Today was time to move on from Alnwick and start back southwards, but first I went North to Bamburgh. The target of the visit, apart from another look at the Castle, was the RNLI Grace Darling Museum (she was born, died and is buried in the village). Everyone knows the basic story, Grace, the daughter of Longstone Lighthouse keeper William Darling, spotted survivors of the wreck of the SS Forfarshire which had struckthe Big Harkar Rock after her boilers failed. Grace and her father rowed out in their Coble boat and saved 5 people, returning to the lighthouse. Grace then helped look after the survivors whilst her father and two of the crewmen rowed back out to rescue another 4 people. It was an amazing feat when you consider how bad the conditions were, the North Sunderland (now Seahouses) lifeboat also reached the wreck site but, failing to find any further survivors then decided they couldn't row ashore safely and also ended up at Longstone. The museum is interesting for a brief visit, there are artifacts from Grace's life (she died only four years after the rescue) and plenty of information. The Coble is also there:
From Bamburgh I followed the coastal route south to Woodhorn Museum. It's another regeneration money funded enterprise but no less interesting for that. If you don't know much about mining or the lives of pitmen it's educational, and has the only remaining pithead gear in Northumberland.
From an academic point of view it also has the Northumbrian Archive centre and the core collection from the "Pitmen Painters", the Ashington Group, who for 50 years met weekly to paint scenes from their lives and environment. Some of the paintings are powerful, many are naïve, but they all have a meaning. Interestingly there was another art exhibition on of coastal pictures. The winner was a load of modernist rubbish as far as I was concerned! I know things have moved on but in the catalogue the "medium" for a couple of the entries was listed as "Adobe Illustrator", they were actually very good.
The museum is on the same site as the QE II Country Park and there's a diesel hauled narrow gauge tourist railway between the museum and the main entrance area to the park. For £2 the return journey was reasonable value but I reckon the track needs relaying, it was very bumpy. The family in the "compartment" in front of me (the coaches are roofed over but otherwise open) had an autistic lad who seemed to enjoy the ride but had his hands over his ears throughout due to the screeching and rattling from the train. From the museum it was a shortish drive down to the site just north of Whitley Bay. Amazingly it's sunny (although there's a nip in the sea breeze) so I'm sat sitting looking out to St Mary's Island.
I'll leave you with another photo, I know the price of coal has risen but at this rate I reckon some pits must be economically viable again:
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