The West Country is so last decade. The up and coming surfing mecca is the North Yorkshire coast near Scarborough. Champion!We are on the beach at Cayton Bay, south of Scarborough, listening to James Turner, the tutor from Scarborough Surf School: "This is the nose and this is the tail." He's talking about the surf board. "These are the rails ... " The sides in other words.I love all the surf talk. I want to get good in surf talk. After all, it's a lifestyle, isn't it? A surf shop owner told me once that a customer bought a top-of-the-range board, then asked him to drill eight holes through it. He didn't want to go near the sea, just bolt it permanently to his car roof-rack.I've a sneaking suspicion that I fall into this "lifestyle surfer" category. Last summer I wore a T-shirt that read "Enter the Realm". It was something to do with surfing, I knew that much, and it made me feel good. I was in the Realm. Except I wasn't. Now I'm in the realm. The greyish-brown North Sea, with a sharp wind bowling in from the Baltic. Can this really be the next big thing in British surfing?"Yes," says James emphatically. "With modern suits, the cold is not an issue out here, and we've got some fantastic surf. I've had water five times as tall as me in some spots. Barrel-rolls that you could fit a van inside.""And the less-than-turquoise water?""Clay deposits offshore," says James.Scarborough has this knack of pulling off some astonishing moves when in economic need. In the 1600s it announced that the acidic waters running from under the cliff were a sovereign remedy for various ailments. The following century it introduced the novelty of bathing machines, and the arrival of the railway in 1841 triggered a tourist boom that lasted a century. Then in 1932, believe it or not, it briefly became the world capital of big game fishing, when bluefin tuna were discovered. Now, in the 21st century, it has discovered that it has some of the country's best surfing. It doesn't surprise me: having visited this coast during stormy weather, I know how vast the waves can get.James shows us how to scoot a board over the relatively small incoming waves, then turn and get aboard, ready for action. The vital trick is in timing the moment that you leap to your feet, but James helpfully steadies the board, pushes and shouts, "Now!"I'm astonished to find that I can stay on my feet for a whole second. A few more attempts and I stay up for several seconds. My son Niall, 13, does even better, only to be outdone by six-year-old Maddy, who stands up on her first attempt, and stays up. On an eight-foot board she looks like she's riding a barge. The sun comes out, the sea sparkles and for almost two hours we forget about the chilly water and are totally absorbed in our efforts."It really is a sport for all ages," says James when, after two hours, we finally head back to the hot showers, tired but elated. "We've even taught people in their late 60s."In the warm shop, with a mug of tea in hand, he shows us some photos of big waves: cavernous tubes of water containing some crouching tiger of a surfer. These were not taken in Hawaii, he explains, but on the English east coast. I ask where precisely and he grins. "We call those places Secret Spots. People don't like to publicise them too much. Anyway they are extremely dangerous if you don't know what you are doing."James does. Like many surfers up here, he travelled far and wide before finally waking up to the fact that his own backyard was pretty good too.Down in Scarborough town, at another surf shop, Fluid Concept, Steve Crawford tells the same tale: "I come from Scarborough, but I always accepted that Cornwall was the best. I lived there for years before I came back and explored this coast. It was then I realised we had some very special surf."Steve takes us out to try paddleboarding – this is done on a large surfboard, and you propel yourself using a long-handled paddle. "It's very different from normal surfing," he says. "You have more time to look around and enjoy the seascape. People take their lunch, go fishing, make a day of exploring the coast."Scarborough itself is really two bays: north and south, separated by a crag topped with a castle. The steep streets and harbour give it the feel of a fishing village, but there's Victorian grandeur at the edges, and seaside postcard trash too. In a day you can get through quite a spectrum of entertainment here: go surfing in the morning (after a call to the surf shop to check which bay is best), lunch on local seafood, ride the dodgems and the big wheel in the afternoon, then head for the internationally renowned Stephen Joseph Theatre to catch a play in the evening.We stroll along the promenade, admiring the usual weekend quota of Harley Davidsons and discover the Tunny Club, once the haunt of a select band of big game fishermen that included Baron Rothschild and, it's claimed, Errol Flynn. It's now an excellent fish and chip restaurant, and its walls are adorned with photographs from the improbable heyday of the North Sea tuna, in the 30s.It is a salutary reminder of how productive the North Sea once was. In his book An Unnatural History of the Seas, Professor Callum Roberts of York University paints a picture of a sea that brimmed with life until the arrival of the steam trawler: shoals of haddock three miles long, oyster beds as wide as Wales, salmon fisheries filled with wild salmon rather than lice-infested chemically stained Franken-fish. The North Sea used to be a world-class marine paradise. And there are those who believe such splendour could return, if and when the government gets round to establishing the long-awaited marine reserves."We've lost 98% of the original biomass of the North Sea," says Rob Stoneman of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. "Bottom trawling has been an unmitigated disaster. But there is a chance that we can rejuvenate things – bring back some of the world's richest fishing grounds, and maybe even some of the great megafauna we once had: the sharks, turtles, dolphins and so on."We move on, from the noise and excitement of South Bay to the quieter North Bay. In late Victorian times this area was the site of some ambitious schemes: a giant outdoor theatre, and a mile-long railway to carry visitors around the bay. The 3,000-seat amphitheatre is awaiting refurbishment, but the railway still runs, with original locomotives, providing a handy way to reach the Sea Life Centre (and one of Scarborough's best restaurants, the Glasshouse Bistro). Dominating the bay these days is The Sands, a £155m redevelopment of a 30s water park and entertainment complex. For now there are some spectacular sea view apartments and a surfers' bar, Blue Crush, but a modernised water park is to follow.Despite all the new-builds and revamps, it is the sea that surfers see as the key to Scarborough's long-term future. Some have been active with anti-pollution campaigns, others with attempts to establish marine reserves."The North Sea has this image of a poisoned cold waste," says Steve Crawford in his surf shop. "But it has a lot to offer, especially if we start taking care of it. That is something surfers have realised."As if to confirm Steve's optimism, the sea gives us a sign. We are walking along Marine Drive, the road that loops around the headland between the town's two bays. Niall spots something in the water and we all stare in astonishment as a pod of porpoises cruise by, just 50m off shore."I'll paddleboard round here tomorrow," says Steve. "I reckon this area is a nursery for porpoises. If we can prove it, we can try and get it protected."It is a magical moment and, as if to remind us where we are, our natural history reverie is disturbed by the raucous shouts and screams from the dodgem rides on the harbour wall. The porpoises don't seem bothered, however, and carry on rolling through the swell until they pass out of sight.• Fluid Concept (01723 354263) in South Bay, Scarborough, hires...
