Is that St. Helen's at Churchtown I see? We're not too far from there ourselves actually; there's some interesting misericord carvings including a splendid Elephant & Castle and a Bat-winged Horror straight out of M R James. A little further along the road you have Saint Michael's with its remarkable Sexual Contortionist and graves of the hapless Spanish sailors who became vagabonds following the scuttling of the Saint Anne of Dunkirk during the civil war - an episode celebrated by by our very own Sailor Ron in one of his finest lyrics.

We passed by Brough Castle on Saturday ourselves, en route to Tyneside, reflecting on how the brutal stamp of the Norman war machine is now accepted into the landscape as picturesque. A little chilling really, but such is romance...