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GREAT DAYS OUT: The Hogwarts of Northumberland

October 29, 2011

“Well, I am glad that so many of you are here. I did worry, what with the Dementors sweating down on us from the sky like they’re doing… I thought that nobody might come!” The crowd of damp tourists in the far corner of The Knight’s Quest at Alnwick Castle sat wide eyed and open mouthed. The enormous figure of Hagrid had emerged from behind a suitably heavy and creaking wooden door to gasps of amazement. Dressed in a long caramel coloured overcoat and tunic and with giant size leather shoes Hagrid was soon joined by a very convincing Dumbledore dressed in jewel coloured robes and a very long pointy hat. The two men entertained the crowds for over half an hour with hilarious tales of Ginny Weasley, Severus Snape and, of course, Harry Potter.

It is a testament to the enduring popularity of J.K. Rowling’s books throughout the world that this castle in a Northumberland town was filled with tourists, even on a cold, drizzly August afternoon. Out on the lawns children lined up to learn to fly a broomstick on the very spot where Harry took his instructions from Madam Rolanda Hooch in the film ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’. Spanish and German voices mixed in with American accents as the castle staff arranged a session of ‘Broomstick Training’ for the trainee international witches and wizards. This was the scene in the film where Neville Longbottom failed to heed Madam Hooch’s directions to “Kick off from the ground hard, keep your broom steady, hover for a moment then lean forward slightly and touch back down”. Instead Neville went on a whirlwind tour of the castle’s many towers and turrets before ending up suspended high above the grounds on a knight’s jousting stick.

Inside the castle walls queues of children stretched around the inner courtyard of the Dragon’s Quest to choose between “phoenix feathers, vine wood and dragon heartstrings” to make their own wizard’s wands. Castle staff handed out lengths of coloured wool, feathers, beads and glitter and got stickier and stickier as they helped with the multi-coloured creations. “We make between 700 and 900 wands on a normal day”, one staff member explained, “But that goes up to 1,200 whenever Dumbledore and his gang pop in.” That’s a lot of glitter!

It’s over 700 years since the Percy family become owners of the Castle and the Barony of Alnwick. A specially created tour, ‘Battleaxe to Broomsticks’, is available to guide visitors in the footsteps of the castle’s previous owners including Harry ‘Hotspur’ Percy (1364-1403). The bravery of this young knight, who went into battle against the fearsome Scots whilst still a teenager, is celebrated in Shakespeare’s play Henry IV and he features in a larger than life statue in the castle, riding atop his heavily armoured horse in the Knight’s Quest courtyard.

Inside the castle several rooms are open to visitors. Paintings by Turner and Canaletto cause quite a stir among the crowds who file quietly through the ornate rooms with their stunning fireplace and ceiling high mirrors. One very thoughtful touch by the staff at the castle are the small toy owls that have been placed as a treasure hunt throughout the castle to keep children occupied. These little white balls of fluff, like lots of baby Hedwigs, with their orange eyes and speckled chests, give older visitors a chance to appreciate the artefacts on display. The library has added benefits too with stuffed pet dogs lounging on velvet chaise-longues and rogue red squirrels climbing up the book cases.

The current duke and his family live in the castle, and their family photographs give the rooms a friendly air. Since the Second World War parts of the castle have been used by different organisations, including the Newcastle Church High School for Girls. The walls along the corridor as you leave the castle are lined with photographs and memories of the schoolgirls saying that it was a very happy place to stay in the midst of a war. The feeling of happiness is still there. The attention to detail and the celebration of the castle’s long distant and recent past combines to make it a fascinating and wonderful place to visit.

by Katherine Wildman © 2011

Katherine Wildman is a freelance creative copywriter based in Cullercoats and holds an MA in Creative Writing (with Distinction).

If you need the words for your new website, a new company brochure or a regular SEO blog to increase your online presence please get in touch with her on 07186 763393 or at katherine@wildmanwrites.co.uk.

Filed Under: Features, Great Days Out, Katherine Wildman

ART & CULTURE: A wealth of treasures lies over the border

September 30, 2011

Where would you find a trundling long-eared hedgehog, an Australian orbicular granodiorite and a vomiting fulmar? The answer lies a few minutes walk from The Royal Mile in Edinburgh, in the newly refurbished National Museum of Scotland.

