A Brief Stop for Lunch and Several Reasons to Return
Does Barnard Have a Castle?
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| County Durham |
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| Co Durham and its position within England (inset) Barnard Castle is a town with some 5,000 inhabitants in the south west of the county |
Arriving from the east we entered the town over the old bridge across the River Tees below the eponymous castle. The bridge was rebuilt in 1596 incorporating elements of a much older structure.
The castle is atmospheric if somewhat skeletal. Built at the end of the 11th century, it controlled the river crossing between the Bishop of Durham’s territory to the north and the feudal lordship known as the
‘Honour of Richmond’ to the south. It was updated in the12th and early 13th
centuries by the Balliol family who (off and on) claimed the throne of Scotland.
The Earls of Warwick then held the castle until 1471 when it passed to the Duke
of Gloucester, later Richard III, who held it until his death at the battle of
Bosworth in 1485. In 1569, the ‘Rising of the North’, a Catholic insurrection
against Elizabeth I, led to rebels besieging and then taking the castle after a
damaging bombardment. The castle never
recovered and was abandoned in the early 17th century.
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| Barnard Castle above the River Tees |
We did not visit the castle – now in the care of English Heritage – as this was only a lunch stop. The borrowed photo, by Ben Gamble, is part of the Geograph project collection and is reproduced under Creative
Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence.
Anything Else?
Other than the castle, Barnard Castle’s main attraction is the Bowes Museum. It is housed in a purpose-built château designed by Jules Pellechet in French Second Empire style. Building started in 1869 (the 2nd
Empire collapsed in 1870) and the museum opened to the public in 1892. It was
the vision of wealthy local landowner John Bowes and his Wife Joséphine, though
unfortunately neither lived to see their museum open.
It has displays of art – paintings by Canaletto, El Greco and Goya among others – ceramics, silver, tapestries, sculpture and local history. There is also the Silver Swan – a life-sized 18th century automaton - that
elegantly “catches fish” when activated. It is the only exhibit I remember from
our visit in the 1970s. There was no visit this time, entry now costs £20 a
head, too much for a lunchtime brief encounter.
Once round the castle we drove up The Bank – the lower part of what might elsewhere be called the High Street - and then went twice round the Market Cross. This was not strictly necessary, and the event produced a
minor domestic dispute, finally settled by allotting the blame to me. Continuing
through the High Street’s upper section, known Horse Market, we rounded the
bend into Galgate. On our right was a large car park outside the local
Morrisons, so we stopped there.
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| Barnard Castle Market Cross |
Testing One's Eyesight
The first thing I did after leaving the car park was to test my eyesight, it is a long tradition in Barnard Castle dating all the way back to 2020.
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| Looking at things to test my eyesight, Barnard Castle |
In April that year, during the first COVID lockdown, Dominic Cummings - Chief Adviser to PM Boris Johnson - travelled with his wife and child from London to Durham after she developed COVID symptoms. The rest of us
were dutifully staying at home, as instructed, but an allowance was made for
those seeking necessary childcare support. Few people imagined this allowance
covered a five-hour drive.
Later Cummings admitted to being seen in Barnard Castle (about 30 minutes from Durham). He had driven there, he said, to "test his eyesight" and ensure he was safe to make the long drive back to London
after recovering from COVID symptoms.
Few people believed him. Apart from it being against lockdown regulation, would a sensible person take a 30-minute drive to see if their eyesight was fit for driving? Mine is marginal, so Lynne drove me here
and after 20 minutes in Barnard Castle it still seemed marginal. Both Cummings
and Johnson apparently believed in one rule for the people and another rule for
them. Cummings resigned in November 2020, Johnson some 18 months later.
Lunch
Brie and Cranberry
We located a convenient café on Galgate and ordered toasties and a cup of tea. I enjoyed my brie and cranberry toastie and it set me wondering how a cheese from northern France first met a berry from the coastal United States and struck up a relationship. I asked the ever-semi-reliable ChatGPT and they told me that it is an English sandwich filling which first appeared in the early 2000s - they could cite no specific ‘first instance’ - and spread organically until it became widespread. The British market for French soft cheeses, they said, expanded markedly in the early 2000s, about the same time as cranberry sauce was first being imported from America where it had long been a traditional part of Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. There may be a grain of truth there, but cranberry sauce has been part of my Christmases since the 1970s and I have been eating brie and camembert since the 60s. Perhaps, when it comes to new foods, I grew up in a family of early adopters. I would note the combination requires an under-ripe brie, like most of those in British supermarkets. A fully ripe Brie de Meaux is a joy but would be overpowering in this context.
And a Side Order of Compassion
As we were finishing, an elderly man came in and sat at the table next to us. I am 75, I would hate to be called elderly (even if I am) but I have just used that word to describe somebody else. I doubt he was much older than me and he seemed in reasonable physical condition, but the blank look in his eye suggested he
was not the man he once was. One of the young women who work in the café greeted
him by name. “Hello Lenny,” she said, “D’you want a cup of tea?” He stared
straight ahead but did not answer. She fetched some tea, put it in front of him
and sat down opposite. “Do you want something to eat?” There was a long silence, but she waited
patiently. “What's the soup?” “You wouldn't like it, Lenny. Would you like some
apple tart?” He did not answer. “We’ve got custard, would you like some
custard?” He nodded. She went away and returned bearing a bowl containing
a large slice of apple tart wallowing in custard. He picked up his spoon and
started eating with obvious relish.
