A misty moisty morning

I'd almost forgotten about Esh Winning Miners' Memorial Hall. The first time we'd walked past this majestic redbrick pile we'd been smitten: such a massive classical edifice among the terraces of this little former mining village. For a time we told everyone about it: it was semi-derelict, needed someone to come and make use of it, the perfect base for an arts organisation we knew was looking for a home... But it was just too big for any of our contacts to take on, and no-one else seemed to have any better ideas. That was years ago, and things seem to have got worse before they got better - according to our MP, at one point the plan was to have the building moved almost brick by brick to Beamish, that repository of things from the past we no longer want but can't bring ourselves to throw away. And then durham_rambler read in the local paper that the hall has been restored as housing for adults with learning difficulties. Hooray! So we thought we'd go and take a look.

The morning was still misty, and the night's heavy frost was still lingering when we caught the bus from the top of the hill, but as we headed west up the valley the sun began to break through, and we got off the bus in Esh Winning in warm sunshine. But almost as soon as we'd admired the renovated hall and headed down into the Deerness Valley to the railway walk, we found ourselves returning into the mist. Sometimes we walked for a while in sunshine, and sometimes a sycamore had turned to such bright gold that we felt as if we did. For much of the way the walk lies between the high banks of cuttings, so it wasn't brought home to us just how short a way we could see - but then we would emerge and realise that the curtain of mist hung just a field's length away:

We lunched at the Stone Bridge, and while we were there the sun came out, so we took a slightly indirect route through some of the new housing developments - strange to find myself somewhere I've never been before so very close to home.