Kirkharle Courtyard

Kirkharle Courtyard

This video shows the three main features of the complex; the café, lakes and church.
There are arts and crafts shops on-site, children's play area and plenty of car parking.

Kirkharle visit

Kirkharle is a hamlet in the county of Northumberland, England.
The estate church is dedicated to St Wilfrid (634-709AD) and is Grade 1 listed, with most of the building dating from 1336.
Before the village gained the kirk (church) element it was called Herle (recorded 1177). Herle comes from the Old English Herela-lea which means Herela's Grove or herg-leah which means temple-grove, a place of worship for the pre-Christian Angles.

The Angles (Latin: Angli) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, and their name is the root of the name England. The name comes from Anglia, a peninsula located on the Baltic shore of what is now Schleswig-Holstein.

Kirkharle's most famous son is Capability Brown the notable landscape gardener.

Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (bapt.1716 -1783) was born in Kirkharle and baptised in St Wilfrid's Church on 30 August 1716. His actual birthdate is not know.

Brown's original plan was rediscovered by Kirkharle's current owners, in 1980. They made plans to restore the Grade II-listed park and to recreate Brown's vision for the landscape, including creating his proposed lake.






Music: nomadic sunset, it can only go up, Fall, by Alexander Nakarada (serpentsoundstudios.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Lord Curry of Kirkharle - Local Food and the North East Economy

Let's Talk About Food, was the inaugural event to launch a project to develop a Sustainable Local Food Strategy for County Durham. It was held at Durham City Town Hall on March 12th. The project is based at Durham Rural Community Council (durhamrcc.org.uk). The event highlighted the key issues surrounding Food Systems today and showcased how some businesses and communities are tackling these issues on the ground.
In the morning we listened to keynote speakers who were both entertaining and informative and whose talks are available here.

Lord Curry of Kirkharle (many roles including: Chair Commission on Future of Farming and Food (2002); Non-executive Chair of the Better Regulation Executive; Farmer; adviser to the John Lewis Partnership and Waitrose on agriculture and food strategy).

Title: 'Local Food and the North East Economy
Lord Curry summarised the challenges facing the global food system and said it was important to position local food policy work within this context. He emphasised the importance to the North East economy of supporting growth in the amount of food that is produced, processed and marketed in the region and gave his full support to this project. He stressed the need to work together and to improve the skills base.

Video Production WhistingMule.com

England's Greatest Garden Designer – Capability Brown

It is 300 years since the birth of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, who designed the gardens of some of England’s most beloved country houses. Dr Oliver Cox, Heritage Engagement Fellow at the University, tells us about ‘the man behind England’s green and pleasant land’.

With thanks to:

Blenheim Palace

The Capability Brown Festival

The Bodleian Library:

Kirkharle Guided walk

A walk with Shephersds Walks at Kirkharle, Northumberland

Nordic Walk - Kirkharle

YouTube film after last weeks Nordic Walk at Kirkharle.

Was Lancelot Capability Brown a great landscape designer?

Lancelot Capability Brown was wildly popular in his lifetime. Then he was ridiculed for a century. Now, in the 300th year of his birth, he is Britain's most famous and admired landscape architect and garden designer. WHY?