This is now nearly a month ago but here is what happened next.
It was lovely and sunny but a with a bitingly cold wind as we revisited Great Bavington Presbyterian Chapel then a detour via Hallington and on to one of my favourite places in the world, Thockrington, subject of one of my One-Place Studies and home of the Hogg family who I am ‘that’ close to ‘inking in’ as my ancestors. I haven’t done so because I am super cautious and am hoping for just one more piece of supporting evidence that probably doesn’t exist. Next to Chollerton and then, a new destination for us, Simonburn. I am busy trying to reach many parishes that ‘probably’ have ancestral connections so that, by the time I decide they are definitely ‘mine’ (if I ever do), I am prepared with photographs and impressions of the area,
We stopped off at Wallington, a National Trust property that we’ve visited before, the former home of the Trevelyan family. This was just a brief visit to avail ourselves of the café and facilities.
We did have a quick look at the house, which the guide described as having a Cluedo board layout. It was good to see that sensory bags were available. My favourite finds were a Meissen tea set depicting insects, a dolls’ house display and several photographs of the servants. Around the central courtyard, which now has a roof, are impressive murals depicting scenes from Northumbrian history, famous local people and flowers found in the area. Given the artic wind (that refers to the weather not the state of our digestion) and my companion’s delicate state we gave the gardens a miss.
As said companion’s ailments didn’t seem to be improving it seemed prudent to seek medical advice, This was to be more complicated than you’d think. First stop at 10am the not so local pharmacy. He needs anti-biotics but they can’t prescribe, he’ll need to phone 111 or his own doctor. He opts for 111. ‘What is the postcode of where you are now?’ Errr no clue. The 111 person speaks to the pharmacist. Still no one is keen to do anything, they will ring back. Five hours later they haven’t, so he tries his own surgery, who will ring back. The signal is dodgy here so they text. They won’t prescribe without seeing him. We find details of the nearest surgery (twelve miles from where we are staying). We ring. He will have to go to the pharmacy. Oh wait, we’ve been there. Doctor’s receptionist expresses amazement that the pharmacy was no help. He will have to wait for a call from their doctor. We explain the lack of signal issues and reluctantly they agree we can come in and he can register as a temporary resident. We arrive at just after 3pm. We see just one other person in the waiting room the whole time we are there. We are told we will definitely have to wait until after 5pm, possibly until 6.30pm. We wait and wait some more in the now deserted waiting room. To be fair, perhaps the doctor was dealing with telephone appointments. At 4.45pm my ailing companion was summoned. Turns out he has pneumonia and the vital anti-biotics are issued. The patient insists that he doesn’t want to abandon our trip and to be honest, he is more likely to rest here than at home, so we will be taking it easy. [Progress report, once home a second dose of, stronger, antibiotics was prescribed and seem to be helping].
The next day, first some taking it easy for the patient this morning. We were due to move to another site just thirty miles away and couldn’t arrive before 1pm so an ideal opportunity to do not a lot before we moved on.
We arrived in Berwick on Tweed, overlooking the river. The patient decided he was up for a drive round. This was not a spectacular success as I usually head for a church but any kind of church was conspicuous by its absence. As we left Powburn, I had been informed that we had sufficient fuel for 250 miles. We got to the middle of nowhere, having travelled about fifty miles and it appeared that fuel was low, so finding a garage became a priority. Fortunately, one was located with the bonus of the cheapest diesel that we’d seen since we left home. We drove through Kelso and Jedburgh. The latter looked interesting but we didn’t have much time and in any case it probably wasn’t a good idea for the invalid to walk round in what was still a very cold wind. This time last year we were in Ireland where the temperature was over thirty degrees. Here there was frost forecast overnight.
We did manage to locate Oxnam Kirk, a low-lying seventeenth century building with an unusual T-shaped footprint. Outside is a miniature stell (circular, stone sheep enclosure), erected to remember the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak. The centre stone came from the farm with the greatest losses and twenty six surrounding coping stones represent all the local farms where a total of 4,732 cattle and 21,319 sheep were slaughtered. In this way, the epidemic was contained within the parish and did not spread to surrounding farms.
Back to the van via the supermarket for more convalescing.
Wallington
The History Interpreter - Janet Few 
A lovely photo Janet! I’m glad you finally found a doctor and the chemist’s became more co-operative. As I’ve mentioned before I had over 10 days in hospital with pneumonia in June, then another 10 days of a rehab hospital, June/July. The doctors told me that for the first week you’ll feel like you’ve been hit by a truck! I agree and found that my memory which is normally was very good, was affected for events from that time. I would think your partner would be better not to be in the community either to catch something else or pass on the disease. I have finished another twice weekly outpatient education and exercise course run by the same rehab hospital. They emphasize not to leave it too late to go to the emergency department of hospital. I suppose as we get older we think someone else else is worse off sick. I’m just getting over a bad cold now that seems to have taken advantage of me being sick earlier. But this time I’m more aware there’s a tipping point where you should get to hospital sooner. There has been a lot of pneumonia this winter in Victoria. My big family history find recently was made by a Colquhoun cousin. I’ve known for 40 years John Colhoun and his mother Ann Murray of county Donegal were both transported for 7 years, for stealing poultry. She was a servant and he was a labourer. My cousin finally found 3 newspaper accounts of their actual 1838 trial. Far from stealing a chicken or two, the Londonderry papers thundered that this was Foul theft on an “industrial scale”! A man who heard the “valedictory cries” of his geese early in January 1838, went to investigate. He found Ann and John up the road with a horse and cart with her name emblazoned on the side, either 41 or 91 geese, a duck and a turkey inside. (Equivalent to committing a crime nowadays but using your actual car number plates.) The fowls had been killed and bled on the way, but apparently some owners recognised their fowl by the unplucked feathers! A man, Gallagher, known for being a gang leader escaped (despite being maimed). The paper claimed they’d been conducting “depredations” since November, and would ship their booty off to Glasgow or Liverpool. It was said that improvements in transport to these cities had not led to improvements in morals! Now I consider my ancestors were lucky not to be hanged as John was also found with a pocket watch and a gun loaded with two bullets!