Bamburgh, the church of St Aidan

This scan is from the front of a pamphlet from 1948 which talks about St Aidan's church in Bamburgh.

To quote:

" The Church of St Aidan is one of the largest ...and finest...in the county"

The pamphlet then talks about

The Tower...is ascended by a stone staircase around a square newel ( only other example of this being the Pele Tower at Welton).It rises 2 stages higher than the church...the 1st stage being used as a belfy and the 2nd for the peal of bells.

Then it covers the Nave and north aisle.

Then the transepts

It then discusses possible traces of the original Norman church and ends up with a description of the 13th century chancel.

More to come in future blogs on Bamburgh.

Bamburgh Castle on Google Earth

Google earth is an amazing resource. Just one of the many benefits and visuals is demonstrated below.Its Bamburgh Castle!



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Sand dunes - along the Northumberland Coast

We had promised to talk about how the dunes are created and how they come to be associated with different colours.

Strandline and embryo dunes

Imagine seaweed left stranded at the highest point of the beach. See it drying out and the sparse nutrients leaching into the sandy soil. Eventually some hardy plants will take advantage of this source of nutrients and sea rocket or maybe sea sandwort will start to grow. As these plants expand they will trap and stabilise the sand.

Yellow or white dunes.

Higher up than the strongest tides will reach you have an environment where the sand is still mobile but there is enough nutrient to support marram grass. This gras sbrings improved stability and this allows ragwort, sand sedge, fescues and hawkweed to grow between the clumps of marram grass.

Grey or fixed dunes.

Further back and over time mosses and lichens start to appear and they give this area a grey colour on the sand. And at last we get the Bloody Cranesbill.....the county flower of Northumberland.

Remember that when you are strolling along the beach at Bamburgh that there is much more here than people usually see.

Grey Seals

We are keen to keep up to date with news and reviews from around our region and find the Northumberland Gazette a great way to do this. It is a local newspaper packed with information for both Northumbrian residents and holidaymakers alike. We were recently browsing the Northumberland Gazette website and came across some videos featuring very interesting activities people had been getting up to. Our favourite was from a sub aqua club who had been diving off the Farne Islands and it shows a seal interacting with the diver, it's brill! take a look.

A gentle reminder of exactly how much we have to be grateful for up here on the beach at Bamburgh.

If you want to see more of the videos just go to the top of their page and click "your videos".

Sand Dunes and wildlife - Bamburgh, Seahouses and the coast

So many times we have parked our car just south of Bamburgh and crossed the sand dunes to the beach. In our eagerness to reach the beautiful beach we don't really stop and consider the dunes and what they represent.

So this post is dedicated to the sand dunes of the north east beaches.

First off is the question of the underlying rock which is usually the Whin Sill. This andesitic rock produces poor quality acidic soils. The east facing slopes are generally dipping and typically have shallow lime rich and draught prone soils.If you then add in the harsh maritime conditions you get a very distinct environment with some unique plants.

Most of the Northumberland dunes are calcareous due to their high shell content. This soil supports a colourful flower rich ecosystem during the hot summer months with the low levels of nitrogen discouraging some of the more vigorous plants found in the area.

Most of the coastal dunes were formed 200 to 300 years ago. There are older ones, especially around Lindisfarne, but these are more acidic due the calcareous remains of shells having been leached out of them over time. These more acidic and older dunes typically have more heath type grasses and plants.

Our next post on the dunes will talk about the different colours and how they develop.

Kite flying

Kite flying on the beach between Seahouses and Bamburgh is great fun...but it's even better when you have a beach buggy for the kite to tow you.

Sir William Russell Flint., Bamburgh and Seahouses

Reading a recent publication of North East Life we came across a mention about Sir William Russell Flint ( 1880 - 1969) a Scottish artist with great skill in water colours. He is quoted as saying
" No sands are more beautiful than those between Bamburgh and Seahouses on the Northumbrian coast". He would stay in the Ship Inn and paint his nude models, undisturbed amongst the dunes along the beach.

Other famous residents include

William George Armstrong...he of Cragside fame.

Grace Darling of course

and Prideaux John Selby the Victorian ornithologist and naturalist.