St Cuthbert's Cross

Mr C prefers walking in the hills to the coast, but I sometimes long for a change and a bit of sea air. I negotiated the walk I wanted by helping him bag up coal at the merchant's first. He tells me it saves money if we put the car on the weighbridge, fill up the bags, then get the car weighed again. Our load was £80 worth of good coal today.

Then we parked up and had a walk out to St Cuthbert's Cross, which is reputed to be the place he agreed to become the bishop of Lindisfarne in the 7th century. It was the site of Alnmouth Parish Church till the late 19th century, when a storm caused the river to change course, cutting off the town from Church Hill and destroying the church. This picture is from the south of the river, looking back to the town, with the sea on the right. The tide was far out.

We then walked along south beach, Mr C reminiscing about how he kept us all warm by collecting the seacoal from the beach in the 1970s, in the days when we had no central heating, only a Rayburn and a coal fire. (The frost patterns would creep along the inside of the bedroom windows.). Although there have been no mines in the north east since Thatcher's time, there was still sea coal being washed up on the beach today. We didn't pick any - I'm glad we can now afford to buy coal - even if we can't apparently afford to get it delivered.