Walking Through History - Northumbria

Good morning!  It is summer and everyone is out and about traveling.  I am going to continue with Walking Through History with Tony Robinson until I run out of episodes.  Tony has another series called Ancient Tracks that I will start when I run out of Walking Through History.  This time, Tony is traveling through Northumbria to learn more about St. Cuthbert.  The episode is called the Dark Age of Northumbria.  The run time for this episode is 46:56.

St. Cuthbert and a group of radical Irish monks made their way to Northumbria.  They were intent on spreading Christianity into this pagan kingdom.  How did he do it?  Tony looks to find out on a four-day walk called St. Cuthbert’s Way.  He will begin at the Melrose Abbey and Durham Cathedral.  Then he heads south and then to a little village.  From this village, he will walk across Northumberland National Park.  He will end in Bamburgh and Lindisfarne.

Tony walks to the site of the original Melrose Abbey, it was where St. Cuthbert began his career.  Melrose means a bare peninsula and it would have been perfect for the site of an abbey.  It was a site that was protective from the world around the monks.  They would have gone out into pagan lands to preach and then retreated to this peninsula to find refuge.  Tony meets David Petts, an archeologist.  Tony learns more about the life of St. Cuthbert.

Tony continues on his walk and heads up into the hills.  The Dark Age is a mysterious part of history, and Tony is looking forward to learning more about this period from the ground level.  As he makes his way up the hills, Tony talks about how paganism spread through Britain.  Tony finds this part of the walk a challenge because is doing it in the rain.  A lovely house diverts Tony.  Walter Scott visited the house and was inspired by the landscape.  Tony gets a salmon fishing lesson.  He learns about how the River was used for transportation.  He tells the fisherman the story of the Eagle and the salmon.

After this fishing excursion, Tony heads up a hill to take in what is known as “Scott’s View.”  It was rumored to be Sir Walter Scott’s favorite view along Cuthbert’s Way.  Tony then heads down to his hotel and day one closes.

Day two starts.  Tony will stop in Maxton and continue east to learn about the paganism in this area.  He first meets Christopher Bowels, who is an American very interested in Northumberland history.  Tony just sounds so funny when he mentions that Christopher is an American.  Northumberland was heavily pagan, so why would this group of Irish monks come over to convert the population?  It begins with King Oswald who converted to Christianity.  He wanted to unify his kingdom under one religion.  Christopher talks Tony to a holy well. 

He makes his way to an abandoned church and looks at the churchyard.  It has not served as a local church since the 19th Century.  Why is this church here? Was there a reason why this church was built here?  He talks with a local archeologist and she talks about pagans worshiped at the same spot.  She talks about how worshippers came here for centuries and she points to a grave that hints that the site was a place for worship over the centuries.  Tony continues his walk in search of St. Cuthbert.  What does he learn along the way?  Where else does his walk take him?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

Even though it was very foggy at the start of the episode, the scenery still was beautiful.  It was good when the weather cleared and the views were very lovely.  This was one where I was hoping for an appearance from, I do not know Stewart Ainsworth.  Phil Harding?  Since Tony was going through Northumberland, I almost wished for an appearance from the Duke of Northumberland.  Anyway, now that I got that off my chest, I still enjoyed this episode.  Tony continues his fantastic narration style and his genuine interest in what he is learning.  I would put this on my list for both a history class and a geography class.