With a forecast of heavy cloud, showers and a fresh breeze, we turned the itinerary on its head and decided to pursue indoor activities.  So it was off to Carlisle, which is on the other side of the country, but only about 75 minutes’ drive away.

First stop was the Solway Aviation Museum, which was featured in a small brochure on a shelf in the house, which we stumbled across by accident (the brochure, not the shelf).  Ian is never one to pass up a chance to look at old planes.  These ones were displayed at Carlisle Airport.  The small museum is run entirely by volunteers, and has a well displayed collection of aviation artefacts, tracing Cumbria’s involvement in WW2, and Britain’s post-war rocket experiment, Blue Streak, which was tested at Woomera.  The project failed, which was apparently entirely the fault of the French and/or the Germans. There was also a timeline tracing the 100 year history of the RAF.

For the radio geeks – WW2 transmitters and receivers

The big drawcard was the rare opportunity to sit in the cockpits of some of the restored aircraft, most notably the Avro Vulcan B2 and the Canberra bomber. We got up close to the control panels, and learned important things like what the crews ate, and how they went to the toilet during long range flights.  It made Emirates Economy look ultra luxurious!  The visit happily occupied several hours.

Canberra Bomber cockpit

Captain Ian

Vulcan bomber

Toilet facilities inside the Vulcan (women did not fly these)

This left enough time to visit Tullie House Museum in Carlisle’s city centre, in our quest to learn more about the Border Reivers. Following in the footsteps of Michael Portillo on one of his innumerable British railway journeys (we blame him for several portions of our UK itinerary), we began with a walk through the Millennium Subway, where the Reiver family names are etched into the floor.  Dodd was among them.  The names led us towards the Reiver Curse, carved onto a large boulder.  Suffice to say, the utterer of the curse was very, very pissed off indeed.

Millennium Subway, etched with reiver family names

Ian finds his reiver name, and starts thinking about rustling up a sheep for dinner

A curse upon Everything!

Inside the Museum, we learned a little more about these Border families who were constantly feuding with each other, and staging raids, until King James 1 or 6 (depending on whether you are English or Scottish) put a stop to the whole thing.  We hope to learn more in coming days, but this was a reasonable starting point.  We discovered that the Dodds feuded with the Elliotts, who feuded with pretty much everyone.  The Dodds were from the English Middle Marches, and were based around Otterburn.  Ian has been able to trace his ancestors in this locale back to the late 1700s, but has been unable to prove the connection back another 150 years, to the time of the Reivers. However it seems way too unlikely that the Dodds of Elsdon and Rochester were not descended from the notorious raiders.

We put a sticker on Melbourne

Map showing location of reiver families in Northumberland

This diagram shows who was feuding with who. No idea how they kept track without the benefit of graphics software

‘Nuff said

We had a look at the rest of the exhibits, which were interesting, but pitched mostly at kids.  We rounded out the day with a quick look at Carlisle Castle, dating from 1100, and clearly built to keep the riff raff out; then took a walk through Bitts Park to the Eden Bridge.

Ancient Carlisle Castle

Don’t even think about it …

The old town of Carlisle

Eden River and stone bridge

The small roads that connect us to the major east-west A road between Newcastle and Carlisle, are starting to become familiar.  There is a small group of renegade sheep who seem to have a death wish by breaking away from the flock, escaping from their field through a dodgy bit of wire fencing, and meandering across the road in a quest for freedom. Yesterday they bounded across right in front of us, only to be stymied by a field full of cows. It’s all very Wallace and Gromit.

We’ve also been admiring a rather attractive local property called Bavington Hall.  “The Dodds of Bavington Hall” has a nice ring to it.  We have not yet been to Kirkwhelpington, which is slightly off route, but is so far leading my “favourite village names” competition.

Our new address. Big enough for a DROC party AND a sprint event around the garden