We left at that point. I have no idea how much help he needs
and gets, but he was reasonably well turned out. Maybe he comes in every day, but the important
point is that he was treated with sensitivity and compassion. - a shining
example of kindness in a world that sees too little of it.
Horse Market
Walking back round into Horse Market we saw a gentle curve
of buildings running down to the Market Cross. Most look Georgian though some are younger and
a few older. Many have blue plaques explaining the various uses the premises
have been put to over the centuries.
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| Horse Market, Barnard Castle |
The good people of Barnard Castle have a Morrisons and a
Lidl for their convenience but are blessed by also having the option of proper
old-fashioned butchers and an artisan baker with a side-line in interesting
cheeses. One of the several pubs offers ‘dog friendly karaoke’ (no, nor me) and
there is an African/Caribbean coffee shop. I do not know when Nobia and Sons
opened, but they have earned many friendly reviews over the last two and a half
years. They sell the standard coffee and cakes but also offer Jollof rice,
curry goat, jerk chicken and more. For a fleeting moment a second lunch seemed
a good idea, then reality kicked in. Further down is a farmer’s market; it
seems the only thing you cannot buy in the Horse Market is a horse.
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| Horse Market, the Market Cross and St Mary's Church |
The octagonal market cross that we earlier circumnavigated was
built in 1747 by wealthy wool merchant Thomas Breaks. The open ground floor was
used by farmers selling butter, eggs and the like, while the upper storey has been
variously used as a courtroom, gaol, fire station and town hall.
The principal modern use of the Grade 1 listed building, sometimes referred to by locals as ‘Breaks' Folly’ is as a traffic hazard. It reduces visibility for all drivers and is regularly
clipped by HGVs making their way through the town (see the Teesdale Mercury. 2019).
St Mary's Parish Church, Barnard Castle
St Mary’s church dates from the early 12th century, the time Bernard de Balliol built the stone castle and gave his name to the town that would develop round it.
Like all old churches, there have been alterations and additions over the centuries, though most of what we can see is 14th century or earlier. The main exception is the tower that was rebuilt in 1873–74 as it was
in danger of collapse.
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| The Parish Church of St Mary, Barnard Castle |
Inside it has some odd features and at first sight appears
to have been built backwards, but the pews do point in the usual direction.
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| Looking towards the west window, St Mary's Barnard Castle |
There is a rather worn probably 14th century effigy of St
Anthony and a boar. St Anthony, the patron saint of swineherds, is linked to
the Augustinians, and an Augustinian friary was established in 1380 in
Thorngate, just south of the castle and 250m from the church. No one knows what
happened to the friary or whether it was ever fully established, but maybe the
boar came to the church from there.
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| St Anthony and a Boar, St Mary's, Barnard Castle |
The castle passed to the Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III, who also has the boar as his symbol. Under his patronage the church was enlarged, though the unusual flight of stairs up to the chancel was probably built later.
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| Steps up to the chancel, St Mary's Barnard Castle |
In front of the steps is a stone arch with the sculpted head
of Edward IV (Richard’s older brother) to the left….
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| Edward IV, St Mary's, Barnard Castle |
…and Richard himself, as Duke of Gloucester, to the right. A
hundred years later Shakespeare painted Richard III as a villain, but
Shakespeare’s history plays never bothered too much with historical accuracy
and Richard has been rehabilitated recently.
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| The Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) St Mary's, Barnard Castle |
There is an enormous font from about the same time. A stool
is provided for the priest to stand on while baptising children, but the diving
board was removed in the 19th century. The letters and symbols carved round the
edge have no known meaning.
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| Enormous font, St Mary's, Barnard Castle |
Back to the Car and on to Alnwick
As we returned from the church it started to rain. At first
the big, fat, lazy drops had space between them, but the further we walked the
closer together the drops became and the harder and faster they fell. By the
time we reached Morrisons, it was a torrential downpour, so we and a dozen others stood beneath their awning and waited. Rain that hard cannot last long, but as
soon as it eased a new cloud cracked open and the intensity returned. After the
third time this happened we ran for it.
Despite selecting ‘recommended route’ for the remainder of our
journey to Alnwick, our SatNav chose the scenic route - at least as far as Newcastle
and the A1. We crossed the bleak moorland of Teesdale and Weardale, which have
their charms when you are pottering, but the narrow, meandering roads are
frustrating when you have somewhere to go. One consolation of this diversion is that our
route grazed the edge of the large village/small town of Stanhope. If other fans
of Vera, the good-hearted but curmudgeonly detective who makes Morse
look like a party animal, were wondering where she got her surname, they need
wonder no more.
We reached Alnwick in the late afternoon, feeling that we
should give Barnard Castle a proper visit one day soon.
Thank you for reading to the end. Your reward for doing so is the information that one 'fact' about St Mary's Church was invented by the author. But you knew that anyway.