North East thread 5: The one where we move to Chat!

[Someaddedsugar]

Here's thread 5 everyone! I'll post a link over on thread 4 too.

"Plans for retail development near Arnison Centre, Durham | The Northern Echo" www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/17770609.plans-retail-development-near-arnison-centre-durham/

Thanks PickAChew, that was an interesting read. The area is bigger than I thought but they are knocking down units.
Wonder is budget food discounter is the one beginning with ‘A’.
Would like a DIY store though.
The traffic is going to be horrible.

I like the north being a nice secret 🤫.
My quality of life is brilliant.

Me too mrs. I love my town and yes there is depression but still lovely to live in
Stay down south

Ah - it’s near my old gym! I saw that they’d demolished the motorcycle place the other day when I drove past. At least I think it was the bike place. Thanks

I see the council has just announced that new elvet bridge will reopen on 22 October

I'm wondering if we'll get Iceland back over here, though I can just imagine Aldi going tit for tat with Lidl, after dragon ville.

I think. DH would be pleased if we got screwfix or toolstation this side of town, so he doesn't have to plan his purchases around the traffic!

@PickAChew or very strategic getting off children into feeder primaries for Catholic schools. My thoroughly heathen children are in a certain Catholic school. Though I don't think my village would fit the house hunting description. Rather more Pit Village than chocolate box. I love the amazement at housing stock. Why are they are terraced with small yards? Erm........

I saw the latest thread in question. It looks like people in the NW feel the same!

Yes I know if you aren’t even Christian if you are in a feeder school you will probably get into Catholic secondary. Children come from miles to go to St Leonard’s.
And Durham certainly has plenty coffee shops 😁.
PickAChew I know it’s wrong way but Chester le Street has a Screwfix and Stanley now has Toolstation. So they both avoid Durham city.

Local MP is complaining about school bus to St Leonard’s. Price is apparently very expensive especially if you have couple of children.
The person I known who’s child goes, just buys a normal bus pass as is cheaper.

Is st Leonard’s a Catholic school?
Always over subscribed are the Catholic schools here. But we have decent maintained schools too ish

Yes the price went up from around £50 a month to around £90 a month. My kids now get the service bus and are often late to school as it doesn't turn up or wait on North Road for an hour and a half before a bus comes to get home. For a service that is supposed to run every 20 min. Last year on the school route we used to use there were over 70 kids. This year there are 17. So the school will still be posting for the bus but not getting anywhere near as much money back. Ridiculous. Some parents clubbed together to get minibuses but we didn't want to be at the mercy of others doing out and having to absorb the cost and also it is tricky of behaviour issues (of which there were a lot on the school bus). So now instead of 1 school bus there are about 3 private hires for the same route plus almost empty school bus plus kids on the service bus plus an increase in parents doing the school run by car.

@OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea that is a shocking rise! No wonder the MP is getting involved. Also on his letter it stated the parents were only told 2 hours before end of term!
The service normal bus between 8 -9 am are heaving. Double decker and still hardly any room.Plus often don’t turn up.
And North road is horrible to wait at moment. My DD goes to sixth form and hates waiting for bus. Unpleasant.

He does sometimes use the cls toolstation. He went the cls tip, last weekend, because the wait time at our was constantly half an hour or more and that was a bit of a revelation.

Yes, St leonards is a popular RC school, along with St Bede's Lanchester. St Bede's Peterlee doesn't really maintain the trend, mind!

Kids travel to St Leonard's from far and wide. Occasionally ended up on a 22 bus full of them and many went further than me - obviously with St Bede's Peterlee being so awful. Just like the kids walking past our house, in the morning, they are always impeccably behaved. (can't say the same for some of the gobby little shits at the other school down the road from me!)

That’s extortion that bus price flipping heck,
I’ve always heard of st Leonard being spoken of.

Catholic schools can pull from far and wide Bishop and Darlington north do (Carmel and St. John’s)

Such a shame for the parents to be penalised by costs because there are less passengers on the school bus. I know someone has to pay but surely there should be some kind of process to subsidise costs?

North Road was chaos tonight at 4.45pm. I really feel for the shops there at the moment. In the space of 30 seconds (driving not walking thankfully) I was nearly hit by a bus and then someone stepped out between the buses and didn't even look before crossing over to get to the opposite pavement. It's awful!

Is Hummersknott still popular @lifelongfrugaleer? Definite spot for my old school 😁.

Very excited as heading to the new Field and Fodder farm shop tomorrow which will no doubt cost me a fortune 😂. Hope you all have lovely weekends!!

Let us know how the new farm shop is @Someaddedsugar!

We went to broom house farm today and had a lovely lunch and browse around the shop

Yes still popular.
Where is field and fodder again?

It’s ok just google them. Will you see what their dog policy is please? Could make a day of both then

I’ve just googled them

They aren’t far from Ushaw college. Field and fodder I mean. Their Instagram page is lovely.
Hope you have lovely day Someaddedsugar. We are going to visit next Saturday, both Broom House and Field and Fodder.
Went to Durham this afternoon and the first time for ages went for a riverside walk. The new Durham HQ is ugly, in fact both sides are ugly. Thank goodness for the cute ducks/ swans and noisy geese. The river is very low.

I've just looked up field and fodder, I didn't realise it was at Aldin Grange. We used to go to the farm shop there all the time until Brian the farmer retired (ish, kept farming I think just not doing the shop). His meat was amazing. We didn't like the replacement as much, all went to packaged stuff. Are these guys doing the whole farm shop then incident the meat etc or are they different things?

Is there a coffee shop at F&F?

F&F is more of a gift shop but there's a cafe next door called Scrumptious (I think) that had scones and cakes etc. Couldn't see a menu for other items but they did have a sign for afternoon tea so assume there must be sandwiches.

There weren't any signs specifically about dogs but there were two families visiting at the same time as us, one inside F&F with their dog and one outside the cafe with their dog.

I personally prefer BHF as it has more of a whole farm shop feel whereas I felt F&F was more of a gift shop trying to be a farm shop? Lots of chutneys and sauces but also some home bits and jewellery... I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't any veg or meat items but it could be that they'd just sold out as there was a fridge but it only had a few cheeses in and a small bit of charcuterie. It's worth a visit though to try somewhere different