This home counties pub-with-rooms on London's Metropolitan Line has a great period feel, and fantastic foodI can never understand the two-night minimum stay rule – you know, when places won't take a single-night booking at weekends. For city-dwellers, the chances of ending up in Friday night traffic and missing dinner are high. I'd rather set off on Saturday morning, have two days away (Saturday and Sunday), but, if necessary, pay more for a single night. No such dilemma at tonight's pub-with-rooms: no minimum stay, for one thing, but also it can be reached from central London by public transport. Couldn't be easier.The Crown is home to the suite in which Andie MacDowell and Hugh Grant got it on in Four Weddings and a Funeral. That four-poster room, the "Elizabeth", is very popular, and the last bit to require refurbishment. The rest of the inn has been transformed – its current owners having created a modern coaching inn using the services of designer Ilse Crawford (whose Studioilse has a client list that includes Soho House New York) and chef Rosie Sykes (whom my restaurant critic friend lauds to the skies)."Take it from me – the cherry fizz is fantastic," says S, ensconced in an armchair with her seven-year-old when I arrive on this freezing Saturday night. She orders another glass but I want something hot. Sipping Earl Grey in our nook, between bar and restaurant, gives me time to survey both. Beams, exposed brick, lots of dark wood – everything you might expect in an Elizabethan inn – plus some things you wouldn't. High-backed settles are draped in plaid blankets (very folk, very now) held in place by thin leather straps. Naked bulbs sit in glass lantern boxes on the walls; tiny pewter plates are laid on light oak refectory tables.My room overlooks the street and has a genuine medieval wall-painting. A custom-made "ladder" bears Penguin Classics, kettle, little brown cups (a change from ubiquitous white), even an iron. The bed is wonderful and despite myself (because they aren't British-made) I love the plant-based Aesop toiletries.Can't fault the tactile concept, but what hasn't been taken into account is wear and tear. Room info comes on thick A5 sheets which are grubby and dog-eared. Black rubber flooring in the shower is worn, and grouting around the bottom is grungy (I wish I'd packed flip-flops to separate feet from floor). A tweedy square cushion on my bed has something encrusted on it, and the red Roberts radio is dusty. Tut tut tut.Back downstairs, for early dinner by the fire. "For once," says S, "the kids' menu isn't all pasta." The grown-ups' is that rarity – we want every single dish on it. A main of white bean, fennel and celeriac stew is shared as a starter (so good we declare we could eat it for main and pudding too), but what follows – roast venison with butternut squash and chestnuts, and poached chicken with prunes and leeks – gives the stew a run for its money.Noisy cabbies briefly disturb before I drop off – to be expected on a Saturday night. I could get into this pub-outside-a-city lark (recommendations, please), but this one must swiftly clean up its act.Daytripper Kids will love the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre up the road in Great Missenden (roalddahl museum.org, family ticket £19).• 16 High Street, Old Amersham (01494 721541, thecrownamersham.com). Doubles from £119 B&B.
Thousands using gas flares will illuminate the whole course of Britain's biggest historic monument
Interactive: Lighting up Hadrian's wallAn army that would have astonished the emperor Hadrian is set to take over his Roman wall tomorrow night, lighting a chain of beacons from the Tyne to the Solway Firth.Thousands have been recruited for what will be an 84-mile variation on Antony Gormley's invitation to the people of the UK to occupy the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square – a brief but spectacular moment of public art.Designed to highlight Britain's biggest ancient monument and bring an early spring to the northern tourist economy, the event will feature scenes that would have earned an instant court martial in Hadrian's day.Durham student Maxine Granger is inviting friends to an impromptu birthday party around the gas flare that she will ignite near Newcastle upon Tyne. Raf Appleby, an artist based at a Cumbrian farm on the wall, plans to do the same for her 49th, including a display by one of her five children who is a trained fire-eater.A sequence of 500 "illuminations" at 250-metre intervals will roll westwards from Segundum fort, Wallsend, at 5.45pm, reaching Carlisle three quarters of an hour later and ending on the final, largely fragmentary stretch of the wall above the Solway. Timings and gas supplies are being synchronised so that the whole of the ancient frontier will be illuminated at the climax for the first time since Hadrian ordered its building in AD122."There was a huge rush to get involved as soon as we announced the idea," said Linda Tuttiett, chief executive of Hadrian's Wall Heritage, the agency tasked with bringing jobs, visitors and international lustre to the wall. "We have had to double up the illuminators at the beacons to include as many applicants as we can."Thousands of would-be modern legionnaires used Facebook and Twitter to argue why they should be among those chosen to light the flares. Reasons included intimate details of trysts at particular spots, anniversaries and simple love of the dramatic landscape, especially where the wall marches along the escarpment of the Whin Sill.Applicants included several hundred from overseas, among them a couple from the Netherlands, Katleen Vandenbranden and Matthais Fabian, who spend their spare time dressing up as Romans but have yet to visit the wall. "It's such a great idea," said Vandenbranden, in between packing up togas and leggings at home in Nijswiller. "It'll show how history is something for everyone, rather than a handful of highly educated people."There will be others with specialist knowledge of the wall, which has shed much light on the Roman world since serious excavations were started by the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries in the early 19th century. Discoveries range from cement so strong that it was analysed by engineers building the nuclear plant at Sellafield to an unprecedented collection of personal letters and bills unearthed at the fort and civilian settlement of Vindolanda.Stuart Eve, a doctoral student at University College London, will combine triggering a beacon with his own work on the lighting used by the Roman garrison. He said: "I've already closely studied the possibility that they had flaming torches at intervals, and done a computer programme on how beacons might have been used in the milecastle forts. To be chosen to take part in a recreation like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."Viewing areas along the central line of the wall have been sold out for months, and places have been snapped up at related events, including an organised walk from Haltwhistle and a cycling tour of the ramparts by cheese enthusiasts. Hadrian's Wall Heritage said visitors were best advised to head for two major events – theatre and son et lumière at Segundum fort and a torchlit fancy-dress procession with acrobats dangling from a heliosphere balloon in the centre of Carlisle.A rehearsal last month showed that the line of lights could be seen from 10 miles away, set off by the darkness cloaking the sparsely inhabited central section of the wall. Beacons in less dramatic stretches, including fragments of wall among housing estates on the edge of Newcastle, may also be less crowded.The event follows a successful "regarrisoning" of the wall last year, with actors and enthusiasts playing the cosmopolitan army that defended Rome's most northerly border. Research on DNA and stone inscriptions has shown that troops from northern Africa were involved, and that some settled down to raise families locally.The Meteorological Office forecasts cloudy weather at the wall with the possibility of light showers in the west but dry in the east. Full details of the event are available online.
