Greenwich , centre of time.

On Saturday 16th December I took my young lion cubs south of the river Thames to visit Greenwich, its one of my favourite parts of Englands capital, it has a strong naval heritage and is home to the Royal Navy college, along with it's fine museum also the famous wool and tea clipper known to all Englishman from my generation and older as the Cutty Sark. It's the fastest tea clipper ever built and defines the age of sail.
Greenwich is a great place for a day out, fine pubs and restraunts, a great market and a walk along the Thames, not to mention the Cutty sark and navy Museum, but one place you must go is on the hill overlooking Greenwich, it's called the Royal Observatory. From this point you can take in a magnificent view of London as the picture above shows. Also at the observatory is the greenwich meridian Line.
What is the Meridian Line?
The Meridian Line is an imaginary line which runs from the North Pole to the South Pole. By international convention it runs through "the primary transit" instrument (main telescope) at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. It is known at Zero Longitude and it is the line from which all other lines of longitude are measured. This includes the line that runs 180° away from Greenwich also known as the International Date Line.
In the other picture above you can see my young cubs standing on the Meridian line, on one side it's the east and on the other side it's west , they are standing at 0' longitude , the centre of time. If your visiting London, why not sail down the Thames to Greenwich , do a spot of retail therapy at the market followed by a nice pub lunch and then walk up the hill to visit the Observatory, taking in the view and standing at 0' longitude.

Time travel in North East England.

No I have not invented a time machine and sent my Lion Cubs back to 1850's County Durham ( I plan on inventing one when I get a bit more spare time) This wonderful place is the Beamish museum situated near Stanley in the North West of the Prince Bishop county. Beamish is set within a picturesque 300-acre valley, it's a working museum showing how the good people of north east England lived and worked in the years between 1825 & 1913. The site is split into various themes such as the town, the colliery village and pit, the manor, railway station and other areas, all of which can be visited. You will see people dressed in the clothes of the era whom will interact and educate you as to how things were. It really is like going back in time. My particular favourites are eating the freshly made cinder toffee at the sweet shop and going down the drift mine, my lion cubs enjoy riding on the trams, stagecoaches and buses which you catch to each area of the museum.
Beamish is a great family day out and well worth a visit if your passing through the Prince Bishop county of Durham.

Bamburgh's Northumbrian fortress

This magnificent fortress is Bamburgh castle situated on the Northumberland coast just south of Lindisfarne holy island.
Northumberland has more castles than any other county, hardly surprising when it is situated along Englands northern border with the Scotch and this is my favourite of them all. On one side of the castle is the pretty village of Bamburgh and on the other side is the most beautiful stretch of sandy beach stretching around 3 miles south to Seahouses. Bamburgh castle is built on the site of a much older castle and it is itself the former capital of the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, Bamburgh was originally known as Bebbanburh this was in honour of King Ethelfriths wife in the days when Northumbria stretched from the River Humber to the Firth of Forth. Just south of Bamburgh is the small harbour town of Seahouses, from here you can take a boat out to the Farne Islands to observe the wonderful sea life and visit the lighthouse, or you can stay on shore and eat some of the finest fish 'n' chips in England. Seahouses is quite small but has some wonderful traditional seaside gift shops and is a hive of activity during the summer months with locals from the North East whom flock there for day trips wearing their Sunderland or Newcastle shirts. If you are planning a visit to this beautiful part of England, may I recommend to you the Bamburgh Castle Hotel with fine views of the harbour and farne Islands.

Rochester's Dickensian Festival

On December 2nd I took my young Lion Cubs down to Rochester on the river Medway in Kent. It was the annual Dickensian Christmas festival. It was the first time I had been to Rochester With the exception of a quick work related visit a few years ago and I have to say that I liked the place. It is not a stunning city but it has a likeable rough kind of English feel to it, a working city enhanced by it's Norman castle and cathedral. The narrow streets below the castle and cathedral were full of characters dressed In Victorian costume parading up and down and mingling with the visitors including a very believable Fagin, there were also various displays relating to the era and plenty of stalls offering traditional English fayre, the smell of roasting chestnuts is a particular favourite of mine.
Upon the castle green was a fair ground where I joined my littluns on the ferris wheel but left the other rides to their strong stomachs. It was a very nice day. Unfortunately we could not stay for the candlelight parade and snow machine Later in the day but next year we will be better prepared.

