Lytham & Yorkshire

Lytham and Yorkshire

October 1 - 5, 2019

This was the first time we had stayed in Lytham since Joan's house was sold and it seemed strange to be staying in a hotel. The County Hotel right across from Joan's care home turned out to be a good choice and after we had settled into the hotel Kristine popped in to see her mother who was, of course, overjoyed to see her. Our three days in Lytham flew by with visits to family and friends.

October 5 - 12, 2019

In the past we have chosen to rent cottages closer to West Scrafton where Paul's mother lived for over forty years, but this year for a change we decided to base ourselves in the beautiful market town of Richmond and rented a very small cottage within walking distance of the market square. Richmond Castle was founded by the Normans in 1071 and has played an important role in the town's history. The castle is well worth a visit as is the view from the castle keep.

Richmond has a lovely Georgian Theatre built in 1788, the UK's oldest working theatre in its original form - we didn't attend a show this time, but did go to the movie theatre located in the old Station building. 

 Richmond from the Castle Keep

The Castle Keep from the street

While touring Richmond Castle, we had the chance to be King and Queen - for a few minutes !

Before our trip to the UK we had seen a program on TV about Vindolanda, the Roman auxiliary fort located near Hexham, just south of Hadrian's Wall. The fort which was occupied by the Romans between 85AD - 370AD looked fascinating, so we decided that we would visit the site and museum the next time we went to England.  The drive took an hour and a half and we set off on a very cold, drizzly day and arrived in time for lunch at the museum café. We spent most of our time in the museum which was packed with interesting artifacts that had been found during the excavation of the site. It was too cold to spend a lot of time exploring the excavations but even seen from a distance the site was very impressive.

Vindolanda

Leaving Vindolanda we stopped to look at a small part of Hadrian's Wall.

The wall marking the northern limit of the Roman Empire was started in AD122 during Emperor Hadrian's reign and spans 73 miles from the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea to the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea.  

Hadrian's Wall

Driving back to Richmond on the A1 we passed  "The Angel of the North", a sculpture by Anthony Gormley erected in 1998. The statue is 66' tall and the wing span 177'. It's made or steel, so it rusts naturally.

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