County Durham 1 - Barnard Castle , the Bowes museum, a french chateau, a mechanical swan and a couple of Canalettos

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Can you remember back to a programme called "That was the week that was" . It was a satirical television programme on the BBC broadcast in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin whom I cannot remember and presented by David Frost who become very famous indeed on British TV. The programme was a new concept to Britain as it was considered satire and lampooned the establishment and political figures who became targets for derision. Well the last couple of weeks have felt like that. Normally I would love to be out of the country during electioneering as it goes on too long for me as I am forced to listen to endless arguements being bandied about and being batted to and forth like a ping pong ball. Sadly Suzy has taken root, the grass is growing round her feet and she cannot get off our drive otherwise I would have headed for the sunset to avoid the endless programmes where our politicians have hurled insults at each other and debating has become debased . The referendum is over and done. The result is in and that should be the end of it . But no , our Prime Minister has stood down, we have a political battle of our hands about who is going to be the next leader. There are protests, marchers and rallies and even a petition to stop BREXIT. The Labour party is in disarray. We need to get away. There has been such a lot of nastiness . It was odd that my calendar come up with a good one in the light of the last few weeks. A quote from Mahatma Gandhi . " Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words." "Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviours" "Keep your behaviours positive because your behaviours become your habits." " Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values." Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny" Wise words and apt at the moment in an odd world .

I had booked a week off work so the idea had been to get in Suzy and hit the road perhaps for South Wales, Pembrokeshire and/or Devon. Instead we headed in the car for an overnighter up north. We had not stayed in a hotel/motel for the past five years and the first thing that shocked me was the price. I have complained enough about the price of British campsites and their locations but trying to find somewhere to stay near enough to Barnard Castle and far enough from the busy A1 proved difficult. Yes there were places to stay but they were right on the road and neither of us sleep well. Then there was the price £78 for a room and two breakfasts. It's not a lot but then it felt a lot compared to £25 a night on a campsite . We could have had three nights away in Suzy for the price of one in a hotel. In the end we picked the Holiday Inn and older 30's style hotel which would suit our needs.

We packed up. Again an odd experience. All our belongings are generally in Suzy and we are good to go. We had to think clothes, we had to find bags, we needed all those things that we normally take for granted . It felt wierd leaving Suzy behind.

The journey was not too bad . We left late enough for the early morning rush hour on the M1 to have dissipated. We had a good run to the M18 and then up the A1. The weather held fair too. Not too hot and not too cold. It has been an awful June. Flaming for all the wrong reasons. July had not started fair but has picked up for our trip to Country Durham and North Yorkshire.

Our first stop was the Bowes Museum just outside the town of Barnard Castle . We had not been to County Durham for years. The last time was to Durham to go to the records office for family history and that was too long ago to even remember the date. We drove in through some magnificent black and gold wrought iron gate. In front of us a great many cars parked . We hadn't expected to see so many tourists mid-week and on a school day. Lawns lay to the front of the building with flower beds and a fountain . We crossed the gravel towards the house with the sound of crunching beneath our feet . Our stomachs were rumbling too above the sound of our footsteps, Up the grand steps on to a terrace in front of the house and what a house it is too.

None of the Baroque. None of the Palladian. It was like nothing you see in Britain. It was french in style and in some ways looks out of keeping with his rural surroundings. It looks all the world like a stately pile in a french village but in fact it was purpose built as an art gallery for gallery for John Bowes and his wife Joséphine Chevalier, Countess of Montalbo who sadly both died before it opened in 1892. Bowes was the illegitimate son of John Bowes the 10th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.

lt was designed with the collaboration of two architects, the French architect Jules Pellechet and Englishman John Edward Watson a fairly local man from Newcastle. It is built in a very grand French style within landscaped gardens All twiddly and fancy but with a symmetry that sits prettily on the landscape. It is probably not the most beautiful of French chateaux and it was not admire by all . In fact Nikolaus Pevsner who went round the country writing about buildings considere it big and bold and I can vouch for that. He compared it to a town hall in a major provincial French town. Yes perhaps he was right. The are some pretty large and imposing Mairie in France and some must look like this. Pevesner thought its scale in relation to the town it stands near was all wrong and inappropriate. It's a change though. A breath of fresh air. Something different and something interesting in its own right. For once again I could say we were not going to see a Palladian building.

Its contents are priceless, consisting of unique Napoleon relics, splendid picture galleries, a collection of old china, not to be matched anywhere else in the world, jewels of incredible beauty and value; and, indeed, a wonderful and rare collection of art objects of every kind . That's what the blurb says. The building was begun in 1869 and was reputed to have cost £100,000. The equivalent of 10 million in todays money . Bowes and his wife left an endowment of £125,000 and a total of 800 paintings. We headed in to see what was inside .

The entrance hall is impressive with a grand staircase and huge mirrors which spread the light everywhere. We paid our £9.50 consessionary entrance fee and took our map which showed us the layout of the three floors of the house. We declined the free exhibition on shoes which were on loan from the V & A in London. Neither of us are shoe fanatics and neither of us fancied waiting for a time slot to see them. Instead we headed off to the small cafe where we feasted on latte, a cafetiere of hot scalding coffee and treacle cured bacon on a roll.

It was then to the first floor to see what delights were in store for us at the museum. The first room had videos set up and storyboards telling the life story of the family , how and when they started to collect and what their interests were . We walked through room after room full of china and pottery from early pottery to Wedgewood, from porcelain to slip ware. We saw Mintons and exotic early Japanese and Chinese ware . Cabinets were filled with silver from chalices to simple knifes and forks . Coins from the early English Kings reigns. A room full of Indian items. A temporary exhibition of saris and shrines set up to Ganesh the elephant god. Up to the next floor and pride of place the automaton. A silver many hinged beast that at 2pm every day was set off whereby it preened itself and tried to eat the tiny silver fishes that swam in its pond. It was obvious that the item had been restored as next to it were the many pieces that originally made up its internal workings and the bath like structure it sat in.

The most interesting room for us was the paintings room at the top of the museum. Inside were many french paintings, portraits by Lord Leighton and Alma Tadema and a whole collection of church art including altar pieces and reredos taken out of the private chapels in Bruges . In the middle of the room complete choir stalls with the most exquisite of carving. The carvers art though was seen at its best in a flemish altarpiece on the wall with its side panels showing scenes from the Old Testament. There were two Canalettos with views of St Marks Square and the Doges Palace and the Grand Canal in Venice . Sadly for us many of the paintings were displayed in the Victorian style of pile them high meaning we could see those on the first level perfectly but the two layers above gave us neck ache craning up to see them. The one painting I had wanted to see was "The Tears of St Peter" by El Greco . One of the many copies he did the painting is stunning , dark and dreary but atmospheric. If there were a criticism of the building then it had to be the price of entry which was high compared to the entry which is free to most museums in Britain and the fact that there were no Impressionist nor Pre- Raphaelite paintings in the collection .

It was though a good start to our tour of the area and next we planned to take in not one but three castles.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Clock
This building needs a clock.

[JenGog]

clocks
Well there were some but only inside and they didnt float my boat . Loved your photo of the sea . It looked fantastic