31 August: Northumberland

Today is Northumbria Day. The Kingdom of Northumbria was a medieval Anglian kingdom in what is now Northern England and south-east Scotland. It extended from the Humber, Peak District and the River Mersey in the south to the Firth of Forth in the north. Northumbria ceased to be an independent kingdom in the mid-tenth century.

Today, Northumbria usually refers to a smaller region corresponding to the counties of Northumberland, County Durham and Tyne and Wear in North East England. Since I’ve already covered County Durham and may want to cover Tyne and Wear/Newcastle at some point in the future, my ten facts today relate to Northumberland.

1. It’s the most northerly county in England and one of the most sparsely populated. 97% of it is classed as rural with only 63 people per km2.
2. The name derives from the Old English Norþan-hymbre, meaning "the people or province north of the Humber".
3. The first private home to be lit by Electricity is here. It is called Cragside and was built for wealthy engineer William Armstrong who made a lot of money from designing efficient guns. His electric lighting was such a novelty that the then Prince Edward stayed with him rather than with the Duke of Northumberland as protocol would have had him do. The house now belongs to the National Trust.
4. Northumberland has more castles than any other county in the world, over 70 of them. One of them is Bamburgh Castle, the first castle in Britain to be destroyed by cannon fire. The ruin was later bought by the aforementioned William Armstrong when he was 80, with the intention of turning it into a convalescent home but never managed it, so it became his great nephew’s family home. When I visited I was told a rather sweet story about a little boy who discovered a secret entrance to the castle. As he emerged from the well shaft, Lord Armstrong happened to be passing by, and rather than give the kid a hiding, gave him afternoon tea. The boy’s classmates didn’t believe the story and stopped speaking to him. Somehow Lord Armstrong found out about this and so he went to the school (terrifying the teachers because they assumed something must have gone wrong) to tell the kids it wasn’t a tall tale. The castle is also said to be haunted by a ghost with a bandaged hand and a princess in a pink dress.
5. Another one is Alnwick Castle which belongs to the Duke of Northumberland, who can trace his ancestry back to 1066 when they came over with William the Conqueror. This castle has been used as a filming location for Downton Abbey and the Harry Potter films.
6. Since 2013, part of the county has been officially recognised as Europe’s largest area of protected night skies. Fewer people means less light pollution and so it’s a great place to go star gazing and you might even get to see the Northern Lights.
7. There’s a breed of cattle native to Northumberland which are rarer than the giant Panda. They are called Chillingham Wild Cattle and they’ve been living in the area for about 700 years and are completely feral – never touched by any human being, not even a vet. They nearly died out in 1947 when there was a particularly harsh winter – numbers dwindled to just 13, but thanks to a conservation association there are now 70-100 of them.
8. Berwick-upon-Tweed was officially at war with Russia for 110 years. This was because the town kept changing hands between England and Scotland – 14 times, in fact. Because nobody was ever quite sure who the town belonged to this week, it was usually referred to as a separate entity in all state documents. So when the Crimean War began, Britain declared war on Russia in the name of Britain, Ireland, Berwick-upon-Tweed and all British Dominions. Two years later, the peace treaty accidentally left out Berwick which was therefore technically at war with Russia until 1996, when a Soviet official visited the town to declare peace.
9. Kielder Water and Forest Park is the largest man-made lake and forest in North Europe. Each year half a million cubic metres of timber gets harvested. In addition to this, they replace it with 3.5 million trees. Making it the largest man-made forest in Northern Europe.
10. Famous people from Northumberland include The Venerable Bede, Earl Gray (famous for Earl Grey tea), Capability Brown, Bobby and Jack Charlton, Grace Darling, Ross Noble, stand-up comedian, Robson Green, actor and singer, Pete Doherty and Eric Burdon, leader of The Animals.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book