A grand day out
Apr. 20th, 2019 12:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustWe were thwarted in our plan to visit Washington Old Hall on Christmas Eve, and see the gardens illuminated. Had we gone then, I suppose it would have been J.'s birthday treat; but when we discussed when we might visit instead, the day that suited us all best was Wednesday, which just happened to be my birthday. So instead of a winter wonderland, we saw the Hall framed by spring flowers:
It's a very long time since I last visited the Old Hall; it's quite a long time since I last tried and failed to visit, with the Bears (ot was closed for a wedding, and wouldn't let us in). What I remember is a great hall downstairs, with a magnificent long table (which is still there, though smaller than I remember it):
and a lot of American history and Washington family genealogy upstairs. Short version: yes, this is, in a sense, the ancestral home of George Washington, in that the family adopted the name Washington when they took possession of this manor. But they had long since moved to Northamptonshire even before they crossed the Atlantic, and George was not interested in family history and had probably never heard of County Durham. But the link is there, and clearly mattered to the committee who rescued to Hall from demolition in the mid-20th century:
I do not remember the gardens, and it is obvious that they have been extended since our last visit. Also new, information about the Hall's last days in private hands, when it was divided into nine tenements (plus a separate building on what is now the car park): one room has been furnished as it would have been in those days, and there is a recording of a man who had lived there as a child, talking about it.
No historic property can be opened to the public in the 21st century unless it has a café, and we had been promised a free cup of tea to make up for the disappointment of our previous visit: in fact we had checked their menu, and decided to lunch there on the promised soup. But there was no soup. Have I forgiven Washington Old Hall for past misdemeanors? Not entirely. Can you tell? Especially as, in a secluded corner of the gardens, we found a poster left over from Christmas, which repeated the assertion that they would be open late on Christmas Eve. But the sandwiches were good, and there was a little shop - not a gift shop, but a curio shop - wheredurham_rambler bought me a willow pattern tea plate (I'd been about to buy it myself, but he was quicker with his pound coin, as a birthday present). All in all, a good excursion - in fact we enjoyed it so much that we decided not to go home straight away.
Instead we went to Souter lighthouse. Our minds were running on National Trust properties, and I'm always happy to visit the seaside. It wasn't as sunny at the coast, and Souter wasn't as busy as Washington: the helpful volunteer had plenty of time to reminisce about the Foghorn Requiem, and to tell us the whole story, all about how this was the first lighthouse purpose built to be powered by electricity (that's a very careful phrasing: presumably it means that somewhere there is another light which was the first actually to be lit by electricity?) with its own on-site generator, because what else? The first light source was an arc light, then a huge bulb, bigger than a football, and finally the small bulbs currently in use...
durham_rambler and I climbed up tp the top of the tower (which isn't as high as some, as the light is built on a convenient rise): J declined the last flight of stairs, so steep that you are instructed to treat them like a ladder and climb down as you climbed up, facing the steps. But they are a very solid ladder, with a continuous handrail, and the reward at the top is a magnificent double Fresnel lens:
with its distinctive red shade.
And even when we got home, the celebrations weren't over, because Wednesday night is quiz night, and we dined on a birthday burger at the Elm Tree.
It's a very long time since I last visited the Old Hall; it's quite a long time since I last tried and failed to visit, with the Bears (ot was closed for a wedding, and wouldn't let us in). What I remember is a great hall downstairs, with a magnificent long table (which is still there, though smaller than I remember it):
and a lot of American history and Washington family genealogy upstairs. Short version: yes, this is, in a sense, the ancestral home of George Washington, in that the family adopted the name Washington when they took possession of this manor. But they had long since moved to Northamptonshire even before they crossed the Atlantic, and George was not interested in family history and had probably never heard of County Durham. But the link is there, and clearly mattered to the committee who rescued to Hall from demolition in the mid-20th century:
I do not remember the gardens, and it is obvious that they have been extended since our last visit. Also new, information about the Hall's last days in private hands, when it was divided into nine tenements (plus a separate building on what is now the car park): one room has been furnished as it would have been in those days, and there is a recording of a man who had lived there as a child, talking about it.
No historic property can be opened to the public in the 21st century unless it has a café, and we had been promised a free cup of tea to make up for the disappointment of our previous visit: in fact we had checked their menu, and decided to lunch there on the promised soup. But there was no soup. Have I forgiven Washington Old Hall for past misdemeanors? Not entirely. Can you tell? Especially as, in a secluded corner of the gardens, we found a poster left over from Christmas, which repeated the assertion that they would be open late on Christmas Eve. But the sandwiches were good, and there was a little shop - not a gift shop, but a curio shop - where
durham_rambler bought me a willow pattern tea plate (I'd been about to buy it myself, but he was quicker with his pound coin, as a birthday present). All in all, a good excursion - in fact we enjoyed it so much that we decided not to go home straight away.Instead we went to Souter lighthouse. Our minds were running on National Trust properties, and I'm always happy to visit the seaside. It wasn't as sunny at the coast, and Souter wasn't as busy as Washington: the helpful volunteer had plenty of time to reminisce about the Foghorn Requiem, and to tell us the whole story, all about how this was the first lighthouse purpose built to be powered by electricity (that's a very careful phrasing: presumably it means that somewhere there is another light which was the first actually to be lit by electricity?) with its own on-site generator, because what else? The first light source was an arc light, then a huge bulb, bigger than a football, and finally the small bulbs currently in use...
durham_rambler and I climbed up tp the top of the tower (which isn't as high as some, as the light is built on a convenient rise): J declined the last flight of stairs, so steep that you are instructed to treat them like a ladder and climb down as you climbed up, facing the steps. But they are a very solid ladder, with a continuous handrail, and the reward at the top is a magnificent double Fresnel lens:with its distinctive red shade.
And even when we got home, the celebrations weren't over, because Wednesday night is quiz night, and we dined on a birthday burger at the Elm Tree.
