The Bowes Museum, High Force, Fish & Chip Shop Kirby Stephen - 5th July

I can't remember the first time I visited the Bowes Museum, I just know it's always been etched in my memory, nor can I recount the amount of times that I have been there, walking up the staircase, imagining (as I did with a lot of places when I was a child) that I lived there in amongst the museum pieces.

I was eager to take Tim there and have been for years. So when we knew we were going to be in for an awful day of weather we thought it would be the best idea to see somewhere indoors. 

Tim was surprised as we drove into the grounds of the Museum, all resplendent in its French Château glory. I am so used to it I forgot that it looks somewhat out of place in the rough and rugged hills of Teesdale and especially grand in the market town of Barnard Castle.

The history of the Bowes Museum is a very interesting one but sadly too long to do into in any detail on here. I would urge you to read it though. The do have, on the first floor, an around 10 minutes video on loop detailing it, but if like me you're a little lazy there's a great introduction to the Bowes Museum by Bill Bryson here: 

Having had an £11million refurb over the past few years it was quite a change from the building I remember. It seems somehow much lighter and the exhibitions on the lower ground floor have been moved to offices that were at the back of the ground floor. 

There is no silver swan proudly presiding in her case in the middle of the ground floor reception area. Something the younger me was drawn to in complete fascination, but 'll get to that later. 

Admission price is £9, a good price for a museum with such wonders in it. You can spend a good half a day looking around at the different exhibitions.

The chandeliers are still there in their glory, twinkling away against the light that bounces in from the windows at the front of the building. The gift shop had been updated with glass walls and the cafe is now a lot bigger, a lot prettier ad it has a very good menu.

We started our visit with a trip to Cafe Bowes as Tim was struggling with the start of a cold and we thought a good strong coffee was just what was needed, and at £3.90 for a cafetiere for two you certainly couldn't complain.

We set off for a look about after our pick me up and started with the ground floor which has a lovely exhibition for Charles Dickens 200th anniversary. 

We whizzed around this and then came to the two headed calf  something I have again told Tim about on many occasions. I remember being quite freaked out by the sight of it as a nipper, and I was eager to see it again, just to see if it was as monstrous as I thought it was. They've moved it now so you can have a good look about it from three sides, rather than it being in a glass case embedded into the wall. 

It was on to the first floor, where at the stairs we took a photo. I don't know what it is about the staircase in the Bowes Museum, I have always felt uneasy on it even though it couldn't be made of solider stuff. I think it probably stems from being brought up in a bungalow, stairs were something it was very hard to get my head around as a child, and being back in the Bowes brought this back to me. I thought of the times I'd stood in front of that mirror at the top of those stairs and looked down into the vast hall with the swan in the centre. I thought of how little I was to how much bigger I'd become, the girl who would hold her Nana's hand, now stood side by side with her husband in the very same spot.

We wandered about the ceramics, pottery and glass sections and through the furniture section,including a room with wall panelling from all different eras, something I thought as especially interesting, and then with Tim flagging again we decided to go back to Cafe Bowes for some lunch.

I opted for the soup, which was carrot and coriander and came with two warm rolls, one with olives in it, and it was delicious. Tim went for the cheddar and home made pickle sandwich with a side order of chips.

It came to a total of £11.85, which isn't too bad at all for well sourced produce and homemade goodness!

We wandered about the textiles room and then decided, as it was getting near the time for the swan display to happen that we should get moving and grab a good seat while we had the chance. 

The swan is now situated on the top floor in one of the galleries, the roof has changed so light pours into the space and highlights the swan. I have fond memories of my Nana pushing me to the front and up to the glass when the swan was in the foyer of the building, watching it dip it's head and eat the fish I was so surprised, not knowing the fish was always there in its mouth. There was something utterly magical about it.

I have to say the magic hasn't disappeared an it gave me great delight to see it all over again, only this time with a ten minute talk beforehand and a detailed display outside along with all of the other silverware collected by the Bowes.

The mechanism is still wound up with a key, and as the swan begins to prepare for her supper the glass rods begin to move and the fish begin to swim, she looks around, dips her head and munches up a fish before settling back into position. There really is nothing more charming, the musical accompaniment chiming along in a delicate manner. I was happy that Tim had enjoyed it as much as me.

It had been taken apart and cleaned in 2008, considering there were no plans this was no mean feat! There's a link to the BBC inside out special on this here. It's all the better for it, it looks amazing and so much brighter and more beautiful than it was when I last saw it in the 90s.

After seeing the swan we looked around the galleries, which have some great work including some Canaletto pieces and some by Joesphine Bowes herself.

It was real treat to be back in the Bows Museum and I hope to be back again some day but I really wont leave it so long until next time. It brought back some lovely memories and it really does hold a very special place in my heart.

