Five Miles of Kirknewton (12/09/18)

The Woden Walks: Five miles of Kirknewton.

6 miles north of Wooler. 6 miles shy of the border.

OS grid: NT912303.

Kirknewton, Northumberland, is one of the largest parishes in the UK, with one of the smallest populations. Pop: 108.

photos: nickreeves.

The Woden Walkers’ lunchboxes.

We stopped for lunch beneath *Collingwood’s Oaks.

Malcolm: Cheese, ham & onion roll. Tea.

Ian: Bavarian smoked ham & lettuce sandwich. Hard-boiled egg. Water.

Raymond: Tea.

Nick: Brie & blueberry sandwich. Water.

* “Captain Cuthbert Collingwood, later to become an admiral and Nelson’s second in command at Trafalgar, had his home at Morpeth, in Northumberland, and when he was there on half pay or on leave he loved to walk over the hills with his dog Bounce. He always started off with a handful of acorns in his pockets, and as he walked he would press an acorn into the soil whenever he saw a good place for an oak tree to grow. Some of the oaks he planted are probably still growing more than a century and a half later ready to be cut to build ships of the line at a time when nuclear submarines are patrolling the seas, because Collingwood’s purpose was to make sure that the Navy would never want for oaks to build the fighting ships upon which the country’s safety depended.”

Dudley Pope: ‘Life In Nelson’s Navy.’