Stopping for lunch and a walk leads to new research discoveries
My first solo post for our new Travel and Culture newsletter went live today: https://open.substack.com/pub/travelandculture/p/accidental-pilgrims-a-serendipitous
Sometimes you “follow your nose” and discover more than you expect. In this case, my on-site research for a new novel led to a village in northern England. As we drove through northern England in search of Hadrian’s Wall, I convinced Ann Marie to stop in the small picturesque village of Corbridge. I wanted to use this area as a setting for my new novel. We got out and looked around a bit, taking a few photos as we went.
We stopped at the Angel Inn for lunch. Afterwards, we noticed and photographed an old stone church. Could my historical character have visited this church in the 13th Century?
That led me to email the Corbridge Heritage Centre, where I discovered lots of fun facts and ideas about the area. Turns out St. Andrew’s Church has been there for 1350 years! My character would certainly have gone there.
Since the church is offering activities to celebrate its anniversary all year, and I discovered photographs of it in my files, that email correspondence led to me writing this article.
Ann Marie and I have teamed up to publish Travel and Culture together. The timing was right for this article today, as the church gears up for its year-long celebration beginning next week (October 12-13). That’s how we became accidental pilgrims. And that’s what I love most about travel: the unexpected often leads to new adventures and opens us up to new cultural experiences.
Marie Powell 