From a thatched cottage to a castle outhouse, seaside retreats to an historic city pad, we've picked 20 fantastic self-catering properties available over the Easter holidayWalesCapel Pennant, near LlangollenCapel Pennant is a cosy converted estate chapel in the gardens of one of Wales' most handsome manor houses, Plas Pennant, on the Chirk Castle estate near Lllangollen. It has been elegantly furnished, but the chief delight is the wonderful open view down the famous Ceiriog valley. You can enjoy access to the gardens of the manor, or great walking in the area, and visit the charming heritage towns close by, of which Llangollen and Chirk are just the start.• Sleeps up to two people in one bedroom. Arriving Easter Monday, five nights costs £355 or stay seven nights for £533. Under The Thatch, +44 (0)1239 851410.Cragside, near CaernarfonAn unusual rustic, mountain cottage standing on its own on a hillside surrounded by fields. It's close to several beaches, inspiring castles and amazing views. It is offered by Sheepskin, which launched last month, with 10 stylish self-catering properties in remote and beautiful locations in north and south Wales. Sheepskin keeps prices the same all year round and has a special launch offer giving guests a 20% discount on an Easter break and all subsequent stays for the rest of their lives. (The discount applies to week-long Easter breaks completed by 11 April.)• Sleeps two adults and and three children. Cost £888 (with 20% discount) for seven nights over Easter. Sheepskin; +44 (0)1865 764087.ScotlandEaster Steading, Near Cupar, FifeConverted from old farm buildings, the Steading forms two sides of a secluded walled courtyard with a backdrop of the rolling hills of north Fife, exactly half way between Perth and St Andrews (16 miles from both). Includes sitting room with wood-burning stove and piano, fully equipped kitchen/dining room, two ensuite bedrooms and gallery games area with table football and broadband connection.• Sleeps four. A seven-night holiday starting on 3 April costs £475. unique-cottages.co.uk; +44 (0)1835 822277.Delgatie Castle, Aberdeenshire Mary Queen of Scots once slept in this historic Scottish castle in Aberdeenshire. Home to some of the finest 16th-century painted ceilings in Scotland, parts of the building date back to 1030. You'll stay in apartments in the castle coach house, from where you can explore the estate and Delgatie Woods, go flyfishing for rainbow and brown trout in the castle lake or tuck into cream teas and home-cooked food in the Laird's Kitchen. It's a good base for exploring the Highlands; Speyside and the Cairngorms are easily accessible and some of the world's best known whisky distilleries are nearby.• A week's stay costs £409 (was £503), sleeps five/six in an apartment in the castle coach house. delgatiecastle.com/; +44 (0)1888 563479.Achleek Cottage, ArgyllSave £80 on a seven-night stay in this snug former tackman's house on the south side of Loch Sunart. Recently refurbished it sleeps five in three bedrooms and has an open fire and wonderful views down the loch and across to the mountains of Moidart and Sunart. There are few roads in the area (but lots of wonderful walking) and less in the way of human settlement - the nearest village is peaceful Strontian three miles away. Drive to the end of the Ardnamurchan peninsula, the westernmost tip of mainland Britain, with its glorious beach at Sanna and boat trips from Kilchoan.• A week's stay costs £495, sleeps five, valid from 3 April. Pets welcome by arrangement. unique-cottages.co.uk; +44 (0)1835 822277.The Hill House, Helensburgh, near GlasgowThis is the perfect stay for lovers of architecture and design. The Hill House - including much of its interior, from fireplaces to furnishings – was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for publisher Walter Blackie, and is considered to be his domestic masterpiece. You will stay in the top floor flat, where you can still find the toy cupboards of what once was the schoolroom of the Blackie family. The house is very close to Glasgow, where art enthusiasts can learn more about Mackintosh and visit his famous School of Art.• Five nights from £957, sleeps six. landmarktrust.org.uk; +44 (0)1628 825925.EnglandWest Leas Farm cottages, YorkshireArchway, Granary and Byre cottages are housed in a converted barn on peaceful West Leas Farm in the Yorkshire Dales. All have countryside views and access to enclosed gardens which lead directly to open fields and footpaths – the owners can provide you with a map showing their favourite local walks. See new-born calves ('Snowdrop' was born last month), ponies and Easter lambs. Nearby are the cathedral city of Ripon and the market town of Masham, famous for its Black Sheep and Theakstons breweries. The villages of Kirkby Malzeard and Galphay are both within walking distance, with local shops, pubs and tea rooms.• £460 a week for a family of four from 5-18 April. iknow-yorkshire.co.uk; 0844 453 6648.The Miller's House, ShropshireThis snug conversion is in part of the original Birches Mill, by the River Unk. The mill dates back to 1640 and corn was ground here right up until the second world war. Artists Gill and Andrew live next door and will happily provide you with a locally-sourced home-cooked meal from their freezer if you arrive exhausted on a Friday night (or you can order a welcome box of local produce for £22). Downstairs is a living room with low, beamed ceilings and wood-burning stove; a wildlflower garden sits behind the cottage. Offa's Dyke can be reached by foot, and the gastonomic town of Ludlow is a short hop away.• A week's stay, from 2 or 3 April, costs from £405, sleeps four. special-escapes.co.uk; +44 (0)1588 640409.The Spinney, CumbriaSet in the countryside between Ennerdale Water and the market town of Cockermouth in west Cumbria, this new-build house has under-floor heating, wood flooring, a four-poster bed, a great dining/kitchen and a real fire in the large living room. The house is surrounded by glorious countryside for walking or cycling – the Coast-to-Coast Cycle Route goes past the front door.• Sleeps up to six. A week's rental starting April 3 is £780 (reduced from £890). Arrive 10 April for seven nights and the cost is £680. Cumbrian Cottages; +44(0)1228 599960.Kendal cottages riverside apartment, CumbriaBe the first to stay in these new luxury suites with riverside balconies looking out over the River Kent to picturesque Stramongate Bridge and on to Kendal castle. The apartment is bright and spacious with open-plan kitchen, living room and dining area and super king size beds. There's a free welcome bottle of champagne for Easter guests.• A week's stay costs from £650, sleeps four. kendalcottages.com; +44 (0)1539 736611.The Granary, Forest of DeanSet between the River Wye and River Seven this 18th-century cottage has been sensitively converted into a rural getaway in the heart of the Forest of Dean. There are 180-degree views of open countryside and forest walks starting right from the back door. Horse riding, canoeing or mountain biking are also available nearby. The owner, an award winning photographer, is able to offer individual tuition or you can play drums, keyboard and guitars in the fully equipped music studio under the guidance of professional musicians.• A week's stay costs £325, sleeps two. holidaylettings.co.uk; +44 (0)1594 860476.Stonechat Cottage, Worth Matravers, DorsetWorth Matravers is often cited as the prettiest village in Dorset. This Grade II-listed, Purbeck stone, quarryman's cottage dates back to 1772 and retains many original features. Just a mile from the beach and four miles from Swanage, Stonechat Cottage is found on a no-through lane leading to a path down to the sea at Winspit. It has accommodation over three floors with a small rear decked courtyard with barbecue. Or, if you can't be bothered to cook, pop into the Square & Compass pub for a pint and a pasty and great views down to C...
