I can’t remember a time since it was installed, under the auspices of the Allen Valleys Landscape Partnership administering a £2.4million Heritage Lottery grant secured by the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty quango, that the Electric Vehicle Charging…
Category: Transport
MOT Time . . .
Three little letters strike fear into the hearts and minds of virtually every family in this patch: M and O and T. It comes around once a year, and today it’s our turn. Although our new-to-us little Fiat Panda 4×4…
Hexham, our market town
A village, even one as vibrant as Allendale and its surrounding communities throughout the East and West Allen Valleys, needs a market town relatively close by. We’ve already considered, in the diary, some of the cultural aspects provided in Hexham,…
A ‘new’ car means nobody knows you . . .
In one of those small dawnings of rural realisation, I’ve suddenly become aware that if the new-to-us purchase is successful tomorrow, we’ll likely be travelling incognito for some time, since nobody will recognise the car! Course, as Neville Pringle noted…
Sidelights, or less, in the f-f-f-fog?!
Stuttering with impotent rage over the fecklessness of some country drivers yesterday morning on our way in to the ‘toon for a hospital appointment, as we peered through the near-impenetrable fog to make out, just, a grey vehicle in front…
Travels, with or without the grands, on the 688 bus
Paul Mingard writes in with a lyrical essay on the joys of the rural bus route: “For some people riding the 688 bus is so mundane they hardly think about it. For others who never travel by bus, the trials…
Like a bridge
The road up to Catton at Five Lane Ends has been blocked, on Monday and Tuesday of this week, for crucial repairs to the Allen Mill Bridge abutments which suffered damage from an accident some weeks ago. The job was…
Parking, just as we like it
There are no white lines. There’s no designated ‘disabled spaces’. Vehicles come and go, seemingly unerringly finding a place for themselves, or waiting patiently until a space is vacated. Or they twirl around and around, on rare occasions (typically weddings…
49 years, still going strong . . .
Now back in the premises at Scotch Hall where he started the Allendale Motor Company business in 1970, Mick Robson has a busy day ahead, taking care of two Land Rovers from the estate, but he kindly obliges me with…
Station Garage keeps us moving
If it weren’t for the perspicacity and patience of Howard Pringle and Thomas Robinson at Station Garage, early last autumn, we’d never have got away on our extended holiday in our ancient motorhome. First there was the matter of the…