We decided to go and visit High Force, nearby and just outside of Middleton in Teesdale. Another place that I've visited many times from my childhood. The weather had been terrible but we knew this would make our visit something quite special. I am so used to seeing High Force just flowing down the central part that it really was quite a jaw dropping money to see it in its full glory and fury rushing down both sides of it, something I haven't seen before but my Nana told me had happened when my Dad was young.

Tim braved the rocks at the side, but I wasn't going anywhere near them with the river so high and the waterfall flowing so fast, it was a pretty scary display of nature if I'm honest but it was beautiful when the sun came out an the light danced off the spray. 

We rounded the day off with a chippy tea in Kirby Stephen at the chip shop my Grand folk use to stop at on the way to the caravan and we used to sit in the lay-by and eat out of the newspaper (I don't care what people say, fish and chips tastes way better out of newspaper!).

It's a shop that has not been refurbed since the 50s and looks all the better for it, we decided to eat in and were not disappointed, I don't know what they do with the batter in that place but it's perfect and highly recommended!

Hannah's Meadow, Mickleton Mill - 3rd July 2012

We were up bright and early and on our way to Hannah's Meadow in Teesdale.

If you don't know much about Hannah Hauxwell (daughter of the Dales!) you can read about her here.

She now lives in Cotherstone but this is where Low Birk Hatt Farm still stands. The meadow was farmed by Hannah using traditional methods with no fertilizers or re-seeding and is home to many rare flowers and is a SSSI.

I love the story of Hannah, of the hardships that she seemingly dealt with as just "life". I know what the weather can be like up on the tops in the winter, how bitterly cold it must have been in the winter months with no electricity or central heating to warm her up. She's an inspiration.

My Nana said she met her once, Hannah was known in Mickleton village, not far from Low Birk Hatt, my Nana didn't have much to contribute apart from Hannah was nice enough but not to drink tea if you ever found yourself in the area she was from, she got the water from the stream that the cows wee in! Sage advice from Nana there!

If you haven't seen the documentaries she's features in you should watch them.

On our way in through the gates we were greeted by a cow on a tuft of land, Tim named her little miss mooffet and then laughed at his own joke for five minutes, very tickeld by this!

Although the weather was overcast we were lucky enough not to get rain and when we entered the road and walked down to the meadow we were greeted with a flurry of colour, insects buzzing about and birds flying overhead. It really was a beautiful sight.

I did see this butterfly and I'm not sure what is is, anyone? 

After we'd had a good walk about and Tim had used his key to identify some of the species of flower in there we drove back down into Mickleton and went for a quick drink in the then Rose & Crown, now the The Crown at Mickleton. 

I couldn't quite believe my eyes when we went in there. This is the pub I first ever had a drink in, the place I was allowed to go with my friends as an underage teenager, the pub that had lock ins every night of the week, the pub I was first sick out of my nose in front of, and every other hideous drinking story you can think of, circa 1994 - 1997 this was my watering hole. 

Long gone is the back room with the pool table and the little bar where we'd order pints of bitter and drink a lovingly crafted creation called a "blastaway" - Diamond White and Castaway - long gone are the manky toilets, and there is no lad called Ashley in sight or local folk in the main bar giving you funny looks because after all you're 14, in a pale blue miniskirt and you're downing pints like they're going out of fashion. 

Whilst it was sad to say goodbye to the Rose & Crown, pub of my mispent youth, it was nice to see the old gal get a really good facelift and see it full of folk (and nuns!) enjoying a lunch there soaking in the surroundings of what is a thoroughly lovely place to spend your time (rather than it being the pub your folks don't go to so therefore you do). 

We then went to Mickleton Mill, a farm and caravan site that my Grandparents had a caravan on and then my parents took over after my Granda passed away. I spent all of my weekends and summers there as a kid and grew up with the other kids on the site. It had a huge place in my heart and I don't think I've been back there since I was 20. The 12 years that have passed have brought a lot of changes to it. 

The space where we used to have our static van is now a road to another part of the site. 

There's a pig pen where the cow field used to be, and the old toilet block where hideous moths used to live of a dark evening, is now locked up and used as a store.

The old dens that we used to play in and pretend we were orphaned kids are now long gone, or at least covered with water due to the rain, and there was no swing across on bindy twine island.

I went and stood by the river and got quite emotional, I spent a lot of time here with my sisters and my Grandparents in times that somehow seemed a lot simpler to me, before a lot of things happened that broke us all away from each other. I remembered when Dad used to put us all in the dinghy and we'd swim in the river together and play.

It was good to go back, and I spoke to Carol and Keith who still own and run the farm and the caravan site and we had a little catch up. Out of all of my friends there; Peter, Kate, Faye, Carly, Chris, Adrian, it's now only Adrian whose family still has a caravan there, and Chris sometimes goes there with him. It's a shame, we were all once so close, I really wish I could find them all again and have some sort of reunion! Alas I don't think it's meant to be. 

It was good to show Tim the places I often talk about and for him to see why I love that part of the country so much, growing up here has made me love the English countryside and Teesdale in particular.

Full set of our photos can be found here