Wednesday 26th September 2018, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Today has been spent entirely in and around Barnard Castle and it has proved to be every bit as friendly and delightful a town as we'd always imagined. The shops on the main street are still predominately small, individual enterprises though inevitably chain stores are creeping in. There are individual bakeries, hardware shops and cafes, but there is also a Co-op and a Morrisons. A short distance outside the town, with its narrow stone bridge and wide cattle market lies the remains of Barnard Castle. We've not yet visited though as we have been captivated by the town's unlikely tourist attraction, the magnificent Bowes Museum. We arrived before opening time this morning and have spent most of the day exploring its galleries.
Market cross. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Market. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Bowes Museum. Exterior. Barnard Castle. Durham.
The specially commissioned 19th century French chateau was built to be a museum, commissioned from a French architect by the museum's founders, John and Josephine Bowes. John Bowes married a French actress and it was her drive and enthusiasm that led to the creation of the museum. They had no children so developing the museum became their life's work. The magnificent chateau stands in the unlikely setting of a north country estate, in lovely grounds just minutes from the town centre of a stone-built moorland town. The museum founders are connected to the Bowes-Lyon family. The late Queen Mother was a Bowes-Lyon before she married into the house of Windsor.
Bowes Museum. Front entrance. Barnard Castle. Durham.
The museum was established, set up and left in trust to the nation. It's collections are rich in paintings, textiles, silver and metals, with furniture, sculptures, porcelain and ceramics spanning five centuries.It has the largest collection of Spanish paintings in Britain outside of London, including an El Greco -"The Tears of St. Peter". It also has a couple of Canalettos and works by Dutch and Italian masters. Josephine Bowes was herself an excellent painter and there are a number of her works around the museum.
Bowes Museum. Pereda. Tobias restoring his father's sight. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Bowes Museum. Van Dyck. Olivia Boteler Porter. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Bowes Museum. Canaletto. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Bowes Museum. Picture gallery. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Below are some of the hundreds of exhibits in the museum.
Bowes Museum. Library clock. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Bowes Museum. Siamese twin calf. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Bowes Museum. Ebor head pot. From Piercebridge. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Bowes Museum. Botanical cabinet of Mary Eleanor Bowes. c.1780. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Bowes Museum. Boy's dress c.1780. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Bowes Museum. Marquetry work for Louis XIV. Barnard Castle. Durham.
The star of the museum is an 18th century automated silver swan that is activated daily at 2pm, moving its head and neck very realistically to music as it catches silver "fish" in a silver "lake".
Bowes Museum. Silver swan automaton. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Currently there is also a temporary exhibition, called "The Catwalk"about women's fashion from 1960s to the 1990s. In fact it was purely about the Catwalk and the shock of the new with ridiculous fashions that nobody would ever wear anywhere but on a catwalk. Try crossing the road in some of these garments and you'd never make it to the opposite pavement! So huge are the sleeves they'd block your vision!
Bowes Museum. Catwalking exhibition. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Bowes Museum. Catwalking exhibition. Barnard Castle. Durham.
It was a luxurious building with thick pile carpets that were soft and bouncy to walk on. The views from the windows were lovely, overlooking the formal gardens to the front while to the side could be glimpsed the church in the grounds where the founders are buried. They wished to lie in the grounds of the museum they had established. Initially this was not possible and they were buried on the family estate at Gibside, a few miles distant. However, in 1928 they were moved to their present location in the grounds of the small church built in a corner of the museum gardens.
Catholic church. Bowes tomb. Barnard Castle. Durham.
There is a very good cafe in the museum where we had lunch. The best croque-monsieur ever. They could even teach the French something there! The coffee was also excellent though a bit too laid-back with the speed of service. Before we realised it the entire day had gone. However, we did see every exhibit in the museum, some items in great detail. It does make remembering dates and details difficult however so either go to the museum yourselves or look up on the website for further details.