Bonfire Night

One of my favourite days of the English calendar is November 5th, We call it Guy Fawkes or Bonfire night. To cut a long story short : In 1605 a dodgy geezer by the name of Guy Fawkes and a few of his mates plotted to blow up King James 1st and our Houses of Parliament. This became known as the Gunpowder plot & thankfully it was discovered before the dodgy individuals involved could carry out their plan. Due to their being very naughty they were subsequently tortured and then executed.
Every year on November 5th the people of England remember this event by holding bonfire and firework parties throughout the land, either in their gardens or at large organised displays.
The oldest of these displays is the one held in the town of Battle in East Sussex, there are records of it going back as far as 1646, one record shows that in 1686 ,17 shillings and 6 pence was “expended at gunpowder treason for rejoicing”.
For the second year in a row I took my lion cubs down to Battle to see this display. We arrived early in order to get a good place to see the parade as the High Street gets packed with people coming to enjoy the evening. We took our place near the Abbey and waited for the parade to start. Crowds soon gathered and took their place on the street, fireworks and rockets were zooming above the old buildings and we saw the flaming torches of the parade appear at the top of the street. The parade consisted of various groups known as ‘bonfire boyes’ and they had differing themes of dress, some as Anglo Saxons, some as Ravens, Pirates and lots of other combinations, even a Homer Simpson was present this year. They paraded down the street with hundreds of flaming torches and stopped outside the Abbey where the Dean of Battle lit a bonfire to the sound of bangers and explosions. The parade then moved on and the crowds followed on behind as it moved on down to Senlac Hill. This is the hill where the battle of Hastings was fought. Finally on the battlefield we were treated to the lighting of the big bonfire and the most fantastic firework display, the finale being the explosion of an effigy of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown with rockets galore. If you find yourself in the south east of England for bonfire night 2007 why not come down to Battle. Check the following website for details: http://www.battlebonfire.co.uk/

Justice in Northumberland.

This intriguing monument goes by the name of Winters gibbet and it can be found on a lonely moorland road near Elsdon in Northumberland. It is guaranteed to stop any passers by in their tracks. The story behind it is this. In 1791 William Winter and Jane & Eleanor Clark were executed at the Westgate in Newcastle for the murder of Margaret Crozier. Crozier was an old lady living alone miles from anywhere and an easy target for the traveller Winter and the Clark girls, a pair of tinkers, who accompanied him to rob and murder the old lady. They were soon caught and paid the price for their crime. Following the execution the bodies were disposed of in different ways: the females dispatched to the surgeon's hall for dissection whilst the body of William Winter was hung in chains on the gibbet a few miles south of Elsdon within sight of the scene of his crime.The stone at it's foot is the base of a saxon cross which marked the highest point of this ancient drove road down which cattle were driven from Scotland to the English markets. Winter's body remained on the gibbet as a sight for the passing curious until his clothes rotted. Eventually his body was cut down, the bones scattered, and the skull sent to Mr Darnell of Newcastle. In time the original gibbet decayed, partly due to natural processes and partly due to the quaint country practice of rubbing pieces on the gums to cure toothache. Around 1867 Sir Walter Travelyan of Wallington ordered a replica, complete with wooden body, to be erected on his land. In time the wooden body disappeared following its use for target practice, till only the head remained, giving rise to the 20th century custom of hanging a fibre glass head on the replica gibbet. By the way, they don't hang people in Northumberland anymore.

Remembering our last true Englisc King

Last Saturday (14.10.06) was the 940th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in which the last true Englisc king was killed along with his Huscaerls on Senlac hill which is located in the pretty little town of Battle, East Sussex. I along with my young Lion Cubs and the Mighty Bison of Suffolk with his cubs went down to watch the biggest re-enactment of the battle even seen on the actual battlefield. Over 3,500 took part in the battle with around 15,000 spectators present. It was an impresive sight with our lads taking their position along the ridge gathered around the fighting man banner of Harold Godwinson & the snail chompers facing them at the bottom of the hill supported by mounted knights. They then went on to demonstrate how the battle was fought on thet day 940 years ago on the very spot that it was fought.
The actual battle itself in 1066 A.D was a close run thing, closer than most people know but as you do know, the end result was that our King Harold was killed and his famous Huscaerls fought to the last man around his body. He was later buried in the grounds of Waltham Abbey in Essex. I have posted here some pics of the day which show the Saxon army gathered along the ridge infront of Battle Abbey (notice the red fighting man banner of Harold) , The Saxon line awaiting the Norman attack, The Normans attack with cavalry & My Lion cubs at the spot where Harold was killed. Finally a picture of Harold's resting place at waltham Abbey in Essex.

Resting place of Bede & Cuthbert

Here is my first entry, call me biased but this is the city in which I was born, my home and my heritage. I don't live here nowadays, I moved away 11 years ago but I visit once or twice a year to take my young Lion Cubs up to see the family. I am very proud of my city and the County it belongs to. In medieval times it was a semi independent state governed by Prince Bishops whom only answered to the King. It had it's own armies & currencies. Prior to that it belonged to the Anglo Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. It is the only city outside of London who's mayor has a bodyguard, and it's Bishop has the honour of holding the monarchs left arm at coronations.

Today it is the home of England's third university, a first class cricket team and some beautiful wooded riverside walks with fantastic views of the castle & cathedral like those above , come visit historic Durham City and be captivated by it's majestic scenery.