7 September 2023 - Warkworth & Amble
Miles driven today = 47
Total Miles to date = 342
We woke this morning to a very gentle pitter-patter of rain on the van roof and it has been notably cooler than the last few days, which is a blessed relief in comparison to the near 30 degrees and amber heat warnings people have been experiencing down south. Until that point we had a blissfully quiet night in the Stapylton Arms' car park and even the scaffolders who were working on the pub had the common decency not to turn up until a little after 9am.
We took advantage of the Morrisons Superstore at the Dalton Park shopping complex to top up on food and diesel. The huge car park was virtually empty so we were able to park our bulk across 2 bays without incurring the wrath of the locals.
Then it was back on the A19 and through the Tyne Tunnel. This time we were only able to pay online and so were clobbered with the full whack of £4:40, thanks to those dirty snitches at the DVLA revealing our actual registered weight. Shortly after this we picked up the A189 and the A1068 to Amble and then Warkworth, where we parked up next to the entrance of the Castle.
Our newly acquired English Heritage membership gives us free entry here. The Castle was home to the Earls of Northumberland and is among the biggest medieval fortresses in Northern England.
The walls of the main Great Tower remain almost intact along with the rooms on the ground and first floors. The tower on the left is the "Lion Tower", so called because the image of a rampant lion embossed on its inward facing wall.
This is one of two wine cellars housed on the entrance level of the Great Tower with a narrow staircase to the left leading up to the first floor rooms.
This is the Buttery. I was today years old before I found out that a buttery has nothing to do with butter. It is in fact where butts of ale were stored and the person who looked after the butts was the butler. Every day is indeed a schoolday.
It's reckoned that a kitchen of this size would burn something in the order of 170kg of coal every day and some poor sap would have had to lug that all the way up the stone staircases on his back.
The Chapel within the Great Tower.
The Great Tower viewed from below.
The Grey Mare's Tail Tower overlooked the road approaching the Castle from the South and was heavily fortified.
Several sculptures are displayed around the castle. This one of a moth has wings showing England and Wales split into 3 different Kingdoms. The first Earl of Northumberland had plotted against Henry VI to divide the country so that he could rule the North himself.
Once we had completed a tour of the inside of the Castle we walked around its walls and down to the River Coquet.
The river surrounds the village of Warkworth on 3 sides with the Castle protecting the inhabitants from anybody approaching from the South.
Our English Heritage membership would normally also allow us entrance to the Warkworth Hermitage but this is only open on Sundays and Mondays and in any case the boat that usually ferries people across the river to visit is currently out of action so we made do with a walk through the woods which revealed this fairy door in one of the tree trunks.
Once back at the van we backtracked a mile or so to the Braid Car Park near Amble where we had pre-booked one of three spaces specifically reserved for overnighting motorhomes at £12 a night. We found a car parked in our reserved spot so we parked up next door and ambled into Amble.
We walked past the Marina and then on to the Harbour Village which has a couple of fish restaurants as well as a number of small craft shops.
One of the shops was selling jewellery made from sea glass, much like the samples we found on the beach at Seaham yesterday. I did ask if I could take a photo but the lady behind the till got a bit sniffy about it so I left it.
Warkworth Castle is still clearly visible looking upriver along the Coquet.
The town has a small sandy beach for anybody fancying a paddle.
We stopped for a quick libation at the Harbour Inn before heading for home past this huge sundial.
Also nearby is this clock tower which is actually a War Memorial constructed in the 1920s.
We can only stay here in the Braids Car Park for one night and with the weekend coming up we have booked ourselves into a campsite for the next couple of nights just a few miles away. There's plenty to see round here though and who knows, we might actually get the bikes out for a spin at some point.
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