May 2022 - Run Out to Elsdon
Our trip to Elsdon (organised as covert reconaisance for a club pic-nic) saw three cars leave from the Three Horseshoes car park at Horton. Arthur and Liz (in their MGF) took the lead followed by Keith and Sandra (in their Lotus Elan S), with Mike and Denise (in their Robin Hood) being tail-end-charlies. Despite leaving late morning, at 11.00, it was pretty cool, the consensus being that a local sea fret was to blame. We hoped for better conditions inland but at least we had dry roads.
From Horton we travelled up to Morpeth via the A192. Miraculously, all three of us got round the Bankside roundabout together, before queing pretty much all the way from there, over the bridge, left along Bridge Street, right at the clock tower and up Newgate Street. The snail-like traffic did give us the chance to eyeball our favourite Morpeth coffee shop, Harry's on Newgate Street but not, unfortunately time to nip in for some gorgeous coffees (There is a review of Harry's in the discussion forum). At the top of Newgate Street we ignored the Mitford turnoff and continued on up Pottery Bank. Once under the A1 we turned left and let the cars stretch their legs as we headed through Pigdon, Netherwitton, and Longwitton. We then took the (very poorly maintained) road past Rothley Castle, and Winter's Gibbert (which necessitated an unscheduled pit stop for the Lotus) and on to Elsdon where we finally came to rest alongside the church.
In terms of a pic-nic location we thought Elsdon looked good. There is loads of space on the village green, and even a small coral with a pic-nic table - though we'd probably need extra chairs around the outside if we get a good turnout. There is a car park in the village with toilets (around 250m walk from the pic-nic table) but a good deal closer is the Bird in Bush public house.
A view of Elsdon village green - (Click it to explore on Google streetview)
We felt compelled to try out the pub and as well as the usual booze and pub grub the staff were perfectly happy to serve us coffee (barista style) and cake/scones. An unexpected treat was to find that Pearson and Brian had made their way to the pub so we all had a good natter in front of the (sadly not lit) wood burning stove.
Coffee and scones consumed we decamped to the village green, where the sun was making more of effort, and we ate our sandwiches before departing for home. This time we headed out of the village heading virtually due west towards Otturburn to pick up the A696. We followed the A696 all the way to Ponteland and then headed back towards Cramlington via Berwick Hill and Horton Grange. Total distance travelled, for us, was 70 miles.
