The first 'Catching the Eagle' literary tour... ;)

The first Catching the Eagle literary tour...  ;)

The Charltons return to Kirkley Hall.

A few weeks ago we had a very enjoyable day out in Ponteland with our good friends, Iain and Christine.  They were curious to see the places mentioned in Catching the Eagle and Iain offered to take more photographs.  Jokingly, we dubbed the trip 'the first Catching the Eagle literary tour.'
Despite the horrendous rain we had a great day and a fabulous lunch at the Newhamm Edge Coaching Inn - now called The Highlander.

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Looking out from the courtyard over the grounds

Our first call of the day was at Kirkley Hall itself - the scene of the infamous burglary.  The staff were wonderful and let us wander around freely taking photographs.  They never batted an eyelid about the fact that my Chris was a descendant of the burglar mentioned on their website.  However, when we were leaving the operations manager, Graeme Cook, did make a joke about searching Chris' haversack for any missing silverware (much to every one's amusement.)

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Standing in front of the 'family pile' - Morpeth Gaol

After Kirkley Hall we made brief visits to Milburn (where Jamie and Cilla lived) and Stamfordham church were they married, before finishing the day at Morpeth.  By this time it was bucketing down and we were wearing rain coats over our jackets.  Despite this, I think that this is my favourite photograph of the day.  We were happy and relaxed - unlike poor Jamie Charlton who was dragged through that door 200 years ago, wearing leg irons.  I bet he wasn't smiling.  We really liked the shopping area in Morpeth and I became so  distracted, that I quite forgot to keep my eyes open for all the public houses mentioned in the novel. 

Never mind, we'll just have go back again another day. 
(All Photographs by Iain Wolstencroft.)

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