In what must be a truly remarkable tour de force, a one-person show arrives at Allendale Village Hall this evening, courtesy of Highlights North, the Rural Touring facilitator which contributes a great variety of arts and culture to remote village…
The Tea Dance
Mary Gibson invited me specially to drop in this afternoon to chat with the regulars at Wednesday afternoon’s Tea Dance Society in Allendale Village Hall. So I’ll certainly have more stories and information about this beloved institution in Allendale, later…
Peter Dodd Contracting at Langley Sawmill
It was Sunday, so the gates were shut at Langley Sawmill, but the photo from the road deep in the Langley Bends reveals the significant enterprise that Peter Dodd has developed there. We were lucky to get Peter and his…
Whitfield Church of England Primary School
These days the lovely little school at Whitfield is a primary school academy, managed by The Good Shepherd Multi-Academy Trust. According to the school’s website, it was the first in Northumberland to be taken under this trust’s wing. I dropped…
Christingle Celebration
Sylvia Milburn, who notes that she’s no longer responsible for the service now, having passed that lovely duty on to Craig Atkinson, Alison Fothergill and Helen Forbes, sends this enchanting piece on the Christingle service, which will be held today,…
Jill’s Catering, Jill’s Catering
It was the chorus of the sing-along Pantomime song some years back, accompanied by framing hand gestures, that we all sang along to with great gusto. That was back in the time when Jill Wilkinson was parking her little van,…
The quieter village halls
Amongst the six village halls in this patch, there are three that are really very busy, and three that are quieter. Still sustained by the faithful, still solvent, just quieter. Langley Village Hall, for example, sometimes hosts an evening with…
The Elk’s Head and Whitfield Estate Partnership
I seem to have spent some time traversing the West Allen valley over the past week or so, trying to make this diary a more comprehensive recapitulation of the entities in the whole patch. The Elk’s Head is the last…
Whitfield Village Pantry
I dropped into Whitfield Village Pantry the other day to deliver the new (October) update to the Allendale and Allen Valleys Pocket Directory. While I was there, Janet Marriott graciously (it was lunchtime!) answered a few of my questions, so…
Music in the key of life . . .
I had a lovely chat yesterday with June Welch who embarked on a life-changing career shift in her mid-forties, to embrace the learning and teaching of music. As she says, “For me, teaching is always about learning, both for the…