In May 2022 I spent a week travelling and drawing in Northumberland. These are the pictures I drew. With the exception of the chalk drawings of medieval sculptures in Hexham Abbey, they are all drawn with brown ink, dip pen and brush, on A3 paper.
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Prudhoe Castle, in the Tyne Valley. A ruin now, it dates from Norman times.
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The old bridge at Corbridge, built in 1674. It's only one vehicle (+pedestrians) wide.
Corbridge was once the most northerly town in the Roman Empire. |
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Strange Medieval sculptures in Hexham Abbey. The abbey somehow survived the reformation, but these sculptures must already been old at the time.
I drew them using black chalk. |
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More sculptures from Hexham Abbey. Their names come from the Abbey's guide notes. 'Fox preaching to geese'?
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The Moot Hall, in Hexham. It dates from the 14th or 15th century.
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Tynemouth Castle, seen from Collingwood's monument to the south.
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Another view of Tynemouth Castle, and the priory, seen from the north side, over King Edward's Bay.
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St Mary's Lighthouse, in Whitley Bay. It was sunny, but with a cold gale blowing.
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Alnwick Castle, seen from 'the pastures', just above the river Aln.
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The gates to Alnwick Castle. Those stone sculptures of soldiers on the battlements used to fascinate me as child, but I was never convinced by my parents' explanation that they were to scare off Scottish raiders.
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Warkworth Castle. Possibly the most romantic, on a conical hill overlooking the village, with one side sloping down through woods to the River Coquet.
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Dunstanburgh Castle. This was built by Earl Thomas of Lancaster, who then led a revolt against Edward II, was defeated in battle, captured and executed. So, he didn't enjoy his new castle for long.
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A closer view of the gates to Dunstanburgh Castle. It's unusual in that it's in a lonely place on a headland above the sea, not near a town or village.
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Bamburgh Castle. Undoubtedly the most spectacular of the Northumbrian castles, it's a huge, complex fortress high up on a rocky promontory. There's been a fortress here for 1400 years. The current building has a Norman keep, but much of it was rebuilt in an imagined Arthurian style by the great 19th century industrialist, Lord Armstrong.
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Lindisfarne Priory, on Lindisfarne, or Holy Island. It was really hard to draw, with so many interacting shapes, and the cragginess of the broken stonework.
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Two views of Lindisfarne Castle, also on the island. I drew the first one while sitting behind a stone wall among the sheep droppings, sheltering from a gale and slanting rain. The rain had eased off by the time I attempted the second one, but the wind hadn't and so, with no shelter, this one was drawn hastily in under ten minutes.
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Edlingham Castle. This is on the wild and spectacular road from Alnwick to Rothbury. It was a fortified manor, but abandoned in the mid 17th century. Like so many others, it was then used as a source of stone for new buildings.
Maybe that accounts for the leaning tower. |