The Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering now in it's 49th year, is held the first weekend after Easter.
It is a celebration of the traditional lifestyle and crafts from Northumberland and Morpeth.
This year I went on the Saturday, and I would describe it as a treasure hunt of events. There is a lot going on, but it is spread across the town and apart from signs telling you what's on when, and the farmers market it would be easy to miss. I first learned about the gathering from my mum, as she had seen a poster advertising the opening of Morpeth Castle for the event.
Morpeth itself isn't short of car parks, although they do operate a parking disc system. For the event they had a park and ride system from the local council offices. We decided to park at the local train station as we expected the other car parks to be busy. That turned out not to be the case, probably because of the rain.
We started of at the castle, as it is privately owned by the Landmark Trust (who rent it out for holidays) so it is rare you can visit it. The castle itself is quite small as it's just the original gatehouse, but it is nice inside, especially if you were staying there. In the castle grounds there were medieval style tents, and people dressed in medieval clothes as part of the celebrations.
After we had finished at the castle we walked into town via the park. Here we came across some Morris dancing. Morris dancing is an old English traditional dance, and it is great fun to watch, even if by now it was pouring down. We saw men dancing, and the ladies.
The next thing we visited was the clock tower, this is in the centre of the town, and is something I've often admired. The visit turned out to be a chance to try something that should have been on my bucket list, bell ringing. First though a lovely lady told us all about the towers history.
The tower dates back to the early seventeenth century, but the bells were first installed in 1706 in repayment for voting someone to parliament. Today the bells still chime every night for the curfew.
In the towns main market square there was the farmers market on, with a welcome surprise of a Punch and Judy
Finally also in the town were various storytellers and work shops, there was also a craft show in the town hall. The gathering on the Saturday also started with a parade.
The gathering is held each year on the first weekend after Easter, and if you are in the area I would recommend it, as there was lots to see and do and it really was an interesting and fun day out.
