Wednesday 2 January 2013

Barnard Castle


A few weeks ago in Barnard Castle I met up with a couple of friends I used to work with . Well we met at Bowes Museum really but decided to have a bit of a wander around Barnard Castle as it was such a sunny day.

Barnard Castle is a small market town in Teesdale, County Durham in the North East of England. It grew up around the medieval castle which is now a ruin. The castle was built by Bernard (Barnard) Baliol in 1112. The Norman castle saw little action in its lifetime and it and fell into disrepair after the Middle Ages. Apparently much of the stonework was carted off for other buildings projects!


                  



As you cross the river behind the castle you can see the remains of one of the castle towers. 

This is a much better view of the castle, sadly not my photograph.

   

Barnard Castle    

© Copyright Ben Gamble and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

I love the old County Bridge below but it's not good when you're driving over it as it's so narrow. There's not much of a path either so you have to be careful crossing the road!

The river was quite low the day we meandered about and the rapids were not very rapid but you can see it was more winter than autumn even though it was October. It was absolutely freezing





We didn't get onto the main street in the town but I found a good photograph of the market place. The flag of St George is flying above the church.


Market Place, Barnard Castle      

© Copyright Ben Gamble and licensed for reuse under thisCreative Commons Licence


There were some really lovely old buildings but I didn't have time to take many photographs.




           

Blagrave's House

Blagrave's House is apparently the oldest house in Barnard Castle. It's been there for over 500 years and Oliver Cromwell dined here. Supposedly! Loved the little statues on the wall above the windows!



Just look at these old windows. 

One of these days I'll have time to take photographs properly instead of point & clicking then racing about constantly trying to catch up with people!

5 comments:

  1. Hello, Winifred! It was so lovely to see your name pop up on my blog. How are you doing?

    I didn't realize you were still blogging, or else I would have been round sooner.

    Are you still on Facebook?

    This looks like quite a lovely day out. We have a place called Teeswater not too far north of here. I suppose there's a river Tees somewhere about too, but not as grand as yours, I expect.

    My best,

    Kat

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  2. thanks for the photos, I haven't been to Barnard Castle in years. It's a lovely place isn't it?

    Gill

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  3. Oh what a pain your posts aren't showing up in my reader at all!

    Oops and there was me criticising old buildings on my blog! I have to say Barnard Castle does look very interesting. And Chantilly lace is a classic song!

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  4. Good afternoon Winifred, Sun is shining nice and bright at the moment. But temp is 27F and everything is covered in snow once again. I used the snow thrower yesterday, surprised I'm not stiff and sore today. By Tuesday weather man says it will be in the 50's. No wonder so many have the flu. Hope all has been well at your house. I like the photos of the castles and etc. But for some reason, most castles look so cold. Have a good week-end, at least what's left of it.

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  5. Somewhere else I have not been to for a long time. Thanks for the tour. Yes we had a nice Christmas and hope you did too. Too much snow afterwards though.

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