Settled at last

We now feel at home in our new (old) house. Not that it's totally free of builders of various description. There's an awful lot of metalwork outside that needs painting plus all the snagging in most areas. Fortunately, the current heatwave helps although the garden is still awaiting relandscaping and planting which is currently impossible. So we're holding tight and, like everyone else, praying for rain. The new conservatory awaits its tiled floor while we wait for the concrete floor is not yet ready - apparently. Even facing due south and the sun blazing for weeks, it could take another month.

Despite the usual niggles as we make this strange house how we want it, I love it here. It is on the very southern edge of Middlesbrough but with great access to country and town. Although the frontage looks very ordinary and so close to the road, at the back it is a totally different story with a skylark filled hay meadow and views over the Cleveland Hills which mark the northerly edge of our beloved North York Moors.

Many people have no concept of North East England unless it's Newcastle. But there's an awful lot of beautiful countryside around once-heavily industrialised Middlesbrough with its ship-building, steel and chemical works. Much of it is currently undergoing regeneration. Wildflowers, butterflies and clean water are now common-place. So here are maps and photos which may help you orienteer yourself.

Look for Coulby Newham - middle bottom. That's our nearest shopping centre and other amenities. South of that, where the blue shading stops is where we now are. Although convenient shopping is five minutes away, we prefer the traditional high street of the delightful Georgian town of Stokesley, North Yorkshire which is only ten minutes. (A bit about the location. The bottom of our garden is in North Yorkshire, whereas the house itself is in a suburb of Middlesbrough. According to Royal Mail, the postal address is Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough. But that's not as near as Coulby Newham or Newby. Because it has a long drive, the house next door is in Yorkshire!)

Stokesley High Street

River Leven in Stokesley

I don't want to be too precise about our house because this is a public blog. But I can show you some views of our back elevation which is not visible from the road.

Drone's eye view.

And an early photo of new unfurnished conservatory although we now have the outside flagstone path laid and flowers planted plus inside unpacked boxes and furniture from our previous house crammed at one end as it all awaits the floor tiles.

Roseberry Topping

I will update soon with the stunning view of the views south to the Cleveland hills that fill us with joy every day. Unfortunately, we cannot see Rosedale Topping itself from our house due to a small wood further east (not ours) which blocks our view but we can see the rest of the Cleveland Hills chain.

What about your writing, I hear you ask. (Well, I imagine I do!) I am still editing my much interrupted medieval novel with a view to submitting it to agents in 2019 but, in the meantime, I am cracking on with flash fiction,  my latest venture. It's a challenge I am loving. Various competitions nowentered, I'll have to wait and see...

Changes

As you've probably realised, my blog has been dormant for far too long - well, it's been a long winter. 

Although this blog has been in hibernation, a heck of a lot has been happening behind the scenes. 

Not my writing - alas. That also has been dormant although I haven't abandoned it. No way. That's something I could never do. I'm still submitting. I am writing flash fiction which I do as a break from editing and re-drafting my current novel. I have been writing said novel for ages but am determined to get it done.  

Now to real life. We have been thinking of moving for quite some time. We absolutely love where we live and it is with a heavy heart that we're upping sticks within the next few weeks. This is for purely personal reasons and we hope it will make our lives less stressful. 

As a result, my blog will go quiet once more until we have fully settled in our new house. Only then will I blog in more detail about the area we are moving to.

I say 'new house' but it is in fact the oldest we have ever owned. You could say my life has been a long migration into the past - hence my fondness for historical fiction. Our first married house was built in the 1960s. Our second, where we lived for over 30 years and brought up our children who flew the nest some time ago, was build in the 1920s. Our current dwelling was built in the 1856 as a Wesleyan chapel. In a few weeks time we will live in what was originally 3 cottages for farm workers on a large farm that no longer exists but lives on in the bucolic name of the house. And the date? 1709.

What was happening then?  Queen Anne was on the English throne. 

The War of The Spanish Succession (1701-1714) was in full swing.

 The earliest known county cricket match was played between Kent and Sussex.  Samuel Johnson was born.  


So there's much historical background to a century of which I am pretty ignorant. It is, as you might expect, a quirky house and not attractive from the front elevation. However, when you see what's at the back you might begin to understand what attracted us in the first place: far-ranging south-facing views; large garden and paddock. 

Why on earth Middlesbrough? Once rated by Kirstie and Phil of Location. Location. Location fame  as the worst place to live in England,this is grossly unfair to my eyes. Like many areas in the North East the proud industrial heritage has been obliteration, creating awful deprivation. However, it is situated in a beautiful part of the world and its industrial past has given it a certain ironic character. Remember that Get Carter and Boys from the Black Stuff?  

Middlesbrough did not exist at all until a farm was bought in 1829 on the south bank of the river Tees by a group of Quaker business men who planned to name it 'Port Darlington.'  As the Tees estuary once divided the counties of Durham and Yorkshire and is situated roughly halfway  between the estuaries of the Tyne and the Humber it gained a variation on the name of the middle's borough.  Once cruelly dubbed a "Megalopolis" for its rapid expansion into a port and major ship building area and its major chemical works (mainly ICI) in Billingham,  it was not a good place to live. 

But all that, for good and for bad, is gone now, the once polluted air and water, it is rapidly reclaiming its former beauty with nature reserves and parklands.

There is a lot of history to explore and novels ahead for me. 

Captain James Cook is the most famous son of the area. Born in Marton (now a suburb of south Middlesbrough), his name appears locally in  an excellent hospital, a school and various museums and heritage centres along the coast from the town to Whitby and many places in-between.

Much more of him later on this blog. There there is also Robert the Bruce, believe it or not!  Then there's the River Tees, Roseberry Topping. You name it, I'll write about it ... 

Roseberry Topping