From 17th Century Japanese Noh theatre masks to the beautiful Nubian sandstone Statue of Arensnuphis, The National Museum of Scotland houses treasures from all over the world.

There is a custom-made coffin, shaped like a Mercedes-Benz that was made in Accra, Ghana and a Tibetan prayer wheel house that was made closer to home at Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland, Europe’s oldest and largest centre for Tibetan Buddhism. The copper prayer wheels within the house were made in Nepal.

Children can experience life in the fast lane with a full size Formula One racing car driving simulator, or can step into a Gemini space suit to discover what it would be like to be an astronaut.

In the Animal World gallery an Ocean Sunfish that is nearly 3.5 metres tall hangs suspended in mid air with an enormous crocodile and a pod of dolphins, while down on Level 1 a pride of lions and a 12 metre-long skeleton of a T-Rex prowl around.

The museum’s interactive displays are superb with entire walls filled with video screens and presentations. A film that played in the Restless Earth gallery showed footage of volcanoes erupting, the Asian Tsunami and Japanese earthquake with a rolling selection of quotes. The most poignant one, I found, was by John Muir – the Scottish born American Naturalist which said simply:

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”

On the ground floor the Grand Gallery houses the largest items on display in the museum. A 12-foot long carved wooden feast bowl from Atiu, one of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, stands close to the enormous dioptic Inchkeith lighthouse lens designed in 1889 by David A Stevenson, a descendant of Robert Stevenson.

At the far end of the gallery a bronze statue of the Buddha Amida meditates with his hands resting in the dhyana mudra position, hands in his lap, palms facing upwards and the tips of his thumbs touching the index fingers.

The National Museum of Scotland covers eight floors of a stunning Victorian building. With over 20,000 objects displayed in 36 galleries it is a brilliant place for a day out at any time of the year. It’s a ten-minute walk from the train station in Edinburgh and, incredibly, the admission is free.

For more details please visit www.nms.ac.uk.

by Katherine Wildman © 2011

Katherine Wildman is a freelance creative copywriter based in Cullercoats and holds an MA in Creative Writing (with Distinction).

If you need the words for your new website, a new company brochure or a regular SEO blog to increase your online presence please get in touch with her on 07186 763393 or at katherine@wildmanwrites.co.uk.

Filed Under: Art and Culture, Features, Katherine Wildman

ART & CULTURE: Full steam ahead

September 1, 2011

John Fred Horseman is a local artist who “likes art and likes steam”. These two very diverse elements have combined throughout his lifetime to form a collection that has been shown in the Laing Art Gallery, exhibited outside The Baltic and featured in national magazines.

Mr Horseman’s sculptural work ranges from two beautiful wooden seahorses, carved out of wood from the bed he was born in, to the imposing sculpture of a bison that was exhibited in the Laing’s ‘Exhibition of Work by Artists of the Northern Country’ in 1955.

In 1974 Mr Horseman finished a work that was featured in Model Engineer Magazine as ‘one of the best engines of the century’. His creation, a 4 ¼ inch scale model Burrell traction engine, took six years to build and was affectionately named ‘Mr Rusty’ after a horse owned by his late sister, Jill.

‘Mr Rusty’ was Mr Horseman’s first attempt at building a traction engine and, he said, “Everything made for the Burrell was my first attempt so inevitably several parts were made two or three times. Materials sourced from scrap yards were taken to fashion the engine’s component parts and finished using a lathe from a local ship breakers. The gears were particularly tricky to get right.” The machine was last in steam in 1996.

While creating ‘Mr Rusty’, Mr Horseman had several other artistic projects on the go. One of which was helping his friend, Mich Glenn, restore a full size generating steam traction engine, The Fowler Empire Pride.

“We had a big shed in Whitley Bay”, Mr Horseman told me “and with another friend, Arthur Mason, we enjoyed long hours transforming this beast into a magnificent showman’s engine which was renamed ‘The Iron Duke’. I bought a living van from Northumberland County Council for £12 to attach onto the back and we used to eat our lunches in there with our families.” The living van is now at The Beamish Museum.

