Corbridge

Beautiful blue skies and warm sunshine when we arrived in Northumberland this afternoon.  We headed straight to Heddon on the Wall to pick up a purchase ( made by daughter Grace) of a Victorian bench that she had bought on line.

From there we followed the line of the wall ( Hadrian’s) to Corbridge. A lovely town with Roman remains and a bridge across the River Tyne. We had tea and lemon drizzle cake before having a wander around the town.
This three story Pele tower was built in the church grounds as a residence for the vicar in 1318. It was occupied until the 17th century and is now in use as a micro brewery pub and events venue! There is also the remains of a village oven created by the king for the village people to bake their bread and cook their meat. It was last used in the 19th century. We didn’t get round to seeing the Roman remains.

We followed the line of the wall, the A 69, to Haltwhistle where we are staying overnight. Haltwhistle declares itself the centre of Britain. It is half way along the route of the wall and hence the Coast to Coast Hadrian walk (we were at the beginning of this on the Cumbrian coast back in June - see extra here )
The sign post in today’s extra shows it is 36.5 miles from the Solway Firth and the same from Wallsend. It also indicated it is 290 miles from North Orkney and 290 miles from Portland Bill in Dorset. So the centre of Britain it is!
 
Looking forward to seeing more of this lovely area tomorrow.