NELSAM ~ October 2019

Categories: Adventures · Fuji · FujiX-T2 · museum · photography · UncategorizedTags: · · · · · · · 29 Comments

The North East Land Sea & Air Museum – NELSAM – sits on the former RAF Usworth and Sunderland airport site, next to the Sunderland Nissan factory, and comprises of the former Aircraft museum (NEAM), military vehicles collection, and the North East Electric Traction Trust (NEETT) is also based on the site. The museum houses over 30 aircraft and a wide collection of aero engines, as well as weaponry, vehicles and other historical exhibits, and is run by volunteers. Amongst the varied and unique exhibits is a cold war Avro Vulcan B2 Bomber, which flew into the former airport to…

Bamburgh Castle Revisted ~ August 2019 ~ 2

Categories: Adventures · Anglo~Saxon · castles & ruins · Fuji · FujiX-T2 · History · medieval · museum · photography · Victorian era · WW2Tags: · · · · · · · · 22 Comments

Part 1 HERE After a good wander around the grounds we went to visit the museums. The first museum we got to was the Armstrong & Aviation museum, which houses some of the stuff that Armstrong produced for WW2, and some stuff from WW1. I’m sorry to say I didn’t take notes or many photo’s in this museum, I’m not sure why it didn’t float my boat,  however there was a really nice vintage car that I liked. We also visited the Archaeology Museum and saw some nice bling that they had dug up. The pieces were incredibly small, but…

Aln Valley Railway – July 2019 – Part 1

Categories: Adventures · Event · Fuji · FujiX-T2 · landscape · museum · people · photography · UncategorizedTags: · · · · · · · 28 Comments

While Sophie and I were visiting the Stephenson Heritage Railway, (post on that HERE) a gentleman saw us taking pictures, and came over to tell us we might like to visit the heritage railway that he was involved in, the Aln Valley Railway.  Great idea we thought, and we decided to go when they also had a war re-enactment thing going on. The aim of the volunteers is to reopen the Alnwick to Alnmouth railway line.  The original station in Alnwick is now home to Barter Books so a brand new railway station and visitor center has been constructed by…

Stephenson Heritage Railway – June 2019 – Part 3

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Part 1 HERE  Part 2 HERE After we finally gave up going for rides, we got to look around in the workshops,with the lovely gentlemen explaining things to us. Some fab old tool boxes in use They had had some Thomas the Tank faces made for the front of the big steam engines to make the kids smile, but the people who own Thomas the Tank wouldn’t let them use them, so they just hang in the workshop. I mean, what harm would it do really? ‘Bait’ up here is Geordie for lunch They let you drive a train up…

Stephenson Heritage Railway ~ June 2019 – part 1

Categories: Adventures · Fuji · FujiX-T2 · History · landscape · museum · people · people · photography · UncategorizedTags: · · · · · · · · · · 39 Comments

Old trains, nothing like them for evoking the past, all that choo-chooing and hissing steam.  Not that I ever went on one back when I was a kid and they were ubiquitous, but I have now! Have you heard of George Stephenson? Stephensons Rocket perhaps? No?  Oh good, then let us commence the History lesson! 🙂 George was a child of Northumberland. Born in 1781 to illterate parents, he too had no education until at the age of 17, he followed his Dad into the mines as a brakesman, and used his salary to pay for night school classes in…

The Bowes Museum – May 2019

Categories: Adventures · art · Fuji · FujiX-T2 · History · museum · photography · UncategorizedTags: · · · · · · 30 Comments

The Bowes Museum can be found in Teesdale, in the market town of Barnard Castle, and houses a phenominal herd of treasures and art works collected during the lifetime of John and Joséphine Bowes. Shall we do the History Bit? (Rhetorical question 🙂 ) John Bowes  (19 June 1811 – 9 October 1885) was born in London, to a commoner called Mary Millner. Mary went to work for the 10th Earl of Strathmore & Kinghorne,  (14 April 1769 – 3 July 1820) a Scottish nobleman and peer, at his stately homes in County Durham, and ended up having a long…

Souter Lighthouse ~ March 2019

Categories: 366 · B&W · Fuji · Fujifilm X100F · History · industry · landscape · museumTags: · · · · · · · · 30 Comments

The History Bit On the coast near the village of Marsden on the outskirts of South Shields, stands the rather magnificent looking Souter Lighthouse. This lighthouse was the first in the world to be designed and built specifically to use AC (alternating electric current) and was the most technically advanced lighthouse of its day. Opening in 1871 it was described as ‘without doubt one of the most powerful lights in the world’.  Originally planned to be built on Souter Point, from where it gets its name, it ended up being built on Lizard Point which had higher cliffs and therefore better…

Ormesby Hall ~ March 2019 ~ Part 3

Categories: Adventures · Fuji · Fujifilm X100F · History · museum · photography · stately homes & estates · uncategorisedTags: · · · · · · · 43 Comments

See here for history and part 2 Most of the Stately Homes we visit have well-appointed kitchens which I duly photograph, and Ormesby Hall is no exception. But it’s much of a muchness and we’ve seen similar in previous posts. What was unusual at Ormesby was a fully kitted out laundry, so that’s what we’ll look at today. There’s no need for me to explain anything as that was done brilliantly by the info sheets in there.   Love that they call it WEE BEN, 🙂 so that was a nice surprise for Sophie and me as laundries are usually not…

Ormesby Hall – March 2019 -Part 2

Categories: Adventures · architecture · Fuji · Fujifilm X100F · History · museum · photography · stately homes & estates · UncategorizedTags: · · · · · · 38 Comments

PART 1 HISTORY HERE This week we are going to have a wander around the house. Sophie and I thought it was a bit like a tardis, as it seemed to have far more rooms than the outside appearance would have you think. You can see examples of  bold Palladian plasterwork and the more delicate neo-classical plasterwork ceilings in the drawing and dining rooms. Firstly the padded doorway.  This was installed by James Stovin Pennyman (1830-96) to help prevent the sounds of conversation disturbing the household  – he worked in York Lunatic Asylum so it’s possibly where he got that…