A large oil painting of the Iron Duke, which was finished in 1967, is one of Mr Horseman’s more colourful creations. The twisted brass decorations of the engine glow and shine beneath his skilled brushwork and the men who are shown in the painting, Mr Horseman included, look suitably proud of their endeavours.

One of the more recent works by this local artist is a creation called ‘Modern Art is a Trail of Rubbish’ which involved the artist pulling a string covered in crushed drinks cans behind him on one of the recumbent bicycles he has designed and built.

So, if you see an artistic looking gentleman cycling past you on a recumbent bicycle along the seafront, do give him a wave. He’s a local treasure.

by Katherine Wildman © 2011

Katherine Wildman is a freelance copywriter and photographer based in Cullercoats who is currently studying for an MA in creative writing at Northumbria University.

She can supply quality written copy and photography for websites, sales letters, press adverts, email campaigns, press releases, brochures and articles.

Contact her by email at kewildman@me.com or on Twitter @skinnycap.

Filed Under: Art and Culture, Features, Katherine Wildman

TRAVEL: York – history and good food on your doorstep

August 2, 2011

There was a buzz in the air as I stepped off the train at York Station. The glorious arched ceiling was filled with barely contained excitement and something else – smoke! Walking over the footbridge I saw the source of all the shrieks and pointing fingers. A shining Stanier Class Black Five loco (No. 45305) stood in a cloud of smoke at platform six surrounded by smiling men holding large cameras.

York is a city that is full of unexpected surprises. The glorious spires and gargoyles of the Minster that tower over the skyline from the city’s ancient walls are shocking in their enormity as you emerge from the shadows of the Shambles. The Minster looks like it would be perfectly at home in Paris or Belgium instead of at the end of a narrow street in Yorkshire. Inside the enormous church, gorgeous stained glass windows glisten in the sunshine, showering the faces of the hundreds of people who wander up and down the aisles with a kaleidoscope of  colours.

Tourists roamed the streets of York with cameras and wide eyes, taking in the beautiful architecture and the window displays of the decidedly independent shops. Delicious smells wound down the streets from the York Sausage Shop, lengths of ribbons like rainbows lined the walls in the artfully named ‘Dutton’s for Buttons’ and it was only the sheer length of the queues inside The Fudge Kitchen that saved me from gluttony.

Tucked away behind the Shambles is a marketplace buzzing with stalls selling Fedora hats, Indian incense and piles of ruby red cherries. Medieval wattle and daub houses decorated with bright hanging baskets make the scene look like something from many years gone by.

Deciding to join in with the tourist vibe, we joined the queues outside Bettys Café and Tea Rooms. The tearooms are beautiful inside with polished wood panels and mirrors lining the walls, a design inspired by the magnificent Queen Mary Cruise liner. The café displays are like works of art with delicate pastel coloured macaroons sandwiched between jewelled strawberry Pavlovas and glossy chocolate mousse cakes. Attentive waitresses in white lace trimmed blouses and aprons served our lunch and guided us expertly through the offerings of the dessert trolley.

There is almost too much to do in one weekend in York. We didn’t have time to visit the art gallery or the museum or even to take a boat trip along the Ouse that seem to me to be the perfect excuse for a return trip!

by Katherine Wildman © 2011

Katherine Wildman is a freelance copywriter and photographer based in Cullercoats who is currently studying for an MA in creative writing at Northumbria University.

She can supply quality written copy and photography for websites, sales letters, press adverts, email campaigns, press releases, brochures and articles.

Contact her by email at kewildman@me.com or on Twitter @skinnycap.

Filed Under: Features, Katherine Wildman, Travel

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The deadlines for the 2020 issues are:

MonthDeadlineDistribution Dates
January 20205th December (2019)27th, 30th, 31st December (2019)
February 20209th January29th - 31st January
March 20206th February26th - 28th February
April 20205th March27th, 30th, 31st March
May 20209th April28th - 30th April
June 20207th May27th - 29th May
July 202011th June26th, 29th, 30th June
August 20209th July29th - 31st July
September 20206th August26th - 28th August
October 202010th September28th - 30th September
November 20208th October28th - 30th October
December 20205th November26th, 27th, 30th November
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