Corbridge - Part III

OK, so we're still in Corbridge and you'll be glad we are, I'm sure.  Vivien wanted to check out The Valley Restaurant, just to know where it was.  It's right there on the Corbridge train platform! 

Sadly the interior photos on their website are missing, but you can see the inside of the train car in Jesmond where Bill and I have eaten.  Apparently you can take a train (named Passage to India) between Newcastle and Corbridge, order your meal on the train and then be served when you arrive in Corbridge.  It sounds like it might be a fun thing to do and I expect we'll check that out sometime.  We thought the Valley in Jesmond served wonderful, lightly spiced Indian food.

I've saved the best things for last, you know.   

 

We found the most completely dangerous place I've been in for ages there in Bishop's Yard.  It's simply called

 

Corbridge Antiques and it was nearly a fatal encounter, it was so to-die-for.

 

They seem to specialise in 1920-30s furniture, or maybe that's just what caught my eye.  

 

I snapped a few *cough* pictures to share.  I must drag Bill over sometime to see what we can shoehorn into the corners 

 

of our already bulging house.  

I'm already re-assessing some of our non-heirloom items to see what we could ditch.  

Be still, my frugal heart;

 

 in fact just shut up!  I didn't even look at price tags, I just didn't want to know.  I wanted 

 

to dream instead.  Please, don't wake me up.  Or maybe I was just drooling.

Whatever I would need with these Victorian style 'nursing chairs', I've no idea, but since when is lust ever practical?

The clothes section was slightly less exciting, 

given that the definition of 'vintage' clothes includes styles from my youth.

Well, maybe just before as I certainly never wore some of the louder 60s designs, but I know better than to think about wearing them.  In spite of Britain loving her eccentrics, I'd be afraid of being hauled off to an institution if I wore anything from the 60s in public.  

I'm sad I missed the whole Biba thing, never heard of it until recently.  I love it now, of course, but more because it is so Art Nouveau more than anything to do with the 60s.

And as much as I love beads, sequins, and velvet, we just don't have that lifestyle.  I've taken to wearing some of my party clothes at dinner just because it's Saturday night.  

All that said, I liked this Utility Dress, mainly because I thought the collar and cuffs were clever, but it wouldn't suit me either.

After we left that shop, I think I was rather stunned by the whole experience.

 

The next thing I spotted was these hanging flowerpot holders and I darned near bought one.  £15 looked pretty easy after some of the antique price tags.  However, the not-buying habit was still in ascendence and we made a successful escape from Bishop's Yard.

Even after making our way back to the train station over the bridge, we still had a half hour or so to kill before the train 

 

would arrive, so we nipped in to the Dyvel's Inn.   Or rather, we sat in the garden there and had a coke.  

 

Vivien kept exclaiming how strange it was to need an umbrella to keep the warm sun off and I keep remarking about how warm and gentle the breeze. It really was an extraordinary day; either that or we both need to move inland immediately. 

The Dyvel's Inn has an interesting history aside from the fact of its quaint name.   It was for a time around the second war the Bridge End Maternity home.   Our friend Bob was born in a grand establishment further west in Gilsland, though his parents were from Newcastle.   During WWII in wartime Britain it was customary for the pregnant women to be removed from the city centre areas, where bombing was likely, and for large manor houses to be turned into maternity homes.  The Dyvel's Inn was known as the The Lion of Corbridge pub for a while.   The name Dyvel references a noble family called Dyvelston who were in the Corbridge area from the time of the 12th Century and perhaps arrived even before that along with William the Conquerer.   

At any rate, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Bill's birthplace, the Olde Dyvel.   

Vivien and I are already planning our next adventure and are looking forward to that.  I hope you are, too!