|
| |
|
blanchland |
| |
|
|
|
| The trans-moorland B6278, which cuts north from Weardale at Stanhope
for ten extraordinarily wild miles, runs to tiny BLANCHLAND . Little
more than a handful of ancient, lichen-stained cottages huddled round an
L-shaped square, the hamlet was once the site of a Premonstratensian
abbey, founded in the twelfth century. Blanchland has been preserved and
protected since 1721, when Lord Crewe, the childless Bishop of Durham,
bequeathed his estate to trustees on condition that they rebuilt the old
conventual buildings, for Blanchland had slowly fallen into disrepair
after the abbey's dissolution. The original trustees obliged and their
successors have allowed but the faintest whiff of the twenty-first
century to intrude. Consequently, the village bears many reminders of
its monastic past, from the sturdy gatehouse that now accommodates the
post office to the parish church where the medieval chancel and tower
were all used to good effect during the rebuilding of 1752. But it's the
Lord Crewe Arms Hotel (tel 01434/675251, ; £110-150) that steals the
show, boasting dark vaulted basements, two big fireplaces left over from
the canons' kitchen and a priest's hideaway stuck inside the chimney.
The restaurant serves expensive table d'hôte dinners but there's a fine
public bar with cheaper food in the undercroft. By bus , you need the
#773 from Consett (not Sun), which is itself linked by hourly bus to
Newcastle. |
| |
|
