Up north or bust - Our tour of Northumbria and East Coast 28th

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28th May

We went to Gunby Hall NT. A very interesting country house, dated 1700 and set in a Victorian walled garden at the foot of the Lincolnshire Wolds. Charming house, walled gardens and orangery cum greenhouse. Built for the quietly influential Massingberd family (boy did they have some social contacts in the day, particularly around the suffragette movement), the house has some great artistic works by notable names. We loved the gardens and there were plenty of estate walks.

Some of the rooms were exquisite. Chinese hand painted wall paper from the 1700’s. Some serious craftsmanship - jade and marble chests; a beautiful library. This was 1700 and 1800’s wealth on display!

After a few hours wandering around that, we headed over to Wainfleet but not before we had diverted to see the Bubble car museum! This was one of those quirky visits we occasionally do and it was great. What a lovely collection. I have fond memories of sitting in the bubble car of a friend of my parents – I must have been around 7 years old at the time and he allowed me and my brother to ‘pretend’ drive it.

We eventually pitch up at Grange Farm Cottages – a gravel standing, spacious pitch and clean facilities.

29^th

Maggie is taking me to Skegness! She did a part time holiday job up there during her university vacation one time and she’s always wanted to go back and see what’s changed. So, we ended up staying at two different sites so we could explore parts of this coast. The first site was at Wainfleet – Grange Farm Cottages – again nice pitch, clean facilities and a short walk to the train station. We went to catch the train from Wainfleet station – but it was cancelled – so we caught the bus instead to Skeggie. Number 57 – took thirty minutes.

Wow – I got an education! We strolled the seafront, the pier and explored the shops. Skegness is one of those places where all jobs are found in tourism; a place which is totally geared to pleasure; and where residents must feel genuinely swamped at peak holiday times. A place which over the last several decades has been left behind in terms of development money and investment. I loved the place as a geographer – full of puzzles and surprises but at the same time, forlorn of hope. At the time I write this we have a new Labour government and I fervently hope that they remember our peripheral areas outside the economic core of our country – Wales, Devon and Cornwall, much of the east coast etc.

30th

We called in at Tesco’s at Skegness to do a food stock up and then returned to our site to catch up on laundry. A chill out day!

31st Friday

So, we ended up staying at two different sites so we could explore parts of this coast. The second site was up at Ingoldmells - Jubilee Fields. Got greeted at the gate and shown to our pitch. We had grass and electric. Nice site, clean facilities and a nice walk down to the seafront. Nothing but funfairs, roller coaster rides, thousands of mobile homes and then fast food bars. Little outdoor market stalls everywhere. As a geographer I was fascinated. I have taught about mass tourism and the East coast many times but never actually seen it in reality. I was shocked by the scale of developments. But, aside of this, my ‘other’ shock was about the type of eateries. It was all fast food, high fat and sugar content – which I guess is part of a seaside holiday – or is it? To relieve my shock symptoms, we spent the afternoon reading and pigging out on candyfloss and chocolate covered honeycombe pieces. The food of the Gods!