Virginia Woolf's house, Gertrude Stein's flat – feminist pilgrimages are a great way to connect with history. So when Vera Groskop said girls were boring, her mother decided it was time for her first tripDespite my best efforts, my three-year-old daughter Vera hasn't exactly been celebrating her girlhood of late. In fact, influenced by her six-year-old brother, she can frequently be heard muttering, "Girls are boring. I want to do boys' things." I can see her point. Her brother's life is full of Star Wars, pirates, football and other action-packed phenomena. Vera gets Hello Kitty. She clearly finds this unsatisfying, and the situation is coming to a head. "I am not a girl, Mummy, I am a boy," she told me recently. "My name is Peter."But it's good to be a girl, I tell her. Being a girl is fun. There are women's successes to be celebrated. There is joy in the female condition. How can I prove this though? In our home city, London, there is just not that much physical evidence of women's greatness. The Alison Lapper statue in Trafalgar Square was taken down in 2007. There are nine male statues in Parliament Square – and no female ones. London's first public statue of a black woman, Bronze Woman by Aleix Barbat, in Stockwell Memorial Garden, did not appear until 2008. Germaine Greer has frequently complained that women are underrepresented in public monuments, noting that one of the only recent sculptures of a woman is of the actor Diana Dors at the Shaw Ridge leisure complex in Swindon. Now, I like Diana Dors. But this is pathetic.I was not about to frogmarch Vera to Swindon, but I loved the idea of an adventure, exploring women's hidden imprint on our streets. So I decided it was time for her first feminist pilgrimage. My mother-in-law reeled: "That poor child." But I knew how to sell it to Vera. "Would you like to come and find out what lots of important ladies did, and then we'll have cake?" "Yes," she replied seriously. "I would like cake."Rachel Kolsky, a London tourist guide, has run women's walking tours since 2005. "They open people's eyes to the hidden history of an area," she says. "There is a great women's story on every corner." Vera and I set off on a three-hour walk around the East End of London, starting at the Royal London Hospital, the focal point of the Wonderful Women of Whitechapel and Spitalfields Tour. Here, Kolsky tells a story about Eva Luckes, the famous hospital matron, whose successes included the containment of a typhoid epidemic. The hospital's inner courtyard has a magnificent statue of Queen Alexandra, who was instrumental in bringing a new treatment for tuberculosis to the hospital. "Look at that strong, proud lady, Vera!" I say. "You said I could have cake," she says. "I'm cold."Then Vera starts to cry, bringing our adventure to a sudden end. This is the problem with Kolsky's brilliant London tours: in order to showcase women's buried history, they cover a lot of ground. Great for an adult, but slightly too ambitious for a three-year-old.I am not deterred though. Quite the opposite. As we head home I am hatching plans for future feminist pilgrimages. In the UK, we can follow in the footsteps of Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, and the Brontës. Or, next time we are passing the Houses of Parliament, we could check out the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, one of London's few female landmarks, in Victoria Gardens. Then there's a trail of Pankhurst family blue plaques to be followed in London, from 50 Clarendon Road in Holland Park to 120 Cheyne Walk in Kensington.Further afield there is Gertrude Stein's apartment in Paris at 27 Rue de Fleurus. Now a private home, this address was once host to weekly salons and packed with paintings by Renoir, Gauguin and Cézanne; Picasso was a regular dinner guest. You may only be able to walk past these days, but you can still reminisce fondly on key passages in Stein's classic work The Auto- biography of Alice B Toklas. Or, in the same city, you could visit Simone de Beauvoir's grave – next to Sartre's – at the Cimetière du Montparnasse.In New York there is a lengthy Dorothy Parker trail leading from the Ansonia at 2108 Broadway (one of New York's most famous apartment blocks: Parker lived around the corner), to the 1925 birthplace of the New Yorker magazine at West 47th Street, where Parker worked, and on for cocktails at the Algonquin Hotel. Then there are all the great feminist museums: the Elizabeth A Sackler Center for Feminist Art, for instance, at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, which includes a gallery devoted to Judy Chicago's "vaginas on plates" sculpture, The Dinner Party.Maybe I will even start a "Sylvia Plath does New York" fund for when Vera turns 16. We will stay at the Barbizon Hotel at 63rd and Lexington – which was once women-only – wearing dresses with matching bags, as Plath did. We'll lunch near the one-time offices of Mademoiselle at 575 Madison Avenue where Plath was an intern. Or we'll criss-cross Massachusetts in a turquoise 1966 Thunderbird Convertible à la Thelma and Louise in honour of Louisa May Alcott, tattered copies of my favourite childhood book, Little Women, in tow. More likely though, we might just go to Stockwell when the weather warms up and take a look at that Bronze Woman, holding her baby triumphantly aloft. As long as there's an ice-cream van nearby, I'm sure Vera will be up for it.For anyone who wants to explore women's lives and history, here are some other great ideas for feminist pilgrimages.Bath: Jane AustenAusten lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806. The Jane Austen Centre at 40 Gay Street is gearing up for September's Austen Festival which features "the opportunity to dress throughout the week in 18th-century Regency costume". You can have "tea with Mr Darcy" (a £10.50 high tea with cucumber sandwiches, scones and cream) all year round. Those keen for an Elizabeth Bennett-style constitutional can download a free audio walking tour "In the footsteps of Jane Austen" at visitbath.co.uk. There is also a "Jane for the day" suggested timetable: "12.45pm: Visit the Assembly Rooms: in Jane's day, guests assembled for balls, to drink tea, play cards, listen to music or just to talk and flirt. 3pm: Stroll around the streets Jane would have known."Sussex: Virginia Woolf"It is not so much a house as a phenomenon." So wrote Quentin Bell of Charleston, the country home between Eastbourne and Lewes that was used by the writers, artists and thinkers known as the Bloomsbury group in the early 20th century. Virginia and Leonard Woolf originally spotted this late-17th-century Sussex farmhouse, situated at the foot of the South Downs, and coaxed Virginia's sister, Vanessa Bell, to move there in 1916. It reopens for the summer on 31 March, with special tours on Fridays.The Woolfs' own country home was Monk's House near Lewes, East Sussex (nationaltrust.org.uk). This property is occupied by tenants so is open only for short visits on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons between April and October. But there is the ideal pilgrimage on Saturday 26 June: an eight-mile walk "In the Footsteps of Virginia Woolf", from Monk's House to Charleston, with lunch at local stately home Firle Place (£25). To book tickets, call Charleston on 01323 811626 (charleston.org.uk).Washington: Michelle ObamaThe Smithsonian's National Museum of American History (on the National Mall, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue) has hundreds of exhibits commemorating the women's reform movement. The museum's First Ladies' Collection celebrates the influence of presidents' wives and has been one of the most popular exhibitions for the last 100 years, including archive material, diaries, memorabilia and costumes. This week, the white chiffon Jason Wu gown Michelle Obama wore to the inaugural balls went on show for the first time.For another tribute to Obama, head to her favourite takeout joint, Good Stuff Eatery at 303 Pennsylvania Avenue SE in Washington DC for a "Prez Obama" burger o...
