The Castle is one of the best preserved Bishops’ palaces in Europe, sitting right at the heart of The Auckland Project. Auckland Castle has reopened its doors in 2019 after major conservation work with State Rooms restored to their original Georgian Gothic splendour, designed by architect James Wyatt.

The Bishop Trevor Gallery, named after Richard Trevor, who was Bishop of Durham from 1752 to 1771. Bishop Trevor played an important role in the story of Auckland Castle, having purchased the series of paintings of Jacob and his Twelve Sons by Francisco de Zurbarán, which have hung in the Long Dining Room at the Castle for over 250 years.

After breakfast which was almost back to normal, we headed off to the National Railway Museum. Our second attempt at visiting was successful and we arrived before the museum had opened. The museum is interesting, telling the progressive story of ‘Locomotion’. One of its prized exhibits is the original Locomotion No. 1, designed by George Stephenson to work on the Stockton and Darlington railway. It was the first steam locomotive in the world to pull  a passenger train on a public railway.

Another delightful exhibit is the moving mechanical sculpture from 1984  named ‘A Quiet Afternoon in the Cloud Cuckoo Valley’, designed by Rowland Emmett who is better known for the inventions of ‘Caractacus Potts’ which starred in the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

We had lunch in the museum café before heading off to Darlington to visit St Cuthberts Church and the Head of Steam museum. Whilst checking the post code for the church, I found that it was only open until 1pm so it was another church with its doors closed for us. Destination No.2, the Head of Steam, was open and ready for visitors. As we were paying for our tickets, somehow the card machine slipped out of the hands of the man who was serving us, crashing onto the floor and falling apart. The machine proved difficult to reassemble so we agreed to pick up the receipt when we left the museum. In the event this wasn’t necessary, the gentleman caught up with and gave us the receipt as we were viewing the first exhibits.

The museum explores the history of the Stockton & Darlington railway. One of the main exhibits being a replica of Locomotion No. 1, the original having been relocated to National Railway museum at Shildon. The museum site also includes a number of historical buildings including the old goods shed which can be seen outside from the back of the museum. There are plans to expand and include these buildings as part of the museum experience.

We had time on our hands so before we headed back to the hotel we made our way to Binchester Roman Fort, stopping for refreshments at Bishop Auckland. At Binchester we were given an introductory talk about the site. We had the fort completely to ourselves. The Roman bath exhibit is exceptional. A unique aspect is a Roman child’s tiny footprint (with a slightly less distinct adult footprint) imprinted in the flooring.

As we were leaving, we were told that a fire had broken out near Durham city center and the roads there were affected. Our SatNav suitably navigated us past the problem roads and the town seemed undisturbed by the emergency. It turned out that a fire had broken out in a cavity wall of a new development causing a lot of smoke in the immediate area but it had been quickly contained. This was good news, our restaurant for the evening (Bistro Italiano) was near to the  site of the fire.

Our meal was lovely. The fish I chose was succulent and delightful. The restaurant was quiet and, as we got chatting to the owner, we found that this was because people had cancelled due to reading news reports about the fire. As we were about to leave a couple arrived on spec, asking if they were too late. They were informed ‘no you are not too late, your table is being prepared’. How lovely is that