This is Allendale, after all, and tonight the ‘guisers will be out in full force, marching away from the Lych Gate in front of the Golden Lion and the King’s Head, and down around the Dale, turning left at the…
Category: Institutions
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…
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…
Allendale Bell Tower
Shirley Brown writes in with a lovely and fulsome description of the bell ringers at St. Cuthbert’s: “An article in the Hexham Courant in September 2019 was headed ‘Tower of Friendship and Team Spirit’. I think this sums up nicely…
The High Forest Community Centre
Just about on the road coming down from the ‘heeds into Sinderhope, the High Forest Community Centre has become rather a busy hall over the past few years. Rescued from its near-derelict state by a combination of significant and timely…
Making the Christmas cake
Apparently we’re a week late on this lovely kitchen task; you’re supposed to make your family’s Christmas cake some six weeks ahead of the day itself, to give it time to mature, and also, of course, to soak up even…
Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey
The Buddhist Abbey at Throssel Hole, Carrshield, welcomes visitors on Festival Days to experience their contemplative service, meditation and ‘dharma’ (loosely translated as ‘the teachings’) for themselves. And afterwards to enjoy the fellowship of a lunch with the acolytes and…
Remembrance Day
Every Canadian of a certain generation learned several poems by heart. In my day, this was one of those poems: In Flanders FieldsBY JOHN MCCRAEIn Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the…
Remembrance Sunday
The Lych Gate honours the fallen from this parish in both World Wars of the last century. Remembrance Sunday, when the Last Post is played at the memorial, is always the closest Sunday to Remembrance Day itself: the 11th of…
Cart’s Bog Inn at Langley
At lunch the other day in the Cart’s Bog Inn, I had a quick chat with Stuart Davison, who I discovered is expecting to be celebrating running the place for a decade in March 2020. I remember so well when…