Top 10 new family trips and activities, from sailing on the Solent to a wildlife weekend in North Yorkshire1 Eco-camping, Gloucestershire Dome Garden is a new camp made up of 10 geodesic domes opening in Coleford, in the Forest of Dean, this April. The domes are linked by paths made from recycled glass, and sleep up to six. They are as comfy as they are cool, with big beds, beanbags and woodburning stoves, plus their own kitchen area and en suite shower (heated by a log-powered boiler). On site there's a bar and pizza oven. Meanwhile, near Saxmundham in Suffolk, Alde Garden is opening on 11 June. Choose from the Mongolian-style yurt (sleeps up to five), gypsy caravan (up to three) or tipi (up to four). The site offers babysitting and free bike hire, and is on the Suffolk coastal cycle route. • A week in July at the Dome Garden (01730 261458) costs from £745 per dome. A week at Alde Garden (01728 664178) costs from £200 a week.2 Flotilla sailing, the SolentYou may not get the blinding sunshine that you would in, say, Turkey or Greece, but from this summer – for around half the price – you can sail as part of a flotilla on UK waters with Sunsail. With trips running throughout the summer holidays (10 July-28 Aug), families can sail past historic castles and old coastal towns on the Solent. Families who don't know their jib from their jibe can hire a Sunsail skipper. • From £1,699 (maximum eight people) per boat per week (0844 463 6578). A skipper costs £115 a day. 3 Butterfly World, Hertfordshire Butterfly World in St Albans is set to open the second phase of "the largest walk-through butterfly experience in the world" on 29 April (completion is due next year) with three new gardens, a butterfly breeding house and a chrysalis-shaped lake, home to hundreds of plants and mini-beasts. Visitors can also explore the tropical butterfly house and 20 acres of meadows. • £6 adults, £4 children, under-3s free, family ticket £19 (two adults and two children). Open from 29 April-26 Sept (01727 869203).4 Arts festival, the Cotswolds Spectacular entertainments, from concerts to lantern and fireworks displays, are promised at the first biannual Broadway Arts Festival, from 11-20 June. The festival will culminate in a family fun day on the final Saturday, with a village party and children's procession. Meanwhile, in Staffordshire, the first Just So Festival in Barnswood, near Leek, from 20-22 August, combines art, music and literature. Highlights include a Moomin party and a fairy folklore trail through the woods. • Broadway Arts Festival (0845 190 5450) prices vary. Just So Festival £20 adults, £10 children, under-5s 1p.5 Wildlife weekend, North YorkshireForest Holidays, which offers camping and wooden cabin breaks throughout the UK, has launched a Wildlife Weekend at Spiers House in Cropton Forest from 4-6 June and 27-29 August, where families can join the resident ranger and a guest expert from the RSPB on a forest walk to discover the animals and birds that make the North York Moors their home. It is also offering a ranger-led cycling break in the New Forest, Hampshire, from 7-9 and 17-19 September. • 0845 130 8225, forestholidays.co.uk. Wildlife weekend £60 adults, £31.50 children, including pitch. Cycling break £60 adults, £45 teenagers (not suitable for small children), including pitch.6 Comedy and crafts, Birmingham Following a two-year, £15m overhaul, MAC (Midlands Arts Centre)is reopening on 1 May with a full programme of art workshops, music performances, comedy shows, plays for children and magic shows. Keep an eye on the website for details of what's on at this non-profit centre that aims to make culture accessible to everyone, including children. • 0121-446 3232. Admission free; prices for events and activities have yet to be confirmed. 7 Long-distance walking, Snowdonia The Mawddach Way in Snowdonia is a new long-distance footpath covering almost 50km around the Mawddach estuary. The whole route takes three days but kids can cope with its gentle stretches through woodland, pasture and open country, and you can do certain legs by public transport. Barmouth is the suggested starting point, with good rail connections and car parking, and you can stay in different accommodation each night. For accommodation see eryri-npa.co.uk.8 Safari-style camping, New Forest Following the launch of its first UK parcs last year (nine in all), Eurocamp is introducing a safari-style camp to Britain. Campers at the Holmsley site, in the New Forest, can now bed down in stylish, two-bedroom tents, complete with teak furniture, a fully equipped kitchen area, large decked terrace and barbecue. Eurocamp has also added another Scottish park to its collection: Glenmore is on the banks of Loch Morlich in the Cairngorms. • 0844 406 0552. Three-night break in a safari tent in July from £185 (up to four sharing). Three nights in a classic tent at Glenmore in July from £149 (up to six sharing).9 Family adventure, Scotland Sign up for McKinlay Kidd's new seven-night family adventure trip and you'll return with tales of rafting on the river Spey in the Cairngorms and riding the "Harry Potter" Jacobite steam train. Another highlight of the three-centre Highlands holiday is the "Drop at the Top" cycle ride, where you and your bikes are driven to the top of a hill for a free-wheeling ride down tracks and forest roads to the bottom. • 0844 804 0020. From £690 adults, £330 children in August, including B&B accommodation and all activities.10 Alice in Wonderland, Cornwall Several scenes from Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland film were shot at the National Trust's Antony House in Torpoint, and the house is hosting its own Alice experience from today until 31 October, with art installations and sculptures spread throughout its gardens. Slide down the rabbit hole (or rather ramp) into a magic garden filled with giant mushrooms; stroll past the caterpillar perched on a mushroom, smoking a hookah pipe; look out for Cheshire Cat, sat atop a yew tree and join in the Mad Hatter's tea party, where Alice, the hatter, the White Rabbit and the Dormouse lead children around the gardens, re-enacting scenes along the way. • (01752 812191. Admission: house and garden £7.50 adults, £4.80 children; garden only £4.90 adults, £2.50 children.
This converted Yorkshire mill tower has toys for the boys and a conservatory in the skyGone are the days of ordering weighty brochures from cottage companies. Now I can sit at my desk and, at the click of a mouse, whizz from a thatched cottage in Devon to a seaside retreat in Suffolk via a converted stone barn in the Peak District, all in the time British Gas can keep me on hold.In Yorkshire, according to online rental outfit Holiday Lettings, demand for self-catering properties outstrips supply, but I've managed to bag a night at a converted cotton mill beside the Leeds-Liverpool canal in the town of Skipton, popularly known as Gateway to the Dales. Since my bloke and I happen to be starting our journey in Leeds, it's a quick and easy jaunt, even in rush-hour.I don't think I've seen a Victorian cotton mill at such close quarters – it overwhelms us when we pull up outside. Our bit is the former mill tower right at the end. The front door opens straight into a pool room. The walls sport some interesting memorabilia – a collage made from beer mats, a collection of bar towels artistically arranged, and a framed Brazil football shirt covered in signatures (including one even I can recognise – Pele). Beside the pool table stands what I believe is known as a boxing punchman. Could come in handy if we have an argument.Mill Tower sleeps up to eight, in rooms stacked on top of each other over several floors. First I find a downstairs kitchen which isn't very well equipped – but this turns out only to be a utility room. The real kitchen leaves us almost speechless – mainly because it is up four flights but also because it has everything from a brushed steel range cooker to a juice extractor and even an optic for your gin. There are fitted cupboards, a dining table and chairs, and arty food photographs on the walls. The pièce de résistance is the original arched window at the far end, looking out over more converted mill homes.Leaving the starter rations – biscuits, crisps, bowl of fruit – we continue our vertical exploration. On the very top floor (possibly the fifth, I've lost count) we find a conservatory in the sky – a glass-sided belvedere. "Strange to spend so much money on a TV and skimp on the seating," says my bloke, trying out a futon in front of an enormous plasma screen.Between the pool room on ground, kitchen on second and the rooftop sitting room, are bedrooms – two of them with balconies and en-suite bathrooms. Several rooms have beautiful windows, but the developer has managed to plaster over any sense of history. The bathrooms are windowless and – dare I say it? – run of the mill.The bed is so comfy neither of us wants to get up in the morning. It is quiet and private too, but sleeping in the same room as a desk plus TV and computer screens is not my idea of relaxation. Character, though, isn't a prerequisite of a memorable family holiday. What is more likely to count is the use of 50- and 42-inch plasma screens, Xbox, DVD player and computers, coffee tables just where you want them, restaurants and takeaways within easy reach, and plenty of space indoors for everyone to spread out. I know a couple of teenage boys who would think they'd died and gone to heaven if they fetched up here – and that, in the end, is what this unusual house is all about.Daytripper Check out more towers at Skipton's wonderfully preserved medieval castle (skiptoncastle.co.uk; entrance £6.20 adults, £3.70 children).• Union Mill, Skipton (holidaylettings.co.uk/101048) sleeps six in three bedrooms, with four extra futons. From £460 for a week. Two-night weekend for four from £300; three-night weekend for eight from £510.
