Hutton Magna

We recently went to Hutton Magna, a tiny village with not much to it at all. The sort of place you blink and you've driven through it. There is one exception though: The News Box. The locals went and bought an old red telephone box from BT for the princely sum of £1, then converted it into a sort of mini library, full of books and magazines.
How did I find out all this? Hutton Magna is such a small but friendly place, that just standing around attracted some locals into telling us some of the history of the area.

Rainbows!

Since being here in barney, one of the things I've noticed is the skies. They seem so much more dramatic than in South Wales. yesterday, walking home was this amazing double rainbow.
Top picture is at the school playing fields, with my boy playing in a football match in the distance.
Bottom picture is the Teesdale Sports Center with GlaxoSmithKline in the distance on the left.

Rugby Time

Some of the guys at work told me about the Rugby matches being played on Saturdays. As Bowes FC seem to be playing away more at the moment I went along. Barnard Castle play on a field located in The Domains, as with the footie, attendance is free!

The first match was in glorious sunshine, and featured one of the guys from work in the team too!
The second match, in which Nathan came as well, was a bit more of a wet affair.
Barney lost both matches, with 2 mins to go for the game against Rockcliff, but they were very good games. Nathan bought us loads of bags of crisps which we munched through the first half and then spent most of the second half curled inside his hood as the rain came down a bit heavier.

Gilling West

We dropped Elionwy off in Richmond this morning and then stopped off just outside Gilling West, a lovely little village, to photograph this tower. I've seen it a few times from the road and thought it was a folly, but when we walked to it and started inspecting it, it looked more like some sort of watchtower. There was a walled up doorway to stop access, but it looked like it was built with purpose.
If you know what it was for, please leave a comment.
I looked for more info on Google Maps, but found nothing.

MAP

Picnic at The Domains

We were invited to a picnic with a group of friends from the church. We all had a great afternoon at The Domains. There was even some entertainment as a boot was brought out and some good old fashioned Welly Wanging went on!

A small dream come true

After our visit to the Etihad Stadium for Nathans birthday he was hoping we would get to see a match there.

We were very kindly given some money to take him, and managed to see City vs Hull. After a poorish beginning City did the business and beat Hull 2-0.
Compared to the Merthyr games we were used to see, where attendance was around 150 - 300 max, and Bowes where attendance can be counted in single figures, being in a 47'000 strong crowd was a lot different.
Of course he wants to go again.

More Woo?

The above picture is almost word for word a conversation my 13 year old son asked me.