Wednesday 24th May

A day in Barnard Castle, lovely sunshine and under a mile walk into town down a country lane. So the are fields either side, and as we walk along we can hear the Curlew calling. Brian spots the bird and indicates it's location, but I'm looking to one side at what I first thought were rabbits, but no the is the other Curlew with some chicks. To far away for a photo, but Red Grouse family one day and Curlew family the next day. Such a lovely holiday.
On into town trying to name all the wildflowers in the hedge, one or two we need to look up. Although Barnard Castle is on a steep hill three are lots of shops and today a small market. Brian finds a new pair of sandles and a waistcoat, so after a very nice 'cream tea' we make our way to Bowes museum. This houses a fine collection of European art and fine decoration, including a silver automaton swan and a costume collection. We have a 2 for 1 voucher from the campsite and have time to look at some of the rooms before the 2pm daily activation of the swan.

The silver swan dips its head into the 'water' and eats the fish it catches. At 244 years old the automaton is older than USA, and still works in the same way as it was built.
The textiles exhibition showed examples of fashion from the 16th to mid 20th century. Some really nice exhibits, but the amazing feature was the display method. The museum's curators had transparent acrylic stands made in body shapes to fit each outfit. Because these shapes were transparent you could see inside the garments, which is very rare. Also the displays were island so it was possible to see both the don't and back of an outfit. Lots of ideas for a County Archive display!