An old rhyme gives Dixe Wills the excuse to celebrate an overlooked corner of Wales on St David's Day"Pistyll Rhaeadr and Wrexham steeple, Snowdon's mountain without its people, Overton yew trees, St Winefride's wells, Llangollen bridge and Gresford bells"
Penned by an anonymous 18th-century English traveller, this piece of doggerel, called the Seven Wonders of Wales, probably owes its survival to the fact that, unlike the Eight Wonders of the World, all the Welsh marvels cited are still with us. Furthermore, since six of them are in a small pocket in the north-east of the country, you can collect the set in a long weekend. So it was that I found myself cycling high into the Berwyn Mountains in search of Pistyll Rhaeadr, a waterfall, which at 240 feet, is a true Welsh wonder. There can't be many outdoor attractions that are best seen in the rain, but a waterfall is one of them. High above my head, the rain-swollen river Rhaeadr tumbled over the precipice in thick silver threads. A further six hours of solid downpour rather took the edge off my exultation. The cosiness of Cornerstones – an extraordinary B&B that has fused together three of Llangollen's 16th-century houses – was thus a welcome sight, and I was soon looking down at a heron stalking the River Dee, just a couple of wing flaps from the medieval Llangollen bridge.
Of course, not everyone can get excited about the art of spanning rivers. However, even the least ardent fan would have to admit to the graciousness of these particular arches, each one a slightly different size to fit neatly on to the rocks below. But it's the setting that really makes it – Llangollen's jumble of black-and-white houses swiftly giving way to wooded hills beyond – and in the glorious morning sunshine the pinky fawn stones positively shone in the morning sunlight.
The rest of my day was to be spent with yews, a steeple, a set of bells and some curative waters – not always the first things that spring to mind when considering wonders. However, I will confess that there is something about the way that yews rage against the dying of the light: some managing it for thousand of years. The 23 standing guard around Overton's St Mary's church are relative youngsters but some still go back to the Middle Ages.
At St Giles' church in nearby Wrexham, a stone bears the faded legend, "This steeple was completed in 1506." The difficulty is that the "steeple" is clearly a tower. A very fine 147-foot sandstone tower, it has to be said and, when I went up on to its roof, I was able to testify that it also commanded extraordinary views of mountains to the west and the Dee valley to the east. However, a steeple it is not.
Once upon a time, before we all became so noisy, you would have been able to hear Gresford bells in Wrexham, even though Gresford is three miles away. Gresford's Tower Captain, Hilton Roberts, took me up a stone spiral staircase and introduced me to the monsters. Bell ringing, he told me, is a perfect fusion of music and science. Peals may have fanciful names like Stedman Triples and Yorkshire Surprise Major, but they are strictly governed by mathematical formulae. Logical thinkers they may be, but bell ringers are evidently also touched by a streak of eccentricity. We were up above the bells when Hilton, no spring chicken, suddenly jumped down on to one and started swinging on it, Tarzan-like, just so that I could hear what it sounded like. I was three yards away. It was loud.
It was another sort of madness that brought about St Winefride's well. A rejected suitor called Caradog sliced off young Winefride's head and where it fell a miraculous spring gushed forth. "People from all over the world come here now," a warden told me, kindly handing me a bottle of freshly drawn water. The well itself is a rather wonderful star-shape that feeds water to a pool in which the sick and ailing lower themselves to be healed.
I mentioned my visit to Paulene at Celyn Villa, my home from home for the night, asking her if she knew anyone who'd been miraculously cured.
"Ah well, strange you should say that," she replied. "I had a verruca for years that wouldn't respond to any treatment whatsoever. I dipped it in the pool and it went away completely."
I'm hanging on to that bottle.
Bright and early next morning the happy chatter of fellow train passengers accompanied me round the north coast to Bangor and the final wonder, Snowdon. The donkey ride from Llanberis to the top, which our poet may well have enjoyed, was replaced in 1896 by the mountain railway. I confess to having felt slightly guilty as the tiny steam engine strained to push our single carriage upwards, but this was partially assuaged by the fact that I was only going as far as Clogwyn, three-quarters of the way, where I joined a long thin line of people marching to the top.
It was quite a party at the summit: 70 or 80 of us – families, groups of friends, a school field trip, a number of very sprightly pensioners – all excited about having conquered Wales' tallest mountain. And why not? Given a clear day it's possible to see Ireland's Wicklow Mountains from here. Having arrived just before the brand new £8m summit visitor centre was officially opened, I whipped out a flask of tea for my celebratory toast: I had succeeded in visiting all seven wonders of Wales.
Or had I? The poem clearly stipulated "Snowdon's mountain without its people". Well now, I mused, as I sauntered back down to Llanberis, that would be a wonder. Way to goVirgin Trains Single from London to Chester from £8 return; 08457 222333; virgintrains.com. Arriva Trains Wales, single from Chester to Gobowen £6.50 return, and Bangor to Chester £22.20 return; 0870 9000773, arrivatrainswales.co.uk. Snowdon Mountain Railway Llanberis to summit return, adult £23, child £16; 0871 7200033; snowdonrailway.co.uk.Cornerstones B&B, Llangollen. Doubles from £70; +44 (0)1978 861569, cornerstones-guesthouse.co.uk.Celyn Villa, Carmel Near Holywell. Doubles from £56; +44 (0)1352 710853, celynvilla.co.uk.St Winefride's Well, Holywell. Adult 80p, child 20p; +44 (0)1352 713054, saintwinefrideswell.com.
