Let's have a look at Hexham

Good morning. This video should have been included in yesterdays post, but due to timing constraints it wasn't ready in time. No matter, my world is a bit topsy turvy, nothing flows as it should do. 

Wednesday I was up at 7am. Looks cloudy and overcast, my next stop is Hexham. I followed the signs for Car Park and found myself in a massive park close to the centre and shops. I studied the signs to find out how much I should pay. They have a disc system in place. Buy a cardboard disc from a nearby shop or cafe for £1, turn the wheel to show what time you arrived. 

Some areas of the park are for short term parking, some for long term parking. Either one hour or four hours, depending on how much time you need to be there for. I chose the blue area for four hours. all the same price, £1 for the disc. Once you have the disc it can be used over and over again anywhere in the town. A good system I thought. I have still got a disc from North Yorkshire in my car which can be used again when I next go there. 

Maps for sale but I don't need one. I will be bimbling about in the town and I have an OS map if I venture further out. 

Dozens of photos to sift through. I have picked out a few of the best ones. Please excuse me if I don't give a description for all of them.

This building has been very tastefully refurbished. I think they have made a good job of it. It fits in perfectly with the rest of the street. 

Further along on the same street is another building undergoing the same treatment. The front facade is still standing and is propped up by the new structure at the back. It is going to be 45 new apartments. I was talking to someone and they said it will have underground parking with access at the back of the building. It will be interesting to go back at a later date and see how they have blended in the new stonework to cover it all. 

I had a peek down an allyway when someone told me that there used to be a tannery down there. Here is a board with the history of the place. There was and still is a stream of running water through the middle of the courtyard. Now it is a car park. It must have stunk to high heaven with all those animal skins there. They used to make bags and gloves with them. 

A view of the Abbey from the Bowling Green and gardens at the back of it. I had a nice chat with the men cutting the grass. 

The front entrance to the Abbey. I was a bit early and had to wait until 10am for it to open. 

Once inside, WOW. Much much bigger than Selby. There was a lot going on, it had a friendly buzz about it, but at the same time the spiritual ambience was not lost. A mums and babies group were enjoying each others company on a carpeted area in the middle. People walked quietly around in their own little world. A good mix of all ages, the old and the young. 

Just up the road is the Queens Hall which houses the Library, Council Offices, and an Art Gallery. I had to have a look inside. 

This is the Storytellers Chair just inside the entrance. Amazing use of textiles to brighten up an old chair. 

Some of the exhibits in the gallery. This is an interesting idea. Weaving over an old piece of tree bark. 

These are called Pods. Lengths of paper twisted into twine and woven together with thread. 

I have found some more information about this exhibition. 

As I had time, I took a walk out of town along the river. This is the rear view of the building under construction. As you can see it is a massive project. 

My parking time was up and I returned to the car park. The warden was hovering around my car and I got chatting to him. He made me laugh, telling me of the tricks that people used, to try and get out of paying. They would fill their windscreen with lots of discs that they had collected from different places, all set to different times. That does not wash with him. He photographed the car parked next to me, wrote a ticket for it, and left it under the windscreen wiper. I had a sneaky look after he had walked away. The driver had made up a clock face on a scrap of paper and left that. Ha ha. He got a ticket for a £50 fine, with £25 payable within two weeks. All for the sake of not bothering to get an official disc for £1. 

It was 1pm when I left Hexham. I loved the place, could have stayed all day, but my mission was to find Hadrians Wall. That will be in the next post. 

Thanks for popping in. We will catch up soon. Toodle pip.   ilona