The Ham Nomads

9 Aug 2014. <GB-SCT> Edinburgh; <GB-ENG> Branxton; Etal, Northum —

Today RWB Motors were only waiting for a new master cylinder for the brakes, and when it arrived, needed only an hour to fit it and get us moving. We walked round to the nearby Retail Park for that hour, did a little shopping, and had morning tea at Costa in Tesco's. The lady there, when she found we were tourists and had been sampling Scottish dishes, asked if we had tasted potato scones. When we said no, she gave us one to taste. It's mashed potato and flour, mixed to the consistency of a scone dough, flattened and fried with salt and pepper — delightful!

Got back to the van and on our way by 10.40. After a quick shop in that same Tesco, we set our sights for Northhumberland and Etal Castle, to finally pick up our English Heritage cards.

A very nice day for driving, and the van is now handling like a dream — although still grunting hard on uphill climbs! Getting near to Etal, we noticed that the town of Flodden was nearby, and Warren's antennae went into overdrive — The Battle of Flodden! We kept our eyes out, and within 5 minutes found a sign pointing to the battlefield. Some rather narrow roads, through the village of Branxton, but the signage was good — we found the battlefield with no difficulty. This was in part because last year was the 500th anniversary of the battle, and a lot of work has been done to make the field approachable.

Flodden Monument on Piper's Hill

The battle took place on 9th September 1513, when James IV was king of Scotland and Henry VIII king of England. Henry was busy in France, so the English were under the command of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey. The total strengths of each army were: Scots, 42,000; English: 26,000. Battle commenced at 4pm, and by 6pm 1500 English were dead, and possibly 8,000 Scots, including James himself. The Scots were completely routed, and the English won the day. Just think — in two hours about 10,000 died — a greater rate of attrition than in the worst battles of World War I.

We first walked up to the monument at the top of Piper's Hill, where the British Troops had first assembled, looking across the intervening low land to Branxton Hill, where the Scots had been arrayed. The Scots took the initiative and advanced towards the English, with their pikes to the fore. Pikes in good array were virtually invincible at the time, but unfortunately it had been raining for the four weeks leading up to the battle, and the low ground was a quagmire! The pikes fell into disarray, and became easy game for the English with their billhooks, which were not only stabbing weapons, but could also cut and slash. The tips of many of the pikes were simply cut off before they could do any damage.

And the English had their longbows, which were used to very good effect — possibly the last time longbows were used in a battle of this kind.

The Battlefield from the Scots' position.
(The boggy middle ground is now marked by the lower dark line
of low bushes running across the picture
-- this was the main killing ground!)

Walking the battlefield gives you a very good appreciation of the factors in play during a battle. There has recently been rain at Flodden, so the ground was a little sticky, but nothing like it had been on that fateful day in 1513. It's interesting that boggy ground proved the undoing of James IV at Flodden, and of the Scottish Jacobite forces at Culloden.

We then went on to Etal Castle, which was involved in this same campaign. James had captured Etal and a couple of nearby castles in the leadup to Flodden,

Part of display at Etal Castle

so the ruins of Etal Castle (an English Heritage site) are interesting from that angle, and also because they have an exhibition in an adjacent (and much later) chapel dealing with Flodden. We were also finally able to collect our proper English Heritage membership cards, which were waiting there for us! Not only that, but we bought a good book, The Battle of Flodden 1513 by John Sadler and Rosie Serdiville, written especially for the quinquecentenary last year.

Coming out of Etal Castle, we heard the toot of a light rail train — the Heatherslaw Light Railway. It was preparing to leave Etal for its final run of the day back to Heatherslaw, only a mile away. We decided to go for a train ride! They only sell return tickets, but as there was no return run, they sold us one return ticket between the two of us — fair enough! Not only is it a delightful little railway, but the engine is a Thomas the Tank Engine clone — a little blue tank engine!

At Heatherslaw, Warren asked a gentleman lounging on the station steps if he knew anything about the train, and whether the train had previously been used for some agricultural purpose, like the cane trains in Queensland. Turns out he couldn't have asked anyone better — it was the owner of the line, having a day off and 'travelling incognito'. Apparently his father built the track in 1987 purely as a tourist attraction, and he took it over after his father's death. But he was also one of those little boys who liked to play trains, and had never lost the urge!

Anyway, we walked the ¾ mile back to Etal Castle — another pleasant woodland walk. When we got back, we checked that the carpark was not associated solely with the Castle, but was there for all the other attractions about the place, and is not closed up at night — so here we stay until tomorrow!

Distance driven — today, 67 miles ( 108 km ); to date, 5,518 miles ( 8,881 km )