A visit to the 'crop circle with a Celtic twist'The reward for any walker making the calf-busting climb up the coastal footpath from the popular Cornish fishing port of Looe to the village of Seaton is the view over to St George's Island, which, according to local legend, was a stopping point for Joseph of Arimathea and his nephew Jesus on their way to Glastonbury. (Not the festival, alas, but the site of the future abbey.) But now ramblers have a new attraction to give them a pause for reflection and a welcome chance to gather their breath – a "sevenfold labyrinth".Caroline Petherick, a local landowner who describes herself as a "wordsmith", has spent the past year designing and constructing what the local press is calling a "crop circle with a Celtic twist". After being inspired by a similar design she'd seen at Tintagel on the north coast of Cornwall, Petherick decided to plant her spade on a patch of her land adjacent to the coastal footpath last summer and, with the help of some friends, dig out a 60ft-wide spiral pattern said to originate from Palaeolithic times. It took two days to move the 14 tonnes of soil and grass and has cost Petherick about £500 to build.She doesn't ask for payment from the walkers visiting it, but has left a tip-box beside some laminated posters explaining the pattern's symbolism, history and ability to connect with the body's "seven major chakras".Petherick, a keen dowser, says she found the exact location for the labyrinth's quartz-and-slate standing stone by using her rods to determine an intersection of two "energy lines". "I'd heard you should aim to plant a stone with 'positive intent'," she says. "I'd also heard that planting it demands a blood sacrifice. It just so happens that my dog killed a vole and dropped it into the hole we'd dug just as we were about to lower the stone into the ground."Her main headache is going to be keeping it free of weeds without the use of any weedkiller. But perhaps the most obvious question asked by any unsuspecting walker stumbling across the labyrinth will be "why?"."You can go and sit there and realise the earth isn't such a bad place after all," she says. "It's just a gentle pleasure for people to enjoy. I live in a phenomenally beautiful place and I wanted to share it somehow."
Simon Majumdar recommends where to find London's tastiest street snacksTubby IssacsJellied eels are definitely worth trying. Ask for their special bottle of vinegar, packed with chillies. If you don't want to try eels, which have been added to the endangered list, go for some whelks or cockles instead.• Two locations: Goulston Street (Petticoat Lane Market), High Street Walthamstow. tubbyisaacs.co.uk.F Cooke's Pie & MashThe pie and mash here is prepared and sold in much the same way as it has been since the shop opened in 1867. • 150 Hoxton Street, N1; realhoxton.co.uk/f-cooke.htm.Choc StarThere is a reason why Petra Barran is the queen of UK street food, and runs the Eat St organisation. Check out her Grand Cru Chocolate brownies and the Venezuelan hot chocolate with a touch of spice.• chocstar.co.uk; check website for locations. Also see eat.st.Luardo'sBurritos, pork carnitas, beef, chicken or a vegetarian option. If you can take the heat, punch up your meal with a dollop of their fiery habanero chilli sauce. Any leftovers go the local Big Issue sellers.• Whitecross Street, EC1. Monday - Friday 11.30am – 2pm; luardos.co.uk.Brick Lane Sunday UpMarketThe number of food stalls seems to grow every week, representing cuisines from all over the world. Particular favourites are the stalls selling over stuffed Jamaican Patties and Tibetan Momo (dumplings).• The Old Truman Brewery, E1; sundayupmarket.co.uk.Exmouth MarketEverything from crepes to Thai, "pure vegetarian" Gujarati to hot salt beef and schnitzel from the Jewish Deli - and even an outpost of the famous Moro restaurant (which is on the same street) serving up lamb kebabs on homemade bread with couscous and yoghurt.• Exmouth Market, EC1.
Benji Lanyado's Twitter-led trip in search of the soul of Leeds took him from baroque music in a Grade II-listed building to a punk gig in an old working men's club - via the oldest pub in the city, naturallyThis TwiTrip had a tough act to follow. The finale of my last Twitter-fuelled adventure - to Blackpool - involved a transvestite cabaret act. Hopefully, Leeds was up to the challenge.As with all of our previous adventures, nothing was planned. I was to turn up at Leeds station, sling questions into the Twittersphere, and wait for tips to be fired at my profile. Then I would do exactly as I was told. You can see how it played out here ... and below you'll find what the good people of Twitter helped me find.The Twitter tipsIt has become TwiTrip tradition to precede the day's events with a little train-time trivia. As I set off from King's Cross, whizzed through snow-covered Peterborough and headed for Leeds, I requested some intriguing facts to keep me entertained. The Twitterers delivered. I was informed by kateigray that the tripe stall in Kirkgate market was the first on the internet; by Seven_Arts that Jimmy Saville lived in Roundhay Park; and by MatMurray that he once saw a woman fall over in the Leeds City Markets, after which a nearby dog tried to mount her. Not all trivia is created equal.Then I was there, posing like a hopeless tourist in front of the station. And I was hungry. The mob roared loudly, and there seemed a near-unanimous recommendation. According to BigLittleThings, LeedsGrub, and tenderbranston, the best sarnie in town was to be found at Pickles & Potter. It seemed dangerous to ignore the sandwich advice of anyone who traded as 'tenderbranston', so I duly plodded into the town centre and joined a queue stretching out of the door and into the Queens Arcade - this was clearly a popular choice. Inside, they made me a thing of beauty: slices of red-centred beef joined in gastronomic matrimony with a hunk of smoked cheese, a wholegrain bap, and some kind of marmalade. A very good start indeed.Next up, I requested some cultural tips ... a wide remit that was answered by scores of tips. I was most intrigued by Marc_Leeds' suggestion of a "forty-part motet" at Opera North in the Grand Theatre. The installation is housed in an assembly room on the upper levels of the Grade II-listed Grand Theatre on New Briggate, and comprises 40 audio speakers arranged around the room, each playing an individual part of Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium. The effect was extraordinary. In pale midday light filtered by stained-glass windows on all sides, people were drifting in and out, settling on benches equidistant from all 40 speakers, and closing their eyes to listen. I joined them, and - quite literally - became surrounded by music. Have a listen for yourself below. I needed to refuel, and took the advice of amandeep86 and loveleedsmore by nipping to the Opposite Cafe stand in the Victoria Arcade, where a nifty barista made me a coffee topped with a beautiful swirling foam motif. It powered me onwards, to the marvellous tiled hall of the Leeds Art Gallery, as recommended by djdavedanger and leedslibraries, who had tweeted at me from their offices inside the building.Having tasted the cultural offerings of a couple of Leeds blockbusters, I wanted something a little off-grid. Luluartist came up with the goods, directing me to Project Space Leeds, a fascinating venue on the ground floor of a newly-built block on the banks of the canals south of the train station. Inside the industrial, high-ceilinged space, the work of local artists was displayed on sparse walls - Matthew Shelton's piece was a collage of drawings on pieces of paper found scattered across the city, including certificates of achievement, shopping lists, and ASBOs. Inventive.It was Friday, and it was 5pm. I had little choice but to go to the pub. Tonypreece directed me to Whitelocks, the oldest pub in Leeds, first licenced in 1715. It took me half an hour to find it. The pub is hidden down a tiny alley leading off Briggate, accessed by a blink-and-you'll-miss-it gap in between a Carphone Warehouse and a branch of Northern Rock. Once located, under a illuminated lantern and a fug of cigarette smoke wafting from the smokers congregated outside, it was superb; a nostalgic ye olde pub of polished brass pumps, stained glass and a cacophony of post-work chatter.Onwards. More pubs. Jccgardner, lindseyhampton and steererscott aided my crawl, pointing me towards The North