While waiting for the museum to open this morning - we arrived while a morning fire drill was taking place - we wandered off into town for half an hour, where we discovered a book sale in the community hall. Books were being sold to raise funds for the Library! They were not library books but we were told they were donated books being sold off to support the running of the library and the maintenance of professional staff. The volunteers have been adamant that they will not run the library for the town as this would take away people's jobs. So they do what they can to raise funds to support library projects and to ensure the library is staffed by professionals. We where touched and delighted that they recognised that there is actually more to running a library service than goodwill, enthusiasm and an ability to wield a rubber date stamp! The responsibility of a local authority to provide an efficient library service is actually enshrined in law, yet throughout the country the intellectual and cultural needs of the population are being continuously and relentlessly eroded.
Having bought a copy of Gormenghast we continued to the library coffee morning where we added to the tiny profits by joining a dozen or so local residents in tea drinking and scone eating. Maybe our effort kept a librarian gainfully employed for an extra few minutes!
This evening we have still not managed to make contact with Vally but Neil says our grandchildren are eager to see Grandad and Grandma. Indi misunderstood the news when Neil relayed it and thought we were arriving immediately, so got up from bed and clambered downstairs to greet us! So it will be good to be back with the family while we are still on our travels. That's a bonus with blogging for Britain!
Thursday 27th September 2018
It has been a really nice day, both with the weather which has been positively balmy, and with the happy activities of the day.
Ian made a final attempt to contact Vally and was successful! Apparently she got home late last night and found our message but felt it was too late to ring us then. In any case, with our phonophobia we'd not have picked up the message anyway. We receive so few calls it doesn't seem worth the effort of learning how to use all the bells and whistles. On the other hand, people don't bother to contact us as we never answer! Anyway, problem solved and we did see Vally after all. First we popped into Barnard Castle to look at Barnard Castle. The actual castle I mean, rather than the town. It sits slap bang in the middle of the old market town which has grown up over the centuries around the hill upon which it rests, its ruined walls towering over the town which stands on the banks of the river Tees.
Castle. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Castle. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Castle. Barnard Castle. Durham.
Bridge. Barnard Castle. Durham.
We then made our way to Vally's home where we found it warm enough to sit out in her lovely garden with our coffee and the neighbouring cat. It was good to catch up on news and gossip. Vally was at Sheffield library school with Ian and other friends who turn up in this blog from time to time and live either in Britain or over in mainland Europe. Most of you from Sheffield will have burning ears as you read this. Unfortunately for us Chris was off on a working trip to Washington so we missed his quirky sense of humour. After swapping news and gossip Vally valiantly offered to raid her freezer for soup and rolls. We would have gone down into town together for lunch but she was waiting for the plumber to arrive. As usual, plumbers never come when expected and she was still waiting when we finally left. Thanks so much Vally, it was good to see you and update on events.
We drove east across Yorkshire and this evening we are camped near Pickering. We called off along the way to take a look at Riveaulx Abbey but decided it was too late in the day to visit. In any case, the view from the road produced a pretty good picture, though hopefully one day we will see it properly. Its ruined walls and arches stand isolated at the bottom of a steep valley, surrounded by woods. The window tracery looked beautiful with the evening light reflecting from the warm stone arches.
Abbey. Rievaulx. Yorkshire.
We passed through Helmsley, an attractive little town but crowded out with visitors even so late in the day and late in the season. We are only a few miles outside the town this evening so will return tomorrow before the crowds arrive. It's still warm and this evening and we have been sitting outside with mugs of tea. Unfortunately we are out of wine and I cannot become reconciled to the idea of paying UK prices for it. How we will survive in the future when/if we are restricted to three litres per person when we go abroad, I dread to imagine! Usually what we save on our wine goes a long way to paying the cost of our ferry crossing.
Market square. Helmsley. Yorkshire.
Castle. Helmsley. Yorkshire.
Castle. Helmsley. Yorkshire.
Castle. Helmsley. Yorkshire.
