Blanchland – Pennypie Hose - Baybridge

M Parkin

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A circular walk from the popular and very picturesque North Pennine village of Blanchland, on quiet lanes and in part along an old drovers' road and then a riverside path. The walk passes en route the tiny hamlet of Shildon and then the now working farm of Pennypie House, so called because it used to be an alehouse selling pies to passing miners. In addition to the walk, allow time to explore Blanchland itself; it is one of the area's most beautiful and picturesque villages, set in a dale beneath the brooding North Pennine Moors and has the look and feel of a Cotswold village. The name Blanchland means 'white land' and derives from the white habits of the monks of the Premonstratensian Order, who came here in 1165. The village today is largely built on the plan of the 13th Century abbey which they founded. Surviving monastic buildings are the arched gateway into the village square, remnants of the refectory and parts of the village church of St Mary's. The refectory buildings are now the village inn, the Lord Crewe Arms, which features a vaulted bar and a fine large fireplace with priest's hole. The remainder of the village was built by the Lord Crewe Estate in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries and has changed little since then.

England - North England - Northumberland - North Pennines