Bar, home to a creative crowd and more beers than you could shake a drunkard at. I opted for a delicious pint of Roosters, brewed just north of the city in Knaresborough, before moving on to my next stop. Mostly due to its name, and Talullah and guyatkinson's recommendation, I headed to trendy bar A Nation of Shopkeepers, where the stringent door policy refused entry to those wearing sportswear, pirates, fancy dress, large groups, jefforys (anyone?), and grumpy faces. A largely student crowd were largely drunk, crammed on to leather sofas under arty projections as electro music beeped around the room.My stomach needed lining, and foodiesarah and ecalpemosgreen recommended Nash's as the finest fish and chips in the city ... perfect. A giant lump of cod coated in thick batter and pillowed by chunky chips basted in salt and vinegar. Yes and more yes.Fuelled by delicious carbs and salty fat, I headed for Headingley for my final stop of the day. Tips had been flying in about the Brudenell Social Club since the TwiTrip was announced - one tipster, djthedutchess, described it as a "gorgeous, shabby, ubercool ex working men's club in Hyde Park". The band playing that night, The Eureka Machines, had noticed the Twitter noise, and invited me along, too, bless their little punk rock socks. The venue was superb; on a suburban backstreet in the Hyde Park area, where a community pub hosts live music in a musty low-ceilinged side room. I also managed to snap my favourite photo of the day just outside, as an immaculately-Mohawked local loitered near the entrance.And the Eureka Machines did the business, blasting out punk to an adoring local crowd as front man Chris Catalyst cracked jokes in between songs. Their final number even came with a wonderfully soppy intro that you can treat your ears to here:From baroque polyphony in a Grade II-listed building to a punk gig in an old working men's club ... another end to another excellent TwiTrip. Thanks for all your help.• Benji stayed at the Quebecs Hotel (doubles £89 per night including breakfast and VAT; +44 (0)113 244 8989; theetoncollection.com/quebecs), as recommended by LoveLeedsMore and tonypreece, which has double rooms from £89 B&B. East Coast's trains operate direct up to every half hour between London and Leeds. Advance returns, booked online, start from £26 Standard Class or £94 First Class. Times and fares also on 08457 225225 or by visiting any staffed station• All photographs by Benji Lanyado
Stereotypical stuffiness has been replaced with genuine community engagementYour article on Seaton Delaval Hall reported that "the National Trust is undergoing a minor revolution. It wants to open up its land and houses to local people, be it for school plays, camping or vegetable plots" (Welcome to the new village hall, G2, 10 February).I've been a resident of Seaton Delaval all my life, and am a former employee of the National Trust. While Delaval Hall may be the first local project of its kind, it is not the first effort the trust has made to create a more youthful, inclusive image: community engagement has been a priority for several years now.The article highlights some stereotypes of the trust, stating that the hall should by rights get "the National Trust treatment: [...] an attractive tearoom, all pale wood, Victorian-style lemonade and organic carrot cake". Despite discussing some of the trust's modernisation initiatives, I feel the article still risks perpetuating an outdated image. In the gift shop at Chedworth Roman Villa, Gloucestershire, you will find Roman-themed souvenirs. Cherryburn, birthplace of the artist Thomas Bewick, sells prints of his engravings.The stereotypical National Trust visitors are described as "a mix of earnest – and overwhelmingly white – middle-class parents [...] and genteel retired couples." I first became a trust employee in 2007, and have worked at properties in Northumberland and Gloucestershire. Each had their fair share of "typical" trust members; however, especially in the north-east, visitors included many working-class families and ethnic minorities.This is obviously influenced by the greater proportion of working-class people in the north-east than the south-west, but it also shows that these types of people do visit these types of places. Visitors are predominantly white and middle-class across all countryside recreation in the UK – it's not a problem exclusive to the National Trust.And Seaton Delaval is not destitute. The image of a "sprawling industrial landscape [...] around Seaton Delaval Hall" is not recognisable. The town does provide home to a Procter & Gamble factory, but the local colliery has been closed for 50 years and the bottle works in neighbouring Seaton Sluice, in which the Delaval family had large investments, closed 100 years before that.Neither should the area be dismissed as "blighted by economic decay". It's not an an industrial wasteland – we'd be better described as dormitory towns.Jane Blackburn, from the trust's regional committee, is quoted as saying it is "a part of the country that is not, frankly, one of the wealthiest and most of whom have never visited a trust property, let alone joined" – which I feel portrays my home town as full of people in need of hand-holding in order to access cultural activities. Quite frankly, I find this offensive. While Seaton Delaval is largely working class, we are not all poor, nor uneducated, nor do we need the promise of fish and chips to lure us into a historical, educational attraction. Surely the local interest and support for the acquisition of the hall proves that?
Generating heat and electricity by hydropower was the natural choice for this remote mill turned holiday cottageWhen our grand-children look back, they will do so as people who expect every house to produce its own power. It will seem like common sense. The 20th and early 21st centuries, that era of vast wasteful splurging, will seem like a wild night out – a wonderful, ludicrous, unsustainable madness – the dark ages with all the lights on.In the holiday accommodation business, that big consumer of energy, some folk are already out there, already in the future and the land of common sense. Like Will and Jane Weston: they moved to Brignall Mill in Teesdale nearly five years ago and as soon as they saw it, their minds were made up. "Hydropower just seemed the right thing to do," says Will, "given the history of the place."The 18th-century mill is now a self-catering, two-bedroom luxury holiday cottage, but there are still plenty of reminders of its green energy heritage. Vast pairs of millstones, brought long ago from France, sit in the hall, all still linked to the gears and cogs and driveshafts of a wooden paddle-wheel. The only thing missing is the water, the river Greta now running around the house in a broad loop, rather than directly through it. Hidden away under the lawn is a pipe that draws water from the river and blasts it through a turbine, producing sufficient power to drive a ground-source heat pump."That ramps up our energy production by a factor of four or five," Jane explains, as we tour the place, "so in winter we heat the house; in summer we export electricity to the grid."It's so cosy that two elderly ladies, visiting last March from a chilly Dundee, had to ask if the pump could be switched off.This is a place that feels impossibly remote. At night there is nothing but stars and owls; in the day there's the rush of the Greta, maybe the splash of a salmon making its way upstream, or the rattle of woodpeckers extracting grubs from the ancient oaks. Otters have been sighted, and in summer there are some exquisite but rarely used swimming holes down on the crag-lined river. Little wonder that artists like Turner and Cotman loved the area, the latter sketching the mill and the former painting nearby Brignall Church.In fact, the mill is easily accessible these days, being only 18 miles from Darlington which is a mere 2½ hours from London by train. Within walking distance (4–5 miles) there is the pretty town of Barnard Castle and several village pubs. Nevertheless, in winter it can be tough: one man brought his girlfriend and got snowed in for three days. Brignall, however, is just the sort of place where one might like such a thing to happen. It certainly worked the right magic for that couple – they got engaged.• 01833 637726, brignallmill.co.uk. Sleeps 4-6. From £350-£650 per week, shorter lets also available.
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