Apologies for not reporting on our holiday adventures in real time but here is the next instalment. We took a short walk along the coast to St Mary’s lighthouse, which is only accessible at low tide. Fortunately, low tide it was. The island on which the lighthouse was built was used as a burial ground by Tynemouth Priory in the C7th. From the C16th it was known as Bates Island after Thomas Bates, the surveyor for Northumberland under Elizabeth I. Interestingly, the island was used to quarantine Russian soldiers who were suffering from cholera in 1799. This was particularly significant as it was 32 years before the first outbreak of cholera in Britain. In 1898, the lighthouse was built on the island to replace one at Tynemouth, as fog meant visibility was poor there. I am sure this should be the cue for a song! The lighthouse is 40m high and was constructed using 750,000 bricks and 654 stone blocks, at a cost of £8000. There are 137 steps to the top. I begin the climb then realise that this is probably not a brilliant idea for someone who suffers from acrophobia – it is making me feel a bit weird just looking up from the ground. I descend to a safer level and send a representative from our party up to the top in my stead. It was still being lit by oil in 1977 and was the last Trinity House lighthouse to be electrified. The lighthouse ceased to be operational in 1984 and is now a nature reserve. Over 50 grey seals are basking on the rocks. The ranger tells us that this is unusual at this time of year. Seals are not a favourite with a fisherman of my acquaintance, so we focus on the eider ducks instead.

The next day and it is off to Eureka Children’s Museum at Halifax to meet up with some of my descendants. Some wonderful staff made a small boy very happy by taking the time to talk to him and letting him have a go on the giant space hopper – even though they were about to pack it away for the day. He’d spotted it from an upstairs window and couldn’t get down fast enough but they kindly agreed he could have a turn. The day also involved handing over a very large shrub. Martha had spotted these in a local garden centre when she visited me but did not have room to get it home, so I was deputed to purchase one on her behalf and hand over in Halifax. Unfortunately, what had been qute compact shrubs had assumed triffid-like qualities and grown to the size of small trees in the interim, so our car had been impersonating Burnham Wood. Handover complete, we also hid two pandas ready for the Panda Explosion for PDA Awareness, of which more tomorrow.