A grand day out Part I 

 
This was a lovely day out and, although it involved a tad more driving than some of our previous trips, it is well worth it. We visited Barnard Castle (link goes to Google Maps), Bowes Museum, Egglestone Abbey and the World of James Herriot. Rather like the car journey, this blog is a bit long – you’ve been warned!
 
We started out by driving to Barnard Castle, about 40 minutes away, where we spent a pleasant hour or so mooching around the many intriguing antique shops, before heading to our favourite museum – Bowes. I’ve blogged about Bowes Museum before, but that was on our old website, so I make no excuses for raving about this fabulous institution again.

This painting at Bowes Museum always makes us smile 

I particularly like the way the museum is child friendly without being patronising, engaging children in an intelligent and inspiring way. Look around the childhood toys section, marvel at the enormous dolls’ houses and seek out the iconic two-headed calf. Admire the eclectic art collection, which includes ceramics, silverware and paintings, stop at the beautifully presented fashion through the ages exhibit and then, of course, you come across the Silver Swan, which always stops us in our tracks.
 
This enchanting automaton, dating back to 1774, is truly wonderful – my words can’t do it justice, so watch this video from the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow in 2025.  The swan can be seen in action daily at 14:00, with extra showings at 11:45 during school holidays. 
 
I also recommend stopping at the Bowes café. We wanted to make sure our daughter was well fed before she caught the train from Darlington back to King’s Cross, London (worth noting that the journey is just over two-and-a-half hours, which is pretty good). We shared a sourdough pizza. ‘Shared’ is a slight misnomer, as most of the pizza was wolfed down by everyone else before I had a chance to eat my first slice. Still, the piece that I did manage to snaffle was delicious.
 
With about an hour to kill before dropping her off at Darlington, we then drove to Egglestone Abbey, a small monastery that was founded between 1195 and 1198. It was plagued by modest resources, owing to its very limited endowment, and was one of the poorer monasteries of its time. This seems to have had a knock-on effect on behaviour, as the monastery required repeated visits in the late 15th Century by the Bishop of Ely who found Egglestone to be ‘unsatisfactory’ and the canons ‘slack in their duties’. The bishop ordered the abbot to enforce the rules, which included making canons wear their heavy cloaks and, intriguingly, banning them from making social visits to the town. Make of that what you will.


 
The Abbey was closed in 1540, although the east range was rebuilt as a house in the 16th Century. Today, the site stands in beautiful ruin. 


 
After a brief detour via Darlington train station, we headed to Thirsk, which was home to James Alfred ‘Alf’ Wight OBE, FRCVS, author of the famous James Herriot books. I devoured these novels as a child and so many of his character observations still ring true today, so I was particularly exited by this visit. 
 
You enter through the house and surgery, seeing the dispensary, sitting and dining rooms, consulting room and kitchen, before making your way through an exhibit of film and TV series paraphernalia (beware, the theme tune to the first series plays on a loop in this area. It literally stayed in my head for days. And now it’s back again as I type this). I was a bit disappointed, thinking that was the end of the tour, but my word, this museum just kept on giving. We passed through television sets, saw the original cars that were used in the film and series, then went into the former stables, where we watched a well-made and evocative film about Wight’s life. The museum gets better and better as you make your way through it.
 
We went upstairs to an exhibition of veterinary history, featuring more than 4,000 items showcasing veterinary instruments through the ages, along with a great interactive room. Yes, we did put our hands up Daisy's bottom. And yes, we did jump when the poor cow bellowed at our fumbling ministrations. 


 
The drive home to Waitby School was just over an hour, and later that evening we tucked into chicken breasts stuffed with Stilton and wrapped in bacon, which we had had the foresight to buy from McFarlane’s Family Butchers in Barnard Castle – really delicious, I can’t recommend this butchers highly enough.