Carlisle & District Rambling & Fellwalking Club

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annual Coach Outing, Alnwick  

 

Annual Coach Outing.
Alnwick
Report by Peter Flynn
Photos by Peter Flynn & Lauren Sarasini
 
A sharp reminder of the fact that Alnwick was only a mile or two from the cold East coast came in the shape of a bitter wind that hit us when we got off the coach.  Most of the party headed for either the castle or gardens,  and a few headed for the town.  As members of the “Castle Brigade” we learnt quite a lot about how to manage the peasants.  One duchess of Northumberland had a large wall built from castle to gardens so that the hoi polloi (ie. you and me) would not see her when she took her daily constitutional.  What would she have done had she witnessed the grace, beauty and sheer quality of the 35 from Carlisle who descended on the place today?  Another (possibly the same one) had a big chunk knocked down and the river re-routed so that she could see the stream while she was having her corn flakes (or whatever duchesses have for breakfast).  The castle was magnificent with a stupendous selection of paintings,  including works by Canaletto,  Van Dyck,  Titian and others.  There were some horrible dungeons where,  apparently,  the treatment was somewhat less than 5*.  The town,  though fairly small,  had one amazing gem of a shop – the former railway station had been converted into one of the biggest second hand book shops in Britain – an utterly amazing place.  Pete Bowyer, with his instinct for research,  discovered that as a station there were 6 waiting rooms;  First second and third class for men and first,  second and third class for ladies.  Mr Beeching did not feel this was enough and axed the line.  Lovely day all round,  the weather did improve though could never be said to be really warm,  but great company and an excellent choice of venue.  Thanks to all the organisers – from last year’s programme planners.    Peter