Welcome to Vicky's Cottage Blog

I went to school at Longridge Towers, just outside Berwick-upon-Tweed. When I was 14 it came that time when we had to choose our subjects, one of which being the choice between History and Geography. Although some of my friends struggled with the decision between the two subjects, I on the other hand found it quite simple, Geography! I always found History to be so tedious and with aspirations of become a Marine Biologist coupled with my love for going scuba driving off the Berwick coast, I didn’t see how history would help me much.

However as we get older our priorities and interest change and I have found that even though our office at Northumbria Byways is in a very quiet and rural area we have some interesting links to great times and events in history.

For example, I was quite interested to find out that the Village of Farlam, just along the road from my office, is the birthplace of Joseph Bell, the Chief Engineer of The Titanic. He was a well respected and brilliant engineer, considered to be the top of his trade and so it was not surprising that he received the job on The Titanic, the most celebrated job in engineering at the time. He and his crew are deservedly credited with maintaining power to the pumps and the lights, after disaster struck The Titanic in order to give the boat its best possible chance for staying afloat long enough for The California, the closest boat at the time of the iceberg collision, to reach The Titanic. Unfortunately, the boat was breaking faster than any rescue could reach them and broke in two between boiler rooms 1 and 2 where the freezing water from the Atlantic came crashing in killing Joseph Bell and his crew immediately. However, without their great effort to keep the power going and keeping The Titanic afloat the bit longer many more people would have died.

There is so much more to tell about the land around Northumbria Byways office, but that’s another story for another day! If you fancy staying in this area, take a look at the holiday cottages near Hadrian's Wall that we can offer or perhaps some North Pennines holiday cottages.