Freezing Fog

Somewhere down there is a busy main road, normally very intrusive but this morning there was a deathly silence.  There had earlier been a serious road  accident a few miles closer to Newcastle and the road was completely closed.

Overnight we had a sharp frost and freezing fog and the roads round here were coated in black ice.  On my rounds I came across several other cars in ditches and buried in hedges.

On a brighter note, the freeze left a pool  of water in my Mother's field solidified in this lovely pattern.

I promised to discover more about the "Bunker Hill" at Slaley.

I finally took a 'covert' walk over the field (it is planted with wheat!) and crept through a gap in the railings, to discover that it was in fact a reservoir/pump-house constructed over a well in 1935, to supply water  to the then Woolley Sanatorium standing nearby.

Woolley Hospital was built in 1916 to treat the victims of gas attack in the trenches and later became a sanatorium for the treatment of TB.  After the ravages of the trenches and the largely 'city depravation' disease of TB, it must have been a great relief to the patients to spend some time in this beautiful location.  The hospital finally closed in the 70's and is now a private dwelling.

ps. Sorry but no shotgun wounds to report!