet revolution hasn't yet hit these parts. There is even an electrical retailer! I asked various locals about it and they said they weren't worried, but if I were them, I would!!

This church has a seventh century holy water stoup! One is in the presence of millennial antiquity in these places

The hotel claiming to be at the centre of Britain. Diedre's little shop was next door

Approaching Hadrian's Wall at Cawfield Crags and the Roman fort at Milecastle 42

The defensive value of the wall is clear. Scotland is on the right, and the extreme downward slope is just about evident

This is one of many turrets along the wall. Apparently, they were built before the wall was completed, and once it was, the need for them declined

At last, I could view the end of the Pennine Way! That whaleback mountain on the horizon is the Cheviot. I will turn left on the Roman Dere Street just before I approach it, the last summit on the Pennine Way, in a few days